Why Does Iron Hurt Fairies: A Medieval Tale of Trickery
Why does iron hurt fairies?
The simplest answer would be that the metal iron has some natural defensive properties against creatures like fairies, trolls, etc. In folklore, iron has been extensively used as a shield in the form of weapons, horseshoes, or decorative ornaments against paranormal and magical beings.
Keep on reading as we bring you the interesting tale that has been around for centuries, behind the question of why iron hurts fairies.
Why Does Iron Hurt Fairies?
According to various traditions and stories found in history, iron is said to have naturally protective properties against fairies. The real reason for this property of iron is still unknown.
However, this magical defense is as old as it can get and is seen at various points in history. Many famous medieval authors have narrated stories that use iron as a weapon against the supernatural claiming that the iron element, which is fey, fills up the warmth of the air which is how fairies, as well as other supernatural creatures, get hurt.
To understand the relationship between iron and fairies and the immediate reason to hurt them, we start from the beginning.
Fairies Were Seen as Evil Creatures
Folklores start when someone experiences some supernatural phenomena and spreads the word in his community, hence they were seen as evil being. For the reason of being seen as wicked, people tried different ways to protect themselves, and using iron was one of them. The word gets out and from each mouth, some new words are added to the original story. This is how an interesting story becomes more interesting.
The origin story of the folklore of fairies and their fear of iron is unknown. It is something that has been passed down to generations and everyone seems to go along with it without questioning its authenticity and originations.
However, just as mentioned, through superstitious views, people believed to be protected with objects that were made of iron, claiming that it hurt fairies. Generally, when fairies were hurt, people felt protected, away from supernatural creatures.
Protection Against Fairies
People actively sought protection against the fairies and other supernatural beings. There are many ways to shield oneself from them. Most popularly they used enchantments, Rowan trees, protective charm body jewelry, church bells, horseshoes, and four-leaf clovers.
The enchantments include verses from the Bible or holy books, which are either loudly sung or written and pasted outside the door or inside the house. Further protection was the Rowan trees are considered to be sacred for the fairies. Hence, in any place that has a Rowan tree, the fairies will not dare to cause any mischief and would keep the integrity of the tree intact.
Now we come to the protective charm body jewelry, church bells, and horseshoes. All these protections have one thing in common they are all made from metals, the most important metal used for making these items was iron, back in the day. This is the reason why iron is associated highly with protection against fairies having in mind that they were tricksters, and might also cost them their lives.
How Did Iron Hurt Fairies?
Different cultures and mythologies, view fairies differently and narrate different origin stories. The fairies have been connected to demoted angels, demoted pagan deities, demons, spirits of the dead, and superhuman elementals.
Fairies were known to be harming humans and they were famous for tricking humans and bringing them trouble. For that reason, humans hurt spirits, goblins, or gnomes, using iron and even silver metaled objects. When iron touched these legendary creatures, with the elements, they used to get burnt. The metals reacted with their skin and caused it to be harmed, the longer it touched the skin, the more it burnt, causing pain and threatening the life of the fairy.
In Christianity, fairies are believed to be angels that were demoted from their status as a way of punishment. This belief is very popular in the religion of Christianity. Likewise, Persian mythology also denotes fairies as ex-angels. The biggest crime that the angels could commit is revolting against God and maybe this is the reason for their demotion.
Cold Iron Folklore
Cold Iron is a term used for iron in the poetic sense. This term is used widely while describing protective materials against fairies, goblins, gnomes and basically every supernatural thing that a man is scared of.
Cold iron metal has been the go-to weapon against fairies since medieval times. This is evident from many first-hand accounts of the writers.
Nonetheless, the question still remains, why among the long list of metals was iron used against the supernatural with such vigor. Each metal has some distinctive chemical and physical properties. These properties make them suitable for distinctive tasks. In the case of iron, however, other than being one of the earliest metals known to men, it contains some supernatural abilities that shake off fairies and anything magical.
