Fairy Tale Creatures

Fairy tale creatures are known to just about everyone in Western European culture and in many parts of Asian culture, too.

Fairy tales are, today, thought of as either children's amusement stories or falsehoods told either intentionally or unintentionally.

But they were originally conceived of as tales out of an oral tradition that sought to preserve very serious beliefs about magical quests, tests, and transformations, and probably encoded very ancient memes and beliefs about the ways of the gods.

In this sense, even the original Arthurian Romances were actually forms of fairy tales.

Fairytale creatures were not always nice, not always pretty, and not always clearly good or bad, for neither were the original fairy tales.

The original stories of the Brothers Grimm , for instance, were nothing like the Walt Disney cartoon stories we know so well.

They were filled with gore, death, child abuse, and even sex (let's just say that in the original version, the Prince did considerably more to awaken Snow White than just kiss her; and that's just one instance).

Fairy tales started becoming sanitized in the 19th century due to pressures from a sometimes overly moralistic Christianized culture.

Fairy tale creatures are many different kinds of beings.

There's the Gollum, a soulless creature from the "dark side" that has been conjured into being using black magic. The Gollum is usually thought of as some kind of model or statue that has been brought to unnatural life.

J.R.R. Tolkien had this in mind when he named the character in the Lord of the Rings who has been mangled and twisted by the One Ring of Power.

Then there are the Gnomes . Very popular in gardens today, Gnomes are small men and women with pointed caps and long beards (on the men) who are very industrious and playful. They are probably diminished versions of wizards.

Dwarves are fairy tale creatures kind of like Gnomes except larger (though still short), built like midget football linesmen.

They are basically good but have wicked tempers and are quick to go to war. They are in the mining industry, live underground in caves and tunnels, and are obsessed with hording gold, silver, gemstones, and anything else of worth (hence their constant mining).

Elves are tall, slender, fair, gorgeous humanoids who are extremely knowledgeable about magic. They don't grow old beyond about the age of 30 and they are immortal unless they are killed or choose to die.

They are sexually compatible with human beings. It's unusual but elves can be "turned to the dark side."

Fairy tale creatures do include many more types of fairies, of course. These may be very similar to elves but they may also be like ghosts, giant black dogs, and a vast array of strange creatures, shapes, and forms.

Fairies can be helpful or harmful and whichever they are seems to depend on little more than whim.

Imps are wicked little creatures who are like third-rate demons. They want to screw up your life and even harm you, but they rarely actually want to kill you. Probably because you are more fun alive.

Gremlins live in dark forests or caves. They are kleptomaniacs and for some reason are fascinated by screwing up machinery and electronics.

Witches are, well, witches. They may be good or evil, but in fairy tales they tend toward the latter.

In fairy tales , wolves are magical creatures and usually not good ones.

Their usual role here is that of a predator and that may include being a sexual predator or rapist (Big Bad Wolf's original real intent for Little Red). They are also extremely clever and devious, and they can talk.

Fairy tale creatures may be other than these, but these are the most prominent.