Goddess Fish Party Pavilion: Dryads

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Tree Faeries

In my latest release, a short story titled The Enchanted Meadow, I decided to make my heroine, Alina, a Tree Faerie. The ancient Celts believed that since trees were the oldest living organisms in the forest that they were powerful and held the memories of the past. The Celtic Druids worshipped in forests, usually oak groves, and had a close relationship with trees.

Did their close relationship with the trees mean that they conversed with spirits living in the trees? Perhaps. And perhaps it was these tree spirits that taught them the secrets about tree magic, divination and astral travel.

Tree Faeries, or Dryads, are also called Tree Spirits, Tree Ladies, Druidesses, Hamadryads and in Gaelic are sometimes called Sidhe Draoi, which means ‘Faery Druids.’ Tree faeries appear as wisps of light, flitting from tree to tree. These playful, androgynous creatures are referred to as female. They prefer willow trees but can be found in all trees. Tree Faeries are associated with the element of air.

Since Tree Faeries are seen as wisps of light, I needed to figure out a way that my hero could see Alina. Some humans are more sensitive to otherworldly creatures and are able to see the unseen. I decided that my hero, Taran, had some druid training in his earlier years so he was able to see Alina as a human woman while his warriors could only see her as a bobbing light. Taran’s sensitivity to the supernatural also plays a key role in the plot.