Dissecting Dragons: Episode 13 - Man-Eating Monster to Flower-Toting Belle - the transition of Fairies in the Victorian Era

Episode 13: Man-Eating Monster to Flower-Toting Belle - the transition of Fairies in the Victorian Era

This week SFF authors M.E.Vaughan and J.A.Ironside take a look at how the entities of 'Faery' changed from centuries of press as capricious, mischievous and sometimes malevolent 'others' in folklore, to the neat, pretty and minute bewinged coquettes that are most familiar today, during the Victorian era. Looking at the literature of the time including Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie and Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market as well as traditional folktales, the incident of the Cottingley Fairies and the art and ballet inspired by Shakespeare's rendering of fairies in Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream and the Tempest, to the influence this has had on modern writers such as Holly Black, Sarah J Maas and Marissa Meyer. One thing is certain, the 'fairy' remains an elusive and shadowy figure in mythology, despite the centuries of propaganda.

Title Theme: 'Ecstasy' by Smiling Cynic