It’s quite well known that boggarts, who- just like the better known brownies– can perform the role of domestic faeries and undertake a range of chores in houses and on farms, may also turn bad if they feel poorly treated or underappreciated. Its less well known that brownies also seem to have their own dark side.
I’ll give two examples of conventional brownies and their behaviour which- when considered more carefully- seem to hint at their malign potential. The case studies are both Scottish. Firstly, the Campbells of Otter on Loch Fyne had a brownie who lived in their home and looked after their good fortune. When the family eventually moved to a new mansion, he travelled with them (as these beings always do) and then proceeded to make himself unpleasant to anyone whom he felt had no business being about the new place. This hostility to strangers (or those who are not sufficiently appreciative of a master’s hospitality) is a trait that’s seen in other brownies.
Secondly, the MacLachlan clan of Castle Lachlan had a typical domestic brownie who (unusually for the species) had a personal name, being called Munn. He was very valuable to the MacLachlans, performing a range of very laborious tasks around the castle without demanding any payment. The sprite was always naked and, one icy winter, some trousers were left out for him on the back of a chair in the kitchen. This well-meant gift was not received with gratitude. The brownie saw the garment and was heard to exclaim “Oh, trousers about his backside without his measure. It is time that Munn was going.” He promptly departed the castle- to the detriment of the Maclachlans.
Cases of human kindness backfiring and a brownie storming off in a huff are widespread. The question is- where do they go to? The hardworking domestic brownies tend to live in or near the house they serve, but there are known to be those that deliberately inhabit places well away from humans- spots such as old bridges, derelict barns and ruined castles. These brownies display no friendly or helpful traits; rather, they are antagonistic towards humankind and have been known to jump up behind people riding late at night past their lairs, squeezing their bodies so tightly that they either die there and then or fall into a fatal decline. In these examples, therefore, the malignity hinted at by the Campbell brownie takes over entirely.
This brings me to various other evil beings of the Borders of England and Scotland- the powries, dunters and Red Caps. They, too, lurk in ruined forts and scare- or even kill- passers by; the Red Cap specifically keeps his headwear bright and red by dyeing it frequently in the blood of his victims. The exact nature of these goblin-like beings is a little uncertain, but as the previous examples suggest, perhaps it is best to think of them as alienated brownies- sprites who once were helpful but have now gone very bad indeed.
I’ve written specific studies of the British Pixies, the Manx Fairiesand the Welsh Fairies- the Tylwyth Teg, so it seemed high time to focus on the brownie, one of the best known of British faery types. My recent book on British Browniesis a detailed essay on the subject, recently published as an e-book or paperback through Amazon/ KDP.
Here I’ve shared a posting on my Nymphology blog which looks at some of the crossovers between traditional British faery lore and the classical myths of nymphs, satyrs and Pan.
In the past I’ve examined the sources of faery riches, but I’ve come across a mid-seventeenth century text which concentrates on this subject. What follows is borrowed from David Rankine’s book Treasure Spirits and from the manuscript BL Sloane MS 3824 (c.1649).
Books of spells for finding buried treasure date back to the early sixteenth century in England; it seems there was something of a craze for conjuring up imps and then going in search of gold hidden in hills or under old crosses. Magic was needed to find the secret hoards and, often, to get access to them, as they were frequently guarded by brownies, dobbies, spirits of place or (rarely) the ghosts of men who had been slain just for that purpose. The excavators were often termed (not wholly flatteringly) ‘barrow diggers,’ giving us a good idea of the sorts of site they preferred to target: fairy hills where treasure was very likely to be found.
Interestingly, treasure wasn’t always to be found on dry land. A manuscript in the Bodleian Library, known as e Mus 173 includes invocations and rituals to help find gold lost under the sea. The spirit Saymay can assist with this, as will Azuriel, Azael and Elevotel, who may be conjured using a circulus aquaticus (an ‘aquatic circle’) and then required to help in retrieving submarine riches.
