Whilst walking through the woods recently I came across a ‘fairy house’ as we called them as children…

Basically a rotting, though not unpleasant, tree trunk. They are called ‘fairy houses’ in my part of the world…beacuse that’s were fairies lived… In the humid mosses and ferns… made perfect sense to a 6 year old! It got me wondering…is there a link between fairies, pixies, sprites, and ancient customs and practices?

Well…sort of..yes!

In folklore, tree trunks and dead wood often carry deep symbolic meanings, representing the cycles of life, death, and the transition between worlds. Trees, and their various parts, have always been seen as symbols of connection, strength, and transformation in different mythologies.

In Norse mythology, the World Tree, Yggdrasil, stands at the heart of the cosmos. It connects the nine realms and embodies the idea of life, death, and rebirth. The roots of Yggdrasil reach into the underworld, while its branches stretch towards the heavens, symbolising the link between all realms.

In this context, dead wood can represent the natural decay and destruction that are part of the endless cycle of life. It’s almost like a scene from a Tolkien novel, isn’t it? Similarly, the Celtic people held trees in sacred regard, believing that different types of trees were associated with particular deities or powers. The oak, for instance, was seen as a symbol of strength and endurance, while the ash was connected to the Celtic Underworld. Dead wood, in Celtic tradition, wasn’t just discarded…it was viewed as a material for magic or a gateway to the spiritual world, often used in rituals for divination or as a means for the dead to pass into the afterlife.

As time passed into the medieval period, the idea of fairies grew! These supernatural beings were often thought of as spirits that could be both helpful and dangerous. They were deeply connected to nature, living in forests, meadows, or under hills, and were frequently described as mischievous spirits. In some legends, fairies were believed to inhabit an invisible world, entering our realm only under specific circumstances.

Fairies, especially in medieval tales, were often linked to the realm of the dead. Many stories involved fairies taking the souls of the deceased or even stealing babies, leaving behind “changeling” children in their place.

These changelings were often believed to be sickly or frail, a result of the fairy’s presence in the child’s place. In this way, fairies were both protectors and dangerous beings, connected to both the natural world and the spiritual realm. So, in a way, there’s definitely a link between fairies, pixies and the ancient beliefs about trees and dead wood.

They were all seen as parts of the same magical and spiritual fabric, where nature, life, and death intertwined. The belief that nature spirits like fairies lived in trees, or that dead wood had magical properties, connects these mythological beings to ancient customs and practices that were meant to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead.

So my nan was right then…they WERE fairy houses!