Trooping and Solitary Fairies
Yeats divided fairies into the solitary and trooping fairies, as did James Macdougall in Folk Tales and Fairy Lore. Katharine Mary Briggs noted that a third distinction might be needed for "domesticated fairies" who live in human households, but such fairies might join with other fairies for merry-making and fairs.
The trooping fairies contain the aristocracy of the fairy world, including the Irish Daoine Sídhe. They are known as trooping faeries because they travel in long processions, such as the one from which Tam Lin was rescued. But the trooping fairies also include other fairies of lesser importance; a trooping fairy can be large or small, friendly or sinister.
Unlike the trooping fairies, solitary fairies live alone and are inclined to be wicked and malicious creatures, except for beings such as the brownie who is said to help with household chores.
Read more about this topic: Classifications Of Fairies
Famous quotes containing the words solitary and/or fairies:
“The solitary knows the essence of the thought, the scholar in society only its fair face.”
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