The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - Softcover

Evans-Wentz, W. Y.

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9781564147080: The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564147088 ISBN 13: 9781564147080

Publisher: New Page Books, 2004

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With a new introduction by Carl McColman, this new edition of the classic study of traditional Celtic spirituality ties ancient Paganism, medieval myth, and traditional Fairy beliefs into a powerful celebration of Celtic wisdom and magic. The author, W. Y. Evans-Wentz, was best known as the translator of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In the world of Celtic spirituality he made his mark through The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. This magnificent book is a collection of stories, anecdotes, and legends from all six of the regions where Celtic ways have persisted in the modern world: Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and the Isle of Man. It examines how Fairy spirituality survived in the face of hostility caused by modern science and religion. It celebrates how beliefs (which only a century ago were dismissed as quaint and superstitious) were, in fact, powerful principles of ancient Pagan magic that remained essential features of the Celtic world for generation after generation.

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From the Back Cover:

What are fairies, those romantic and sometimes mischievous little people-- pixies, nixies, elves, fauns, brownies, dwarfs, leprechauns, and all the other forms of the daoine sidhe (fairy people)? Are they real? Folklorists say they are fragments of ancient religious beliefs; occultists call them nature spirits; the peasant tradition says they are fallen angels who were not good enough to be saved or bad enough to be lost.

Dr. Evans-Wentz is best known as the author-translator of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", but his first love was this book, which presents a body of tradition and testimony about an elusive order of life that survives in the natural setting of wild and lonely places. He was not satisfied with merely formal study, but collected first-hand reports of fairies in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Brittany, and faced up to the key questions avoided by other folklorists. Dr. Evans-Wentz, whose journeys led him from the haunts of fairyland to the wilderness of Tibet, opens a path for us to the luminous reality behind the traditions of folklore.

About the Author:

Evans-Wents, Jesus College Oxford.

W. Y. Evans-Wentz, an anthropologist, had interest in exploring the religious experience of mankind. His famous books in the present series include Tibetion Yoga and Secret Doctrines; The Tibetan Book of the Dead; and Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa. Evans-Wentz firmly believed that humanity is one family, eternally transcending geographical demarcations, national limitations, and every fettering concept born of the unenlightened mind.

TERRY EVANS was born in Texas, not far from the border with Mexico. He was seen on "Dallas", the Showtime movie "Lone Star Bar and Grill, The Jesse Owens Story, " and other productions. He now lives in Los Angeles.

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