Luckily, the buried treasure dealt with by the manuscript BL Sloane MS 3824 aren’t concealed in locations anywhere near as inaccessible as the bottom of the ocean…
“Of Troves of Treasure & Hauntings
By these Distinctions, a man’s Capacity may Easily judge, by what Spirit or spirits, any hidden or Buried Treasures are Kept, be they of what Order so ever, or the Cause, why any house or place is haunted & troubled or infested, which being truly Known, is by patience and perseverance, and a prudent management of Such Affairs, according to this Art And wherein it Is to be Required, to be overcome and vanquished, and the house or place freed from such hauntings, molestations & troubles, of all spirits, Sylphs or Fairies, or any other spirits of what order or nature Soever, whether Aerial, Terrestrial or Infernal, But if the Philosopher Proficient in this art, and other his fraternity, in any matters of this or the Like nature, have neither patience nor prudence, and the master Philosopher, undertaking the management of what is Requisite to be performed in this art as aforesaid, hath no judgement to Distinguish Between one thing & another in whatsoever goeth about, they May go shoo the Goose.
There are many Castles, old monasteries, and Abbeys and houses, & many other both such like, and, also other places, that are haunted & infested With these Kinds of spirits aforementioned [i.e. Sylphs or Fairies], the Reasons thereof are more than one, but it is, and always hath been observed, & by practical Experience found, that generally it is for no other Cause or Reason, than that treasures are hidden thereabouts, sometimes It may prove Otherwise, as that some horrid murder hath been committed there, or that some heinous Extraordinary Crimes have been acted, and frequently Practiced….[which leads to hauntings].”
The locations listed here are affirmed by the text that was added to Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft in its 1665 edition, a continuation titled A Discourse Concerning the Nature & Substance of Devils and Spirits, there’s a discussion as to the places where terrestrial spirits (nymphs, satyrs, faeries, cobali) are most commonly found (c.IV, s.7). They principally frequent woods, mountains. caves, ruins, desolate places and ancient buildings, but can also be located in mines, with hidden treasures, or in places where people have been slain (c.1, s.14). The English playwright and author Thomas Heywood was of the same opinion in The Hierarchie of Blessed Angels (1635), in which he wrote that “Other [faeries] such houses to their use have fitted/ In which base murthers have been once committed./ Some have their fearefull habitations taken/ In desolat houses, ruin’d, and forsaken” (Book 9, p.574-5).
The Sloane manuscript then discusses the sources of the faeries wealth, which seem to be threefold: they may earn the money by working for humans, they may win it from the earth themselves by their toils in mines or they may simply discover lost or forgotten treasure that has been buried (mainly by people who died and were unable to recover it).
“Treasure Trove is various & Different in its Recovery or Discovery, which we thus, manifest from the Tradition of the Ancients, setting aside what we have Seen & Known by Experience, both herein and as is aforesaid: We must understand, that the two last Kind of Terrestrial Spirits, next forespoken of [i.e.Sylphs or Fairies] , being more humane & Courteous to man, than the Aerial & Infernals, by reason of their Sympathy & proximity with him, can & do work, & amongst the rest of their Arts they use, to Coin the Gold and Silver they take out of mines into that Country’s Coin where they find it, and willingly dwell & frequent in, which is wherein all places where minerals are (for they love not all places, though their mines be never So Rich and Royal) neither where they are, Do they take away or work upon all, but only a small proportion thereof, so that still getting a little from Every place, as it groweth & Cometh to maturity, always add to their Store.
Some others Delight to wander & go abroad, & work amongst miners, who also bring home their wages, Some Delight in other trades, and Some to be in Gentlemen’s Services, [and] be bringing all home, and multiplying their treasury, for they are never vile nor Experience, nor will accompany with no one or other person living, in the Common way of Eating & Drinking, though they love them never So well, yet they will work and do any Laborious thing for, and amongst men, but will not accompany them the times when they Eat or Drink.”
