Coming over the downs, it being near dark and approaching one of the fairy dances, as the common people call them in these parts, the green circles made by those sprites in the grass. He all at once saw an innumerable quantity of pygmies or very small people, dancing round and round and singing and making all manner of small odd noises. He, being very greatly amazed and yet not being able, as he says, to run away from them, being, as he supposes, kept there in a kind of enchantment. They no sooner perceive him, but they surround him on all sides, and what betwixt fear and amazement he fell down, scarcely knowing what he did, and thereupon these little creatures pinched him all over and made a quick humming noise all the time.

But at length they left him, and when the sun rose he found himself exactly in the midst of one of these fairy dances. This relation I had from him myself. A few days after he was so tormented, but when I and my bedfellow stump went soon afterwards at nighttime to the dances on the downs, we saw none of the elves or fairies, but indeed it is said they seldom appear to any person who go to seek for them. And now the fairy fair. The place near which they most ordinarily showed themselves was on the side of a hill, named Black Down, between the parishes of Pitminster and Cheston Ford, not many miles from Tanton.

Those that had occasion to travel that way had frequently seen them there, appearing like men and women of a stature generally near the smaller size of men. Their habits used to be of red, blue, or green, according to the old way of country garb, with high crowned hats. One time, about fifty years since, a person living at Combe, St. Nicholas, a parish lying on one side of that hill near Shard, was riding toward his home that way, and saw, just before him, on the side of the hill, a great company of people, that seemed to him like country folks assembled, as at a fair.

There were all sorts of commodities to his appearance, as at our ordinary fairs. Puterers, shoemakers, peddlers with all kinds of trinkets, fruit and drinking booths. He could not remember anything which he had usually seen at fairs, but what he saw there. It was once in his thoughts that it might be some fair for Cheston Ford. There being a considerable one at some time of the year, but then again he considered that it was not the season for it. He was under very great surprise, and admired what the meaning of what he saw should be. At length, it came into his mind what he had heard concerning the fairies on the side of that hill, and at being near the road he was to take, he resolved to ride in amongst them and see what they were.

Accordingly, he put on his horse that way, and though he saw them perfectly all along as he came, yet when he was upon the place where all this had appeared to him, he could discern nothing at all. Only seemed to be crowded in thrust as when one passes through a throng of people, all the rest became invisible to him until he came to a little distance, and then it appeared to him again, as at first. He found himself in pain, and so hastened home, where being arrived lameness seized him all on one side, which continued on him as long as he lived, which was many years, for he was living in comb, and gave an account to any that inquired of this accident for more than twenty years afterwards, and this relation I had from a person of known honor who had it from the man himself.

These are two really great fairy stories. We often think about, you know, oh, cute little whimsical guys, but they are very dangerous. They are certainly not lovers of mankind. Something interesting is that the second story is very obviously in the second part describing what we now call a stroke, you know, the blood clot that causes often facial paralysis or a paralysis of a part of the body. Believe it or not, the etymology of stroke comes from an elf stroke or a fairy stroke, an elf shot, they used to call it. You know, they would say that if you were suddenly struck by an ailment that it was actually an elf or a fairy that had struck you with one of their invisible arrows.

So the direct relationship in that story is really fascinating that, you know, it’s fairies who are causing strokes, and obviously he was a young enough person to live for another twenty years after a stroke. You know, this was a fairly healthy guy. And then the first story, you know, really reminds me a point done to death, but still worth talking about is the similarity with alien abductions. Especially, I think, the humming noise when they all surround him. That in particular feels very modern. You know, it reminds me also of insects, of bugs, you know, when a swarm, like there’s the fly that’s been flying around this video, when a swarm of insects attacks, there’s obviously a humming associated with it.

So the connection between something like bees, fairies, and aliens is worth considering, you know. Natural, hierarchical forces in unison that all live in a kind of bizarre, self-made thing. But the stroke, the stroke and the fairy attack, the attack of the invisible, and for no known reason, simply for the crime of seeing them. Really fascinating, both really scary. You know, obviously, I think a lot of the people watching this are quite young, but I’m sure you might know family members who’ve had a stroke. It’s crazy to think about fairies just throwing darts in lovers’ eyes.

It’s quite frightening. It also calls to mind, to me, the moral question of fairies. Fairies are generally viewed as amoral. They are sometimes good and sometimes evil. Some fairies are good, some fairies are evil. A really interesting thing that I’d read, I’ll have to pin down exactly where it’s from, but it was believed, it might have been Wolfram, might have been from Wolfram, but it was believed that fairies were the middling angels that during the rebellion of Satan, they did not fight on either side. They were neutral. And God punished them for their neutrality by putting them on the earth.

So they’re in a kind of purgatory where they can either decide to be human, or excuse me, they can decide to be good, they can decide to help humanity, or they can decide to harm humanity and fall to Satan. So these are kind of the neutral forces alongside us on the earth. Really fascinating. This is also something that’s talked about with gin. There are some gin that are Jewish, there are some gin that are Christians, and some gin are Muslims. They are a neutral force in the world, they are simply a part of nature.

Really fascinating. So just like the bee, when threatened, will sting, the fairy will give you a stroke or pinch you and hum. Something to keep in mind on this spooky, spooky day in Halloween month, October. So if you enjoyed these stories and you’d like to hear more of my thoughts, check out my writing on rickrubinstetragrammaton.com or on my substack. And if you have a particular scary story or phenomena that you’d like me to cover, leave it in the comments. And as always, screams matter. [tr:trw].