妖怪伝承の背景
スポンサーリンク
概要
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The popular idea of fairies is that of a supernatural race existing in the fancy of the folk of North and West Europe. In folklore as well as formal literature, fairies are inhabitants of the so-called fairyland, an underworld often localized under a hill and near a forest. Many explanations have been given to account for belief in fairies. Some people have thought that fairies are a special creation existing in their own right. On the other hand, like ghosts, they may be spirits of the dead, or of certain types of the dead such as people who died unbaptised or stillborn babies. From the religio-ethnological point of view, fairies have been regarded as the descendants or the believers of pre-Christian gods and goddesses. There is little defference in attributes, characteristics, and actions between Celtic fairies and Teutonic or Scandinavian elves, dwarfs, and trolls; and much the same cycle of stories and beliefs is common to both. Traditionally in Britain, they may have evolved from far-off memories of a Stone Age race which once lived in the British Isles. Long after this race had died out, or had become absorbed into the population, the memory of those characteristics lived on in Celtic tales. Even though some fairies remain in memories of ancient pagan gods and nature spirits, others may have the ability to survive and be indestructible. In polytheistic culture areas, especially like in Japan, spirits or fairy-like beings have been more or less closely connected with their own religious structure and shared their fortune with it. In many cases we can hardly find here such a pretty butterfly-winged and innocent miniature, which exists in Britain. Here I draw some instances about Japanese sprites and try to compare them with British fairies.
- 1982-01-20