Another reason for using iron against paranormal entities can be that in the starting, the weapons including swords or arrowheads were made using iron. The discovery of iron was a big step toward modernized warfare. Moreover, there is a slight chance that people believed in the supremacy of iron and used it to defend themselves from anything, living or dead.
Does Steel Hurt Fairies?
As far as the fairies are concerned, no, steel does not hurt fairies, because steel is an alloy, made unnaturally. Consequently, cold iron is the only natural metal that is broadly used against fairies for defensive and protection purposes.
What is Cold Iron Vs Iron?
There is neither a physical nor a chemical difference between cold iron and iron. However, cold iron is a poetic term for iron that is used in folklore and mythologies, in order to be protected against fairies.
FAQs
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about this folklore involving fairies and cold iron:
Why Do Fairies Play Tricks On Humans?
Some of the fairies just play tricks with humans to get attention or to make sure that the humans are aware of their presence. On the other hand, some fairies who play deadly tricks are pure evil with no regard for life or good-doing.
What Are Fairies Weak Against, in Mythology?
Fairies are afraid of iron in mythology because when they are around it, the iron messes with their powers and makes them weak. Hence, this way, they are not fully capable of performing their tricks.
What Abilities Did Fairies Have?
As the origin of the fairies has been described from various supernatural entities, their characteristics are also very unnatural, to say the least. There is a spectrum of trickery that the fairies commit. This spectrum is from subtle, funny, harmless pranks to fatal, harmful behaviors that cause death in the extreme.
Some harmless trickery by the fairies includes: leading a weary traveler astray, tangling the hair of people in their sleep into fairy-locks (aka elf-locks), stealing and misplacing small items, and putting them back sometimes. Whereas some of the dark and deadly tricks by the fairies include: kidnapping, sudden scares leading to death, and plainly causing death due to any reason or in a situation.
The sudden appearance of any illness or inconvenience in one’s life was also attributed to the presence of fairies somewhere close to them or in their house. Evil people also used to get away with their tricks while blaming them on the fairies. In this way, they walked free and the fairies were cursed.
Are All Fairies Bad?
No, not all fairies are bad, since there are good and bad fairies. The good fairies play harmless tricks on humans and also might help a human in distress. Whereas the bad fairies are deadly and should be kept away.
How Were Fairies Made?
According to famous mythologies, fairies are considered to be demoted angels, demoted pagan deities, demons, spirits of the dead, and superhuman elementals. Furthermore, they were made from existing entities.
How Are Fairies Seen In Media?
The tale of fairies and cold iron has been widely seen in the media. The ancient writers and their work reference their local sightings of fairies and how they were scared off using the cold iron. Modern writers use the analogy for giving strength to the story in their movies and plays.
Interestingly, many modern and popular cultures view fairies as sweet, innocent, and loveable creatures. Many feature films, shows, and kid’s cartoons have been produced on the narrative. If you ask a little girl what they want to be for Halloween, they are surely going to say a fairy, once in their childhood.
Conclusions
Fairies are supernatural, paranormal creatures that can be good and bad depending on their nature and place of residence. Most widely, the fairies play tricks on humans, harmful or harmless. People have seen medieval times looked for and sought out ways to defend and protect themselves from fairies.
Here is a conclusion of important points on the subject:
The fairies become weak and vulnerable in the presence of iron which is why iron is the best sort of protection against fairies.
The reason that iron works best against fairies is that it has some naturally defensive properties that make the fairies lose their power.
In defense against the fairies, one could use enchantments, Rowan trees, protective charm body jewelry, church bells, horseshoes, and four-leaf clovers. The charms, bells, and horseshoes are made of ironwork best.
The origin story of using iron as a protection against fairies is still unknown and will remain so because of how widely accepted and practiced the feat is.
In modern culture, fairies are portrayed as sweet, helpful, and lovable characters; however, this was not the case in the past.
Here was everything you needed to know about why iron hurts fairies. In addition to that, you got to know everything about the fairies and their largely mischievous nature. Make sure to hand a horseshoe somewhere in your house just to give the fairies a scare if they ever plan on coming your way.
