Again, this is limited to Britain--there are a number of other fairies such as dryads etc. from other countries that I am not touching on here.

Many of the Nature or elemental fairies are related to water in some way.

Kelpies
Kelpies are water fairies which hung mostly around rivers. They disguised themselves as pretty horses, but when ridden they would run off with their riders, dumping them into the water, and usually drowning them. Like many fairies, they could change their shapes, and sometimes they fell in love with local women and courted them. The woman usually found them out because they would have sand, water weeds, or other bits of water plants in their hair.

Silkies or Selkies
Silkies or Selkies are seals which have the ability to take on human form. They are among the most common of fairy brides. Generally, a man would see them bathing and fall in love with them. When in human form, the selkie sheds her seal skin, and a man who wished her to be his bride would steal and hide it. When she found the sealskin, she would put it on and return to the water.

Fuath
The fuath is a malignant highland spirit. It has web feet, yellow hair, a green dress, tail, mane, and no nose. They would sometimes marry men. They would die if exposed to the light, or harmed by cold steel.

Gwrayedd Annwn Welsh water fairy, similar in many ways to the selkie and to water nymphs. The Gwrayedd Annwn lives in lakes, and, like the selkie, sometimes marry men. There always seemed to be strings attached, however. Generally the bride to be would warn her groom that if he did a certain thing, he would lose her. The taboo would always eventually be broken, and she would leave. They were always believed to be beautiful, and would sing and play, and ride boats around on the water. They owned many cattle. Fairy cattle are distinguishable because they have round ears, and often are white with red ears.

Bucca
Bucca is another nature spirit, possibly a sea god at one time. The fishermen on the coasts would leave an offering of fish for him, and throw a piece of bread from their lunch over their left shoulders for him.
He was used to scare children into behaving, with a "stop crying or the bucca-boo will come and take you away". Bucca Gwidden was supposed to be good, while Bucca Dhu was bad.

There are many other fairies who were used to frighten children away from dangerous places. One example was Jenny Greenteeth, who was supposed to live in stagnant ponds and grab and drown people who wandered too close.

last updated Feb 20, 2000 by Strawberry