Thomas Heywood gave a similar account in his Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels of one particular community of faeries:
“Subterren Spirits they are therefore styl’d, Because that bee’ng th’ upper earth exyl’d, Their habitations and aboads they keepe In Concaves, Pits, Vaults, Dens, and Cavernes deepe; And these Trithemius [Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516), German monk and writer] doth hold argument To be of all the rest most pestilent: And that such Daemons commonly invade Those chiefely that in Mines and Mettals trade; Either by sudden putting out their lamps, Or else by raising suffocating damps, Whose deadly vapors stifle lab’ring men… The parts Septentrionall [northern] are with these Sp’ryts Much haunted, where are seen an infinit store About the places where they dig for Oare. The Greeks and Germans call them Cobali. Others (because not full three hand-fulls hye) Nick-name them Mountaine-Dwarfes; who often stand Officious by the Treasure-delvers hand, Seeming most busie, infinit paines to take, And in the hard rocks deepe incision make, To search the mettals veines, the ropes to fit, Turne round the wheeles, and nothing pretermit To helpe their labour; up or downe to winde The full or empty basket: when they finde The least Oare scatter’d, then they skip and leape, To gather’t thriftily into one heape. Yet of that worke though they have seeming care, They in effect bring all things out of square, They breake the ladders, and the cords untwist, Stealing the workmens tooles, and where they list Hide them, with mighty stones the pits mouth stop, And (as below the earth they underprop) The Timber to remove they force and strive, With full intent to bury them alive; Raise stinking fogs, and with pretence to further The poore mens taske, aime at their wracke and murther. Or if they faile in that, they further aime, (By crossing them and bringing out of frame Their so much studied labor) so extreme Their malice is, to cause them to blaspheme, Prophane and curse: the sequell then insuing, The body sav’d, to bring the soule to ruin.”
Heywood, Book 9, p.568
The Sloane manuscript’s author the turns to the nature and quality of the gold that the faeries guard or mine underground:
“These Kinds of treasures, are not Easily but with difficulty to be Obtained; Such as hath been made by man & used amongst men, and with less Difficulty obtained And if at any time a magical Philosopher Should Discover Such treasures, as is of their one Manufacture, & proceeds to Obtain & get the Same, and though they Seem to yield up and Donate the same to him, yet they will by such Crafts & subtleties, as they are well Knowing in, Convert it to the likeness or Similitude of a Clear Contrary, and baser & most Vile and contemptible matter, as Earth, Clay, Dung, Shards, Soil, or some Kind of Despicable and Regardless matter, or Else to move it; and then is the Philosopher at a loss:
But if any such thing as a transmutation should be perceived or Known, to be either Visibly, or otherwise artificially, or by Discerning Something of a Contrary Species or Nature of the place, where it Lyeth; yet Let it be taken up, and let the fire judge of it, and proceed therein after the same manner, as all metals and minerals Are refined and separated, by such means it will return to the Same Essence it had before:
But in Such Treasures as they, as hath been the Manufacture of and Used amongst men, they Seldom or never Do so by Such Treasures as are not Kept by any Spirit, or that any of these terrestrials should be wandered from, and that Lyeth in some obscure unfrequented place, some person may on a sudden Set or work there And so by near Accident may Discover & carry awav the same, without the Least Knowledge of any thing in this Art, Or otherwise these spirits foreknowing, that such a person will be At such a place, at Such a time, and though they should have the Keeping of the same & leave, Having a great Love & friendship to such a one, or the Like, Do quit the same & leave from him against he Cometh there to work, by reason of which Sudden intended action & intermission, the matter comes to be thus accidentally Discovered and gotten, that otherwise might Lie there many years even time out of mind, or Removed to Another place so never to be Discovered, &c:
Also, such Treasures as are Kept by such Spirits or Terrestrial first before spoken of, as the Executioners of God’s Justice Thereupon &c: are not so easily to be found and obtained, as such that are hidden Innocently, Either for future persons or from fear or Danger of a loss, and afterwards happens to be Kept, by the monstrous Sort of Terrestrial Spirits, as Sylphs, Fairies &c: or the Like…”
The last summoning spell I’ll cite is intriguingly different to those so far described; it was recorded by the folklorist Laurence Gomme in the Gentleman’s Magazine Library in 1885. The text advises closing up a glassful of “conglobulated” (compressed) air, water or earth and exposing this to the sun for a month. After this time, the constituent parts are to be separated and the magician will find that it is “wondrous what a magnetic quality each of these elements has to attract nymphs, sylphs and gnomes. Take ever so small a dose everyday and you will see the republic of sylphs fluttering in the air, nymphs making to banks in shoals and gnomes, guardians of wealth, spreading forth their treasures.”
This text departs from conventional faery lore by its adoption of the elementals described by Paracelsus; the earth spirits, the gnomes, are often imagined rather like knockers in mines and in this case they stand in for the treasure-guarding faeries in revealing and- we may infer- offering up their riches to the magician who has gained some measure of control over them.
