The dance I have written is an airy, light footed and elegant portrayal of the illustrious Queen of Fairies, basking in the magic of her moon kissed court of the fey.

She is known by many names, though most famously ~ Titania or Mab (Mebd).

FAERIE LORE & THE REALM OF THE FEY

Without a doubt, when one thinks of Fairies and the cultures as well as countries which have historically been associated with them, no place can hold a candle to that of Ireland. The Aos Sí, or people of the mounds have been a part of life in Ireland for thousands of years. Ireland’s landscape is absolutely packed with the remains of stone circles, hillforts, ringforts and other such monuments which are known as Fairy Forts. But what sort of relationship have the people of Ireland had with Fairies?

As recently as 2011, the downfall of Irish businessman Sean Quinn – who went from being the richest man in Ireland in 2008 to declaring bankruptcy in 2011 – was the result, according to at least one of his neighbors, of his moving a fairy fort.

Fairy forts – also called fairy mounds and fairy raths – can be found scattered across Ireland and Scotland, and in the folklore of the British Isles, they’re the home of the sidhe – the ancient gods of those nations, who diminished and became the Good Folk or Fair Folk, the Celtic equivalent of the French fae (which is the root of the English “faerie” or “fairy”).

In Irish and Scottish mythology, these folk variously were said to live underground in fairy mounds (or forts), across the western sea, or in an invisible world that coexists with the world of humans.

The Irish/Scottish concept is that the fae are native to a realm separate from our own. In the Portals mythos, this land is the Realms of Magic, a parallel world that contains all of the creatures of our human mythologies and folklore – elves, wizards, pixies, dragons, ogres, trolls and so on…

The fairy mounds are well known, ancient gateways between the Realms of Magic and our human world.

Tradition holds that the mounds in particular are imbued with the powerful magic of the druids, and that to disturb them is to invite disaster. Folklore offers many tales of people who suffered bad luck, illness, injury or even death because they disturbed a fairy mound.

That, says a one-time neighbor of Quinn’s in the town of Ballyconnell, is what happened to Quinn.

In 1992, Quinn Concrete, one of Quinn’s business ventures, moved the Wedge Tomb, a megalithic burial tomb that had stood for 4,000 years in Ireland’s Aughrim townland, two miles from Ballyconnell. The goal for the concrete company was to expand a quarry.

Financial experts said the loss of his $8 billion business empire was due to Quinn’s decision to gamble on Anglo Irish Bank shares.

But the Fair Folk work in most mysterious ways, and who’s to say whether Sean Quinn staked his empire on bank shares because he thought, at the time, it would be a good idea.

Or whether it came, perhaps through dreams in the middle of the night, from some one or some thing that resented having its ancient home disturbed.

Needless to say, that across these regions the consensus is unanimous:

Don’t f*%ck with the Fairy’s.