UFO's and ET's have their adherents, Sasquatch and Nessie have their dedicated cryptozoologists on their tracks, and even ghosts and sorcery are given credence by many, but perhaps no folk belief seems as peculiar to us now than the notion that mysterious, often little, and frequently magical beings share our world with us, sometimes intruding into our realm to cause mischief or to render aid, locked in an ancient symbiotic relationship with us but usually on the periphery of our vision. Belief in such beings is a cross-cultural phenomenon, ranging from western Europe to traditional China, even onto the Hawaiian islands and some Native American tribes of North America, but the usual cultural icon of the 'fairy' owes much to the concepts that evolved on that subject in the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon cultures of the British Isles. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, is one of the more prominent recent Britons who claimed belief in the little people; the great Romantic poet William Blake once thought he observed a fairy funeral in his garden.
So what is your verdict? For myself, I would normally give the notion little credence, were it not for two members of my family having experienced encounters that could well fall into this category. When I was about twelve, my mother woke one night to see a little man, who she described as gnome-like and wearing what appeared to be blue overalls, standing by her bed and regarding her with what she described as a horrible expression. She felt great fear, but could not move her body or speak, and eventually, in her helpless state, fell back asleep. Many years later, my sister, while relaxing near a body of water on a visit to Cloudcroft, New Mexico, noticed, not far from her, a group of little people playing in the water. My sister recognized the distinct oddness of what she was seeing, but felt no fear, and took calm delight in watching this unusual display, until she saw them no more.
My mother's experience bears strong resemblance to many alien abduction scenarios, and indeed some, like author Jacques Vallee, argue that the UFO phenomenon is but a modern manifestation of the same kind of experiences our forebears described as fairy encounters. Yet others contend that fairies represent a dim memory of small hominid beings that once shared the earth with 'modern' humans, who have since become extinct or gone into hiding, and have been invested in the imagination of humans with magical powers. The stories of the Menehune in the Hawaiian islands and some scattered accounts in various North American Native American tribes seem to parallel this argument, and the fascinating if controversial evidence of a small-statured, now vanished people on the island of Flores in present-day Indonesia would seem to lend this interpretation some credence.
So, for now, my own vote goes for 'Not sure, but open to the possibilty'. What about you?
