Brian Froud

I have met the fairy artist Brian Froud a number of times over the past 25 years and discussed with him the existence of fairies. The time that impressed me the most was the very first time in the mid-1990s, at the kitchen table in his house in Dartmoor while enjoying a glass of red wine.

The fairy experiences of Brian Froud

That one question was inevitable and burned my lips: had he ever had experiences with real elves? What followed was a fantastic account of various encounters. A few of the examples have always stayed with me. Like the poor fairy he’d met who wore an artificial beard. To Brian’s question about why the artificial beard, the answer was that the fairy would rather have been a gnome. It was almost a kind of transgender issue, but then between nature beings.

The other example was the fairy he’d met in a hotel in America who was terrified of the cleaning service’s vacuum cleaner. When Brian explained what a vacuum cleaner was and that the appliance was not malicious, curiosity prevailed in the fairy. When Brian met him on his way to the breakfast room the next morning, the faery – without the serving cleaning lady noticing – was happily sitting on top of the vacuum cleaner, all excited, like a child on the roller coaster of the Efteling.

Own experiences

I myself have had a nighttime experience with a house spirit in an old house in Lichfield, England, but never with fairies. But just because I haven’t experienced them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Who am I to question the experience of others like Brian? In the meantime, I have gathered many tips on how to attract benevolent fairies, as well as how to block malicious fairies. Let’s start with things fairies like that will allow you to attract them in and around your home.

11 tips to attract fairies

Fairies are mainly attracted to areas where different nature kingdoms meet. By nature kingdoms, we mean the plant kingdom, earth kingdom (rocks, earth), the water kingdom, the animal kingdom, the human kingdom. The first four tips have to do with these nature-rich interfaces. However, the other 7 can be just as valuable.

1. a water fountain in your home that clatters on crystal or a rock
2. a plant near your pond
3. a plant that grows out of or on a rock
4. a herb garden mainly with old stone formations
5. shrines and altars to nature gods
6. wine cellars (yes don’t ask me why but it seems to work)
7. fantasy altars with offerings
8. shiny, sparkly things (such as jewelry, crystals, etc.)
9. water, both standing and running (although permanently running water as a home fountain seems to work best)
10. old, empty cabinets and drawers (where fairies can hide in)
11. young, happy children with a great imagination seem to have a great attraction to fairies, especially when playing with water, plants or even sand

How can you find out if fairies are emerging in your area?

This is truly the ground for the watchful of mind:

1. your cat or dog is acting strangely and seems to be playing with something invisible
2. sweetness in your house that has suddenly disappeared
3. strange noises especially at night. These are often attributed to household spirits but more often it seems to be caused by natural beings: such as light footsteps on stairs or in hallways, ticking noises in closets, and doors that suddenly open and close
4. chores in your house are done without anyone knowing. Here too a house spirit may have been at work, as was the case with a good friend of mine who always saw his house spirit indirectly from the corner of his eye in the mirror. This house spirit could suddenly move an empty glass from the living room to the kitchen. Yet it also seems to happen that a fairy takes on these kinds of small tasks. In that respect it is sometimes difficult to find the line between spirits and nature beings
5. jewelry and sparkling objects disappear without a trace and then you find them in strange places
6. milk or beer spoils before the expiry date for no good explanation
7. new types of plants that suddenly start growing on the outside of your home

5 tips to stop fairies

It can also get too much for you. Especially when fairies start performing poltergeist-like actions. Doors and cupboard drawers that keep opening and closing. Footsteps on the stairs that keep you awake all night. Not all fairies are as sweet and sweet as some would have us believe. There may be real nuisances among them. Very unpleasant if precisely these have decided to settle in your house. In that case, how do you get rid of these nature beings? 5 useful tips:

1. make sure to put up loud, ringing wind chimes or other types of bells where they bother you
2. if your own kids are always acting very loud, don’t worry that fairies will settle in your house either
3. Christian items such as crosses, rosaries and statues of Mary seem to work well against fairies. But if you want to put them on correctly, you must of course remove them
4. iron horseshoes also seem to work very well. Why this is is unknown
5. you can place bowls with salt in the places where you are most bothered by annoying fairies. Fairies don’t seem to be able to handle this at all

Do you have more tips, or do you have experiences with fairies that you would like to share, please leave a comment. And if you don’t dare to allow fairies into your house yet, it might be an idea to seek them out in nature near, for example, a running stream and a low-hanging tree over that stream. Another option is to visit the park of De Haar Castle during Fairy Nights.

All illustrations in this article are from Brian Froud’s brilliant book “Good Faeries, Bad Faeries”.