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New Animal Lives Book My other comics: Scandinavia and the World, Niels, Manala Next Door

Comments #9461372:


Not a Fairy 27 2, 7:26am

I mentioned this before on your tumblr account and I feel bad correcting you because you are, for the most part, correct, but Unseelie and Seelie courts were never a distinction between "good" or "evil" fairies, either could be malicious or mean-spirited. Originally the courts, which originated in Ireland, were used to denote whether the fairy liked sunlight or being seen. Unseelie tend to be nocturnal and solitary, Seelie tend to be diurnal and group-oriented. It's more common to see two Seelie together than two Unseelie. Over time the solitary nature of Unseelie was taken as outright reclusiveness, and they gained a reputation for being particularly nasty if you bothered them, particularly on purpose (a banshee will only scream if you get too close to her, a dullahan will blind you if you try to watch him/her on an errand, etc). Unseelie are also commonly associated with death. Dullahan are the Irish personification of death, and banshee warn of an impending death.
Honestly Seelie fairies are a lot closer to a modern definition of evil, as they'll pull pranks unprovoked, even if they can be helpful. Leperchauns, despite being Seelie fairies, are actually probably the one of the nastiest fairies in existence, but they're still Seelie. Really the difference between Seelie and Unseelie fairies isn't whether they're mean or friendly, but whether they often interact with people. Generally you won't see an Unseelie fairy unless you're about to die, and avoiding them will just piss them off and make it more likely that you will die.
Pretty much all fairies dislike humans and/or will kill you if you piss them off so I don't think there's much of a good/evil distinction as there is a reclusive/social distinction.








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