Fairy Ointment is something you rub on your eyes to see fairies. Folk-tales about such an ointment are found in Scandinavia, France and the British Isles. These tales, of the fairy or magic ointment, come under type: ML 5070 "Midwife to the fairies" (see also The Queen of Elfan's Nourice).

The ointment itself, as a substance allowing a human to see fairies, occasionally appears in fantasy literature.

Once upon a time, a fisherman and his wife lived in a small village and were befriended by the fairies. One day, the fairies came to them with a small bundle: a baby fairy cradled in a walnut shell. They asked if the couple would take care of the baby. The wife was overjoyed, having no children of her own. The fairies gave her a small bottle of ointment, instructing her to rub it on the baby's eyes once a day. They warned her to never put it on her own eyes, or she would be struck blind.

A week went by and the wife did what she was told, until one day she couldn't help herself and dabbed the ointment on her own eyes. Her husband was furious, terrified that she would go blind. She laugh at him and said she could see just fine and that the fairies need never find out.

The fairies soon came to collect the baby, and asked the wife if she had used the ointment on her own eyes. She gasped and exclaimed that she would never do such a thing. The fairies went on their way.

One day, the wife was in the marketplace with her neighbor, and saw that the fairies were prancing around, causing mischief and taking wares from the stands. She exclaimed to her neighbor and pointed to them, crying "oh, they are taking those apples," "they have knocked over that pail of water," and "oh, can't you see them?" He neighbor, who could not see them, thought she had gone mad and tried to sooth her, telling her that there was nothing there. But the woman would not listen, and knelt to demand that the fairies put back what they had taken.

The fairies were outraged, and knew that the woman must have used the ointment. With that, one blew violently into the woman's face, and she was struck blind for deceiving the fairies.

Other Uses

Fairy ointment also appears in many other fairy tales and books of fantasy, usually as a method for seeing through a fairy's magic.

References

1. ^ "The Good People: New Fairylore Essays" By Peter Narváez. University Press of Kentucky, 1997. Page. 126
2. ^ Northumberland Folk Tales , by Rosalind Kerven (2005) Antony Rowe Ltd, p. 532.]
3. ^ "ML" stands for "migratory legend". "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales" By Donald Haase. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2008. ISBN 0313334412, 9780313334412. Page. 301

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