A survey of modern fairy experiences by Dr Simon Young

§78

Lincolnshire, England 1980s
Male: Age 11-20 regular supernatural experiences
in a garden 3 pm-6 pm one to two minutes on my own
no special state reported
mischievous, inquisitive, cautious
hair prickling or tingling before or during the experience, unusually vivid memories of the experience, a sense that the experience marked a turning point in your life

‘I was sitting underneath the willow tree in the back garden and felt an electrical tingle. Turning to look over my shoulder I saw five small figures, very human like but much smaller: despite my reading as an adult that in early-modern period many fairies were human size – these were definitely extremely small. They were dressed in brown to dark green clothes – somewhat like tights with sturdy boots and smock like tops, their faces were more angular than human faces and very sun weathered in appearance. We looked at each other for a short period of time – there was an unspoken exchange of understanding (very hard to articulate) and then they marched off underneath a bush. This was not the first or last non-normal experience, but [it] is the only one I have had in which I would say the entity(s) encountered were decidedly fairy like.’ ‘Very tiny human proportioned but slimmer than average. Slightly angular faces. Narrow eyes. Weathered faces. Per se not faery.’ ‘The sound was similar but not exactly like the sound of kittens when they mew at each other – which may merely have been a feature of relative pitch given the difference in size.’ ‘They were clearly physical and all their characteristics suggested the hidden folk rather than any other alternative.’ ‘I think there is a whole category of ‘Hidden Folk’ about which we know less now than in earlier periods of our history. Fairy may be a useful category for all these entities or it may be useful as a sub-categorisation of a certain type of Hidden Folk given by appearance/behaviour and other qualities.’