Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.
Preparation
(1) Fairies today are the stuff of children's stories, little magical people with wings, often shining with light. Typically pretty and female, like Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, they usually use their magic to do small things and are mostly friendly to humans.
(2) We owe many of our modern ideas about fairies to Shakespeare and stories from the 18th and 19th centuries. Although we can see the origins of fairies as far back as the Ancient Greeks, we can see similar creatures in many cultures. The earliest fairy-like creatures can be found in the Greek idea that trees and rivers had spirits called dryads and nymphs. Some people think these creatures were originally the gods of earlier, pagan religions that worshipped nature. They were replaced by the Greek and Roman gods, and then later by the Christian God, and became smaller, less powerful figures as they lost importance.
(3) Another explanation suggests the origin of fairies is a memory of real people, not spirits. So, for example, when tribes with metal weapons invaded land where people only used stone weapons, some of the people escaped and hid in forests and caves. Further support for this idea is that fairies were thought to be afraid of iron and could not touch it. Living outside of society, the hiding people probably stole food and attacked villages. This might explain why fairies were often described as playing tricks on humans. Hundreds of years ago, people actually believed that fairies stole new babies and replaced them with a 'changeling' – a fairy baby – or that they took new mothers and made them feed fairy babies with their milk.
(4) While most people no longer believe in fairies, only a hundred years ago some people were very willing to think they might exist. In 1917, 16-year-old Elsie Wright took two photos of her cousin, nine-year-old Frances Griffiths, sitting with fairies. Some photography experts thought they were fake, while others weren't sure. But Arthur Conan Doyle, the writer of the Sherlock Holmes detective stories, believed they were real. He published the original pictures, and three more the girls took for him, in a magazine called The Strand, in 1920. The girls only admitted the photos were fake years later in 1983, created using pictures of dancers that Elsie copied from a book.
When you make me think about it, Vietnamese mythology surprisingly has so few non-human creatures. Also, Vietnamese don’t have the origin of human story, only the origin of Vietnamese story.
I’ll put down some of the names in Vietnamese, so you can wiki them if you really want. Lạc Long Quân, Sơn Tinh, Thủy Tinh, Thánh Gióng, Chử Đồng Tử.
Lạc: controversial story, but to be simple, Lạc-bird.
Long: Dragon
Quân: male human
LLQ is literally Lạc-bird and Dragon Man. He was a half human half dragon, came from the ocean. He frequently went on land and helped the local resident, and fight monsters. On a sightseeing on land, he met Âu Cơ, a beautiful woman (in some stories, AC is said to be half elf, in others, she is the daughter of a Chinese king. In my opinion, the latter is likely added by Vietnamese medieval historian, who idolized Chinese culture). Their offspring become the first kings of Vietnam, called Hùng Vương (Bear King, or Power/Strength King)
Sơn: Mountain
Thủy: Water
Tinh: sage /elf
Sơn Tinh was a woodcutter until one day he was given a book/ rod of magic, which let him control land, animal, trees, etc. With it he helped the residents. One day the king start finding a good husband for his only daughter, ST went to the capital. There, he meet a equal peer: King of Ocean’s son, Thủy Tinh, who control water, and water animal. The king challenged the 2 of them tasks, most notably finding 3 animal: chicken with 9 heels, horse with 9 manes, and elephant with 9 tusks (all of them being land animals, such favoritism). ST cleared the tasks first, and took the bride back to his house. TT cleared the tasks(wow), but he was too late. Furious, TT waged a war, and losed. However, TT comes back every year, and loses, every time.
This story explains why there is a flood every year.
Literally Saint Gióng.
He was an 3-year-old autism baby. When the Ân (the Chinese) attacked, the king assembled an army. Suddeny Gióng wake up, and heed the call. He asked the King for iron weapon, iron amor and a functional iron horse (lol). The King gave him all he asked for, and made him general. He fought and won the battle, chased all of the Ân away, then flew to the sky.
Name has no meaning that I know.
He was a naked poor peasant. One day he met the princess, Tiên Dung, naked. They become husband and wife. The king was angry, and banned them from the citadel. The couple become merchant, and rich. CĐT later on learned magic,he taught TD, the couple magically founded a prosperous city. The city was so prosperous, the king heard of them and think they was conspiring. He brought an army to the city, but it disappeared.
The story seemed to be a struggle between the ancient local religion and early Buddhism. On the other hand, the location of the city is a base of Chinese domination resistance by Dạ Trạch Vương. So it is possible is was wrtitten to scarred off the Chinese.
Hope that helped.
What stories of little magical people are there in your culture? What are they like?
I listened to these types of stories from my elders when I was a child. As a teenager when I visited the Pakistan famous visitor area called Naran. In this place, I heard the story from one person that these little magical people living in the mountains come to the river on the 14th day of the month when the moon is in full size at night and they talk with people. But I don't believe that.
In Vietnam, there are not a lot of magical stories in my culture, but in my country is widely known for fairy tales. When I was a child, I was told by my mother. Every night, she will tell some fairy tales to make me fall asleep. I listened to a variety sort of precious fairy tales. Some typical fairy tale most Vietnamese people know is "Tam Cam", "An Khe Tra Vang", and "Thach Sanh Ly Thong". Those stories are interesting and appealing!!
i'm not very familiar with fairies but when people hear strange sounds in their homes they explain it by brownies or hobgoblins). It's small shaggy creature that likes sweet dishes, could be dangerous for people)
We have goblins as little magical creatures, but these goblins don't have the particular clothes of an Ireland leprechaun, these goblins are mean and they used to kidnap kids, adults, and animals.
I think,we have one story about fairies.I have little sister and she believes that when she put her tooth under pillow after this the fairy fly and replace tooth for present.
we don't have magical stories in our culture based on fairies
I don't have any interest or knowledge in these topics, actually.
I adored reading books about fairies when I was 16 years old. The stories were so romantic and adventurous. Fairies are generally depicted as tricky creatures with amazing beauty, they are often described as tall, and they prefer wine and enjoying their time over other things.
There are many stories about fantastic creatures in Brazil. These are called "folclore". But I don't know any which like fairies.