Associations between
fairies and the dead go back a long way. From Irish folktales of
the aos sí (literally ‘people of the earthen mounds’) and accounts
of graveyard-haunting fairies in Scottish witch trials to Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle’s near-simultaneous publication of The Case for
Spirit Photography and The Coming of the Fairies in 1922, fairies
have always been rumoured to inhabit liminal spaces – between life
and death, human and supernatural, the familiar and the unfamiliar
– flickering on the edges of our imaginations.
Led by Elizabeth Dearnley, editor of Fearsome Fairies (British
Library, 2021) and author of The Fairy Spotter’s Guide (Welbeck,
2026), this talk invites you to explore the more unsettling side of
the fae, charting their history of uncanny associations and delving
into some of their more eerie incarnations in contemporary culture.
Whether emerging from the earth as green children in medieval
Suffolk or appearing as changelings after a volcanic eruption in
the 2021 Icelandic Netflix drama Katla, ghostly fairies are never
far beneath the surface.
Elizabeth Dearnley
Elizabeth Dearnley
is a folklorist, writer and researcher whose work explores fairy
lore, ghost stories and the darker traditions of British folklore.
She is the editor of the acclaimed Fearsome Fairies: Haunting Tales
of the Fae for the British Library and author of The Fairy
Spotter’s Guide. Her work examines the uncanny intersections of
folklore, horror and storytelling, revealing the enduring power of
the supernatural in our cultural imagination.
| Ticket | Event time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
|
Fairies and the Dead
Folklore from the Edge of the Otherworld |
15:30 - 17:00 | £14.85 |
Address
Brompton Cemetery Chapel, North gate off Old Brompton Road, South gate off Fulham Road, London, SW5 9JE
Nearest Station
West Brompton (Tube)
Getting there
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