Arthur Rackham, Dymchurch- the Sussex farisees prepare to leave England
I have written a great deal about the faeries of the British Isles and several of my books have concentrated upon regional families, such as the pixies of the South West and the tylwyth tegof Wales. The English faeries have not received my specific, separate attention, although their traits have been discussed many times in the wider context of British Faery. Here, though, I want to narrow the focus to try to isolate the uniquely English traits of these peoples.
We must begin with names. A range of related terms, all derived from ‘fairy,’ were used in the southern and eastern parts of England to denote the Good Neighbours. In East Anglia (Norfolk and Suffolk) we will encounter frairies, feriers and ferishers. In Kent, there are the fairisies whilst in Suffolk, Sussex and Surrey we hear of the farisees/ farisies, sometimes spelled (doubtless under Biblical influence) as pharisees. This appeared as feeresses in Berkshire and appears to have been known in one form or another up into the Midlands as far as Worcestershire and even Herefordshire. The use of farisees strikes us now as odd, and in Victorian times learned men were convinced that the simple rural folk had confused Bible figures with fairies “in a most hopeless manner.” They hadn’t: farisees is simply a double plural of fairies, a dialect trait. Nonetheless, I wonder if some of the words used did have an unconscious influence upon pronunciation. What’s more- as one Sussex author noted- the fact that the faeries/ pharisees were mentioned in the Bible was just another reason to believe in them- a perfectly logical sounding argument that ran directly counter to many of the principles of Protestantism– that these beings could only be delusions of the devil because they were not otherwise capable of being accommodated within biblical categories.
Frary is an older English word meaning a brotherhood or fraternity, and you could imagine how this might shape understanding of ‘fairy.’ Equally, to feer meant to scare and supernatural beings, such as the inhabitants of Beedon Barrow in Berkshire, definitely had this effect upon local people.
Clearly, there was a faery population identifiable across most of lowland England, of which eighteenth and nineteenth century folklorists found and recorded the surviving traces. These beings were not brownies nor were they Puck or Robin Goodfellow; they were understood to be different, not solitary but communal in nature and with a distinct set of habits and characteristics.
I have discussed the key features of English faeries numerous times in separate postings, but I’ll identify them here based on a very rough survey of the recorded folklore. Their main traits are as follows:
They dance in rings to music, which is often heard by humans. A good example of this is found in Round About Our Coal Fire, of 1734. The ‘faries,’ the author tells us, were “very little creatures cloathed in green and [they] danced upon our green.” They “would do good to industrious, cleanly People but they pinch the Sluts.” They generally came out of molehills and always had music, dancing on moonlit nights and leaving mushroom rings behind them. This description summarises many of the key aspects of the English faery and gives particular emphasis to their love of dancing, which is perhaps their most constant activity. In Sussex, there was a song associated with harvest celebrations that went “We’ll drink and dance like the Pharisees.” From the same county we have a report that these beings were “liddle folks not more than a foot high [who] used to be uncommon fond of dancing. They ‘jound’ [joined] hands and danced upon the grass until it became three times as green as it was anywhere else. That’s how these here rings come upon the hills;”
The farisees live under hills (as we’ve just seen- and to the extent that they’re called the ‘hill-folk’ in Lancashire) and their music is often heard coming from those hills and barrows. Nevertheless, the faeries will also enter human houses and other buildings such as barns and mills. As Reginald Scot said in 1584, they live “inhabit the mountains and caverns of the earth” but they will enter country houses at night to play and make noise.” They often cause a nuisance and disturbance in homes whilst they will make use of other human buildings for threshing or grinding;
They have a great liking for dairy products and will steal these from humans if they can. Faeries themselves are sometimes caught by humans- perhaps accidentally, sometimes when they’re in the act of stealing from us;
The pharisees will abduct individual humans. Adults are just kidnapped, babies and young children are swapped for aged faeries, whom we call ‘changelings.’ Their own childbirth often needs the help of a human midwife and she is often required to anoint the new-born with a special ointment which invests it with its faery powers of glamour;
They are generally small and often dressed in green;
They are often associated with wells and pools. They may bathe in the latter, whereas the former often have healing properties. For example, the faeries used to swim at night in Fairy Pools at Brington in Northamptonshire whereas the ‘Fairy Well’ at Wooler in Northumberland had curative powers: children were dipped in it and bread, cheese and pins were left as offerings;
They will injure humans and kill and steal cattle using bows and arrows– the ‘elf-shot’ we sometimes find;
They don’t like churches and often move them as they’re being built to new sites- or, rarely, will remove themselves to escape them (especially the din of their bells).
