Elf Queens and Holy Friars: Fairy Beliefs and the Medieval Church by Richard Firth Green (review)

Until recently, many scholars dismissed fairies as fantasies best suited for children's tales, or as the benighted beliefs of rural agrarians as opposed to those of cosmopolitan elites. Now a large number of studies, such as Diane Purkiss's Troublesome Things: A History of Fairies and Fairy Stories (2000), Alaric Hall's Elves in Anglo-Saxon England (2007), and Annabel Gregory's Rye Spirits: Faith, Faction and Fairies in a Seventeenth Century English Town (2013), have turned to these ambiguous, mysterious figures to reveal the beliefs and practices of the people who spoke, wrote, and even claimed to encounter them. Still, the bulk of this work concentrates on the evidence from the early modern period and later, with evidence for the medieval period focusing on specific genres, such as charms or romances. Richard Firth Green's Elf Queens and Holy Friars is particularly welcome, as its five chapters provide an in-depth examination of the penitential literature, chroniclers' accounts, romances, and other material that touches on fairies.

How should we define fairies, if that is possible? Green does not pursue an emic definition based on how medieval people defined "fairies" and "elves." Instead, he sees them as a "class of numinous, social, humanoid creatures who were widely believed to live at the fringes of the human lifeworld and interact intermittently with human beings" (4). He quickly excludes giants—which seems an appropriate distinction—but he also dismisses domestic spirits, or entities that helped or hindered the household. This is despite the fact that several of the authors Green mentions, including Gervase of Tilbury, William of Auvergne, and Raoul de Presles, discuss such beings in association with Green's "fairies." Thus, a notable omission throughout Green's work is Gerald of Wales's account of the spirit Simon from the Itinerary (1.12), a being said to have served as steward of the household of Elidore de Stackpole for over forty days. This does not invalidate Green's categorization or its usefulness, but his definition requires more explanation than what he provides.

In chapter 1, "Believing in Fairies," Green explores medieval fairy belief, beginning with its expression in the religious literature of the time. He details how scholastic attitudes shifted from outright skepticism in the tenth century to portrayal of fairies as demons or demonic illusions in the thirteenth century. By the fifteenth century, many European intellectuals held the position that any belief in nondemonic fairies was heretical. Not all of the clerical literature was condemnatory, however. Pastoral literature, driven by the need to connect with the populace, at times implied that fairies could be "neutral angels" or demons less guilty than the majority of Satan's host, categorizations decried by the church. Green concludes this chapter with discussions illustrating the extent of popular belief in fairies, including the linkage of Melusine to the Lusignan family, accounts connected with the Forest of Brocéliande, and popular romances geared to audiences with more sympathetic views of fairies—and which, Green argues, we should see as more than simple entertainment.

Chapter 2, "Policing Vernacular Belief," uses "vernacular" to describe the attitudes and literature of both the aristocracy and the commoners, with the former receiving greater emphasis because of the existence and prevalence of their writings. With clerical attitudes toward fairies increasingly emphasizing their demonic aspects, vernacular authors who included fairies in their works developed strategies to distinguish the two, such as depicting fairies as beautiful instead of ugly, inserting expressions of orthodox piety into fairy dialogue, and quietly excising passages that could be misconstrued. In particular, romance authors assigned fairies four noninfernal characteristics: sexuality, fertility, mortality, and the ability to prophesy—though this last characteristic may have been less effective, given theological statements that demons could imitate foresight with access to information unavailable to humans. Green's analysis on the other points is compelling, however, and he concludes...