in a chatroom one of my friends was called a Uber Faerie. is this good or bad? and why did the person spell the word "fairy" as "faerie"?

The Gypsy/Wench

cause faerie's dont like being called 'fairy's' ............. faeries live at the bottom of my garden. They are nice SOMETIMES .. but mostly they are myschievious!!

Any German experts here? I think "Uber" means something like "superior." "Faerie" is the archaic spelling of the word. It can mean either a fairy or the land of the fairies.

Heck I'm not a German expert..so I'm going out on a limb saying this..But I think Shae is right here...Uber can be used in a sentence to denote many things...If you say 'uber' you can be saying for instance... above, beyond, beside, across, at, by, past