They often need human help mending their tools. Such deeds of kindness are often rewarded with gifts of food, whilst those people whose conduct meets with faery approval may receive regular gifts of money as a token of their favour. For example, a Lancashire milkmaid received sixpence from the faeries because she would fill a milk jug and leave it out for them- but when she told her boyfriend what she was doing, she forfeited the coins. The farisees like clean and tidy people, and lucky individuals will have chores completed for them or will have wishes granted. They don’t like people who spy upon or steal from them; these individuals are likely to suffer the “de cuss of de Pharisees” as it was called in Sussex, suffering blight of their health and loss of their prosperity and good fortune.
The characteristics and activities listed here will be very familiar to many readers and rightly so, as they clearly lie at the core of (English) faery identity. All the same, it was instructive to go through the folklore records concerned solely with those faeries called ‘farisees’ and ‘frairies’ to see which particular traits were the most common amongst them. Dancing in rings and a taste for milk, butter and cream were out in front by a very long way. Theirs is a life dedicated to pleasure and feasting!
The writer and blogger Neil Rushton has very recently posted an article on his Dead but Dreaming blog which discusses ‘The Connection between Faeries & Prehistoric Sites.’ As regular readers of British Fairies will know, this is a subject which has long intrigued me as well.
I’ve provided a link to the piece, but I’ll pick out a few themes and remarks here for comment. Neil begins by observing that “There is a deep connection between the faeries and prehistoric sites throughout Britain, Ireland and Western Europe. This connection is recorded in the folkloric record and in modern testimonies, suggesting a metaphysical linkage that may provide a deeper understanding of the faerie phenomenon.” This connection has been the basis for much of my own thinking on the subject, as most recently set out in my 2022 book Spirits of the Land and in my posting on the name Albion.
Neil discusses the earliest documented story linking faeries with a prehistoric burial mound, Willy Howe in East Yorkshire, and remarks on the impressive fact that a site identified for its fae character in the 1100s still retained those associations in the early twentieth century. As I’ve frequently remarked, the strongest connections are with long barrows, monuments from which faery music is often known to emanate, but any distinctive hill might be chosen as a faery residence or as a portal to the underground realm of Faery. That said, many ancient sites, including stone circles and menhirs, have fae associations- sites such as the Rollright stone circle in Oxfordshire or the Mitchell’s Fold circle in Shropshire. A valuable index of these sites can be found in a gazetteer by Leslie Grinsell. Simon Young of the Fairy Investigation Society has helpfully put the book’s English, Welsh and Scottish/ Manx chapters on the Academia website, and Neil provides a link.
As the case of Willy Howe just showed, people continue to have faery experiences or contacts at ancient sites to this day. Neil gives some examples and the aforementioned Simon Young has included others in the Fairy Census.
To conclude, Neil explores what the meaning and importance of these longstanding links may be. The faeries’ regular presence at burial mounds tends to reinforce their links with our dead ancestors; Neil summarises this nicely when he states that “The folklore that portrays the faeries as inhabiting the land of the dead shows them as representatives of the past and what is gone.” Ancient monuments might therefore be understood as “interface with the transcendent world of the dead.” The prehistoric sites may also be viewed as access points to the faes’ “own standalone non-physical reality,” places where we might have experiences of altered states of consciousness which induce encounters with the otherworld. Neil also suggests that the faeries might be understood as manifestations of ancient indigenous beliefs, or part of a collective consciousness that can be contacted at certain charged spots in the landscape. When I have proposed that we approach them as spirits of the land, as genii loci or ‘the soul of Britain,’ I think I’ve been trying to find expression for similar ideas.
I’ve often written about faeries and sex, but I noticed recently in looking at Halliwell-Philip’s Illustrations of the Fairy Mythology of a Midsummer Night’s Dream how especially saucy the faeries of that period were thought to be.
