Faery research

I'm very interested in faeries so I already have a lot of general knowledge about them, but it always helps to do some research to refresh myself when doing something like this.

I had a readthrough of my fey lore books and also the notebook I made a while ago with notes from about 10 different fey books I got from the library.

I also (re)watched the movie Labyrinth, because that's a great example of faery bargains and trickery (and a great movie).

A few other fiction books I take inspiration from are The Darkest Part of the Forest, Tithe, Valiant, and Ironside by Holly Black, the Wicked Lovely series and Faery Tales and Nightmares by Melissa Marr, The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagwa, The Dark Artifices by Cassandra Clare..

Also, though I'm not that familiar with the original play, I've seen a few adaptations of A Midsummer Night's Dream which also are good inspiration (particularly the recent BBC movie)

some internet things:

The Biggest Reasons Why Faeries are Evil

Fairies, or the “Good People” from the legends of Ireland, Scotland and England, are usually depicted as capricious at best, and downright wicked at worst.

While probably most cultures have tales of earth spirits with uneasy relationship to humans, the Celtic fairies have done a lot to inform the modern popular interpretation of what a fairy is and looks like. Part of this is due to the collection of fairy lore as a serious anthropological pursuit in the 1880s by noted scholars and poets like W.B. Yeats and the gorgeous and romantic Pre-Raphaelite art movement that illustrated the tales. Sensibly superstitious people sought to avoid the notice and ire of the fairies. The terms “Good People” or “Fair Folk” were used to placate a temperamental neighbor — and as an accurate description of their general nature. With good reason — get on the bad side of a fairy, and they would mess you up. 

According to the ballad of Tam Lin, the Fairy Queen pays a tithe to Hell every seven years. The fairies kidnap mortals, like Tam Lin, to pay their due on Halloween. It is from this fate that Janet must save her lover. In the story "Soul Cages" collected in Yeats' Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry, an otherwise sociable and friendly merrow (a type of merman) collects the souls of drowned sailors. The merrow places lobster pots at the bottom of the ocean and the confused, cold souls of the dying sailors seek refuge in them. The pots are collected and put on the merrow's curiosity shelf — but other than that the merrow was an alright and friendly fairy. 

While human women tend to be carried off, men tend to be seduced by fairy women. While the activity is more pleasant, it still doesn’t end well for the men. Yeats describes a type of fairy called the Leanhaun Shee (Fairy Mistress) If a man refuses her love she becomes their slave, but if they accept her love they are trapped by the fairy until they find another to take their place. She is considered the Gaelic muse and the inspiration for art and poetry, but she dries a man up and leaves him a wreck. It is said this why the Irish poets die young. People with bad characters and dubious behavior leave themselves open to magical enslavement by the faeries. The story of “Teig O’Kane and the Corpse”tells of a rowdy womanizer who's compelled into service by fairies for a terrifying night of work. In “Master and Man,” the hard partying young man is enslaved by a fairy for seven years. The young man thwarts his Master’s wicked plot and get released after one night.

other things including: baby stealing, murdering children for petty grievances, stealing brides and mothers, and general overreations to rude behaviour.

The Erlking 

Erlking (from Elf-king or Herla-king; German: Erlkönig) is a name from Danish and German folklore for the figure of a spirit or "king of the fairies". While early stories feature the Erlking's daughter as a malevolent figure, Goethe's poem "Der Erlkönig" and those following it have the Erlking himself prey on small children.

Alternatively, the term may derive not from "elf-king" but from the name of Herla king, a figure in medieval English folklore, adapted as Herlequin, Hellequin in medieval French, in origin the leader of the Wild Hunt, in French known as maisnie Hellequin "household of Hellequin" (and as such ultimately identical with Woden), but re-cast as a generic "devil" in the course of the Middle Ages (and incidentally, in the 16th century also the origin of the Harlequin character). Sometimes also associated is the character of Herrequin, a 9th-century count of Boulogne of proverbial wickedness.  

The story portrays Sir Oluf riding to his marriage but being entranced by the music of the elves. An elf maiden, in Herder's translation the Elverkonge's daughter, appears and invites him to dance with her. He refuses and spurns her offers of gifts and gold. Angered, she strikes him and sends him on his way, deathly pale. The following morning, on the day of his wedding, his bride finds him lying dead under his scarlet cloak

The People of the Mounds 

In the first article of this series, I looked at the survival of belief among the Celtic peoples of an invisible realm inhabited by Otherworldly beings known collectively as the Sidhe, or the Good People. This belief was once common throughout all the Celtic countries, in localised forms. The Sidhe are considered to be a distinct race, quite separate from human beings yet who have had much contact with mortals over the centuries, and there are many documented testimonies to this. Belief in this race of beings who have powers beyond those of men to move quickly through the air and change their shape at will once played a huge part in the lives of people living in rural Ireland and Scotland. A notable feature of the sidhe is that they have distinct tribes, ruled over by fairy kings and queens in each territory. It would seem that the social order of the sidhe corresponds to the old aristocracy of ancient Irish families, which is in itself a reflection of the ancient Celtic caste system. It is interesting to note that many of the Irish refer to the sidhe as simply "the gentry", on account of their tall, noble appearance and silvery sweet speech. They have their own palaces where they feast and play music, but also have regular battles with neighbouring tribes. The great fairy hosts seem to be distinctly Milesian, but there are still folk memories of perhaps older pre-Gaelic races and their gods, in the form of the 'geancanach', a spirit of Ulster, or the 'cluricaun', of Munster. We must not forget also the 'leprechaun', a diminutive creature who is said to know the whereabouts of a pot of gold hidden in local fairy raths. The leprechaun could possibly be a folk memory of a dwarfish race of Fir Bolg people who lived in these raths before the coming of the Gaels.

