There was a time, long ago, when fairies sifted in and out of our world with ease. The ‘fair folk’ they were called, and most were benevolent beings and helped humans in times of turmoil. If a farmers soil was poor, he could make an offering of last years grain and sweet cream to a fertility fairy who might then bless the land and again make it fertile. Mothers and homekeepers would leave a bowl of cream by the hearth at night to placate the house sprites and keep pixies from making a mess while the family slept.
Most fairies were very fond of children. During the day children could be seen on the outskirts of the woods, trying to catch delicate-winged sprites and playing hide-and-seek with imps. At night the will-o-the-wisps would light the streets and the children would go out and play after dinner until bed-time. But, like humans, not all fairies are good-hearted.
Many years ago in a small village in Scotland, a pair of twins played outside in a field close to home. They were not playing with fairies, but instead making small mud-huts in the hope of attracting imps to play with. The day was miserably grey and chilly, yet it was still Summer. Their breath came out in soft puffs on the wind.
The twins shall remain nameless, for we know not their names, but they were boy and girl. It was just past lunch time and then sun was heading west past it’s highest point in the sky.
The boy put the last finishing touches on the small mud-hut and his sister, with an eager grin, brought out a honey-oat cake and lay it at the front of the hut.
“Och, Mam’s goin’ ta be mad if she finds oot you didn’t eat yar oat-cake,” the boy cautioned, lecturing his twin.
“IF she finds oot! Besides, the Fae love sweet things. Shorely this will bring us fair friends!” The little girl giggled.
The boy looked to the woods close by and noticed a faint blue light flickering in the distance. Curious, he nudged his sister and then stood up and headed towards it. Obediently and of the same mind, his sister dusted off her wool mittens and followed.
They followed the light deep into the woods. Each time they came within grasping distance, the light would flicker away just before the boy could close his gloved hand around it. The girl swore she could hear soft laughter each time it disappeared.
Dusk fell suddenly and without warning. The twins had ventured deep into the woods, farther than any humans before them. They didn’t realize just how far they had come until the boy’s gloved hand finally captured the blue light - only for him to carefully peer into his hand and be met with laughter.
“Foolish human children,” a cackling, disembodied voice emanated through the trees. “Your curiosity will be your death! May your plump bodies feed my kin well.”
Only then did the twins look up, terrified and with tears in their eyes. The trees surrounded them, bare and menacing, while the stars looked down sadly. There was no moon. It was dreadfully dark and deadly cold. The children began crying, holding on to each other and calling for their mother. They had ventured too far in and no human could hear them in the woods, but fairy ears are much more sensitive. The honey-oat cake the girl had left out was being savored by an imp, who heard their cries from his new mud-hut. Alert and curious, the imp hurried into the woods, oat cake in tow.
By the time he reached the children, their cries had quieted. The cold had seeped into their small bodies and they clutched each other, their lips blue and tears frozen.
The imp recognized their scent - it was the same scent that clung to the mud-hut and oat-cake. He realized that he had come too late and shed a single brilliant fairy tear. Then, in the language of fairies, he called upon the Fairy Queen.
She appeared, radiantly beautiful and bright, with a small entourage of other fair-folk with her.
“My lady,” the imp began, bowing low, “These children made for me a lovely home and even left food for my tired body. But I fear the evil fairy woman of this wood lured them in so that they may die and feed her detested offspring. Please, do not let their deaths be for such horrid means.”
The Fairy Queen looked down at the small bodies and saw that they still had one last breath of life. Gently, she walked over to them and placed her pale hands over their hearts. As they exhaled their last breath she gathered in her palms their souls, brilliant orbs of white light.
“These children met an untimely and unjust death. But they shall prevent others from doing the same. I deem their souls now Guardians of these woods. The corrupt fairy who lives in this wood will perish without sustenance, and her offspring will meet the same fate,” the Fairy Queen stated. She blew softly on the souls and they shimmered delicately from her palms into the dark before dissipating.
Dawn approached, and the Fairy Queen recruited robins to cover the bodies in strawberry leaves, which would repel the evil fairy and her offspring from their intended meal.
The souls of the two children still guard those woods to this very day, even though the evil fairy has long since perished. You can see them in the fog or as dusk approaches as silent sentinels. The imp comes and keeps them company and sometimes brings his friends along, too. The woods are quiet except for the lament of the robins who sing,
"Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!
And don't you remember the babes in the wood?"
The robin who sings the babes' lament
Author's Note:
This storytelling is my extended version of this nursery rhyme:
My dear, do you know,
How a long time ago,
Two poor little children,
Whose names I don't know,
Were stolen away on a fine summer's day,
And left in a wood, as I've heard people say.
And when it was night,
So sad was their plight,
The sun it went down,
And the moon gave no light.
They sobbed and they sighed, and they bitterly cried,
And the poor little things, they lay down and died.
And when they were dead,
The Robins so red
Brought strawberry-leaves
And over them spread;
And all the day long
They sung them this song:
"Poor babes in the wood! Poor babes in the wood!
And don't you remember the babes in the wood?"
This rhyme itself is very sad, but I set out to find a way to retell the story to where it had a happier ending. I would like to point out that I know very little about fairies and which ones are nice to humans - I have no idea if an imp is a type of benevolent fairy, so if I've jumbled up castes of fairies, I sincerely apologize.
Bibliography:
Title: "Babes in the Wood," from the Nursery Rhyme Book. Unknown Author.