There’s a civil war pamphlet from 1643 that- quite bizarrely- mixes politics and Faery: Robin Goodfellow (who’s termed “the vagabond elfe”) tours the main encampments of the two opposed sides, King and Parliament, and mocks them both. The text of The Midnight Watch or Robin Goodfellow- His Serious Observation also permits Robin to be Robin, of course, so that during his visit to the King’s headquarters at Oxford he finds “many a loose wench in the armes of many of the Cavaliers [and] he gave every wench, as he passed by, a blue and secret nip on the arm without awakening her.” This passage could seem like a manifestation of the faery disapproval of unfaithfulness in love, but I suspect it’s not all it seems. Partly this is because of other passages to follow, but also because I speculate that there may be a little wordplay or double entendre going on here, and that ‘nip’ might prove to be more of a love bite than a punishment. Certainly, Puck’s Pranks on Twelfth-Day (1655) shows ‘Robbin’ having a good time by interfering with human carousing (as he often enjoyed doing). Once again he interferes with one of the serving wenches: “merry Puck, that could not be seen, giving her a good nipp on the buttocks, made her so madd” she spilt the beer. We may well not approve of Puck’s sexist familiarities, but it was part of his robust character in the 1600s and considered hilarious by his (male) contemporaries. Plainly, I’d say, Robin here is doing this as much for his pleasure as for the mayhem it produces.
Later on in The Midnight Watch, having arrived in London, Robin joins the religious sect known as the Family of Love. This group was considered extremely radical at the time: they held all property in common, believed in sexual equality and argued that marriage should be for love (rather than social and economic advantage)- and that it ought to be commenced and ended by a simple civil ceremony. The Family also felt that Heaven would be experienced on earth- when people laughed and were happy. Those suspicious of their progressive ideas accused them of practicing polygamy. Hence, The Midnight Watch depicts how Robin “presented himself before them all and seemed lusty as the spirit of youth when it is newly awakened from the morning’s sleep: the women were well contented to stay but the men cryed out ‘a Satyre, a Satyre, a Satyre’ and thrusting them before them all tumbling headlong, down the staires together, they left him laughing to himself alone.” I think we’re clear what was going on here and trust there’s no need to spell out young Robin’s condition when he woke up…
This vein of coarse humour is yet more pronounced in the 1628 pamphlet, Robin Goodfellow- his Mad Pranks and Merry Jests. In the course of this (as was his wont) Robin takes on various forms and guises, one being that of a chimney sweep. Cue some sexual innuendoes:
“Blacke I am from head to foote,
And all doth come by chimney soote :
Then, maydens, come and cherrish him
That makes your chimnies neat and trim.
Hornes have I store, but all at my backe ;
My head no ornament doth lacke :
I give my homes to other men,
And nete require them againe.
Then come away, you wanton wives,
That love your pleasures as your lives :
To each good woman He give two,
Or more, if she thinke them too few.”
Robin proceeds then to sing a song about a woman who sets herself up as a prostitute in London. She “set up shop in Hunney Lane” and trades successfully there for some time, until “this hunney pot grew dry.” Honey Lane is a real thoroughfare off Cheapside in the City of London, which was the site of a busy market, but it’s evident what the commerce involved here is, and that we’re not discussing honey from bees- nor, for that matter, is Robin very interested in ‘chimneys’ in a conventional sense. Such innuendoes and metaphors have a long pedigree: the suspected Scottish witch Bessie Dunlop was helped by a faery man called Thom Reid. At one point, she admitted to her inquisitors, he “tuke hir apperoun and led hir to the door” (he took her apron and led her to the door); it appears that this was another multi-layered colloquialism meaning that they went into the bedroom together.
Finally, John Lyly’s play, The Maydes Metamorphosis, of 1600, underlines that often unsubtle wordplay these works liked to indulge in. Some men encounter three faeries, who introduce themselves.
Third Faery: “My name is Little-little Prick.”
Joculo: “Little-little Prick ! O, you are a dangerous fairy, and fright all the little wenches in the country out of their beds. I care not whose hand I were in, so I were out of yours.”
The third faery then describes his nocturnal amusements:
“When I feel a girl asleep,
Underneath her frock I peep,
There to sport, and there I play.
Then I bite her like a flea,
And about I skip.”
These seventeenth century faeries were frank about their carnal interests- a healthy contrast, perhaps, to the rather bloodless characters we tend to encounter in literature from the Victorian period onwards. These more recent envisionings of faery kind are sanitised and made respectable, whereas Puck and Little Prick (whilst still being consciously shaped to appeal to an audience) are still much nearer to the British faery of folk tradition.
British Fairies 