The Perils of Faery - about fey being tricksters but that' a good thing?

Faerie

Faeries are magical beings residing in the Nevernever. They are a very heterogeneous group, as there are many different kinds of faerie. Some of them are humanoid in their form, some like animals, and others like various monsters. For a list of Faerie kinds, see the list below.Many of the faeries belong to one of the two Faerie Courts of the Nevernever, the Summer Court and theWinter Court. Those that do not belong to either are the Wyldfae.  

The concept of a debt and obligation is a huge factor in how they behave.^[1] The Sidhe are unable to give anything away for free. There must always be balance. Never take anything without giving something of equal value in return. Never give a favor without getting one in kind. All of Reality depends on it.^[2]It is generally tricky and dangerous to ask the Sidhe direct questions. Questions that deal with conflict especially may receive obscure and maliciously misleading answers.^[3] They are, however, "fanatical gatherers of information and guard their information as ferociously as a dragon guards his gold". Information is more valuable than gold.^[3]Faeries are often insane, mischievous, and very dangerous, but they are also good to their word. (ref?) It is possible for faeries and humans to produce offspring, who are called changelings.^[4]As part of their magic, they can use glamour to change their appearance.^[5] They'll try to put a mortal off balance with their beauty.^[1]Sidhe cannot speak an outright lie.^[6] They are, however, very adept at word plays and the twisting of meaning and literal speech.Faeries are vulnerable to iron, which is deadly to them. Running water and also can disrupt faerie magic and glamour.^[7]
Faeries will try to entrap mortals with bargain and deals. They offer things to get the mortal to trade. It's built into their nature. It works both ways: if a mortal offers a something, they'll have a conduit to use magic against them. They find anything other than an equal exchange to be either enticing or insulting.^[1]The rule: do not accept anything from them and don't offer them anything.^[1]

• Words, promises, and oaths are binding to the faeries. They have to make good on their own promises, but also make sure that an involved human does the same. Combined with their way around words, they can often snare an unsuspecting mortal with a bargain or even an accidental promise. 

• A promise thrice made is as close to absolute truth as a faerie can give.^[8]

• Asking a question three times creates a binding in which the third answer is the truth.^[1]

• Oaths put mutual obligation on both parties, Such as an oath of fealty to a Faerie Queen puts an obligation on the Queen to carry out the obligations of the one who is sworn to her if he is not able to for whatever reason, even death.^[9]

types of fey

justfairythings is a great tumblr about various terrible things fey do.

The faery lore of ireland 

In Ireland, the Faeries are called the Aes Sídhe (singular Aes Sídh). Sídhe happens to be the name for the earthen mounds and hills that dot the Irish landscape. Irish mythology, legendry, and folklore claim the Faeries live under these mounds, so the term "sídhe" has come to mean Faerie in general, but it more properly refers to the palaces, courts, halls, and residences of the Faeries. However they are known by a wide variety of euphemisms, including "the Fair Folk", "the Good Neighbors", "the Little Folk", "the Little Darlings", and "the People of Peace". This is done for two reasons. The first is to avoid attracting their attention and the second is to avoid insulting them.

Faeries tend to live completely independent lives. They ride, revel, dance, play sports and games, hold markets, make their own crafts, work in their own mines, and grow their own food. They have their own animals, such as horses, dogs, and cattle, and they make use of various wild animals, such as deer and goats. Their crafts include spinning, weaving, grinding meal, cooking, baking, and churning, metalworking, leatherworking, tailoring, and boat-building. They love music and dancing, at which they excel far beyond what any human can hope to accomplish. They hunt and conduct wars, both between themselves and against human kingdoms. They play various ball games, including football and hurling. They are masters of the game of fidhcheall, generally believed to be similar to chess, but also play cards and dice. Their natural food, even among the aristocrats and the gentry, consists of barley meal, deer or goat milk, butter and cheese made from such, and the roots, leaves, and stalks of weeds, all of which are disguised and spiced by glamour. The exception seems to be the small, delicious cakes the gentry and rustics give to their benefactors. Yet they have a curious dependency upon humans, as is witnessed by the things they steal from people, particularly food.

Nonetheless, a captive can be rescued as long as he or she does not consume any Faerie food or drink, because otherwise he or she will be trapped forever, having partaken of the Faerie nature. Even then the rescue will have to be made before seven years has passed, otherwise another attempt can not be made again until seven years later.  

Aside from theft and borrowing, there are two other major ways that humans and Faeries interact. The most common is when humans visit Faerieland. It is possible for people to enter and leave Faerieland more or less unscathed, however, this is rather rare. Usually, once someone enters Faerieland, he or she becomes trapped forever. As with other dealings, humans enter Faerieland in one of two ways: having been kidnapped by Faeries, or agreeing to render them a favor. Both demonstrate just how dependent Faeries are on humans. 

(there's a LOT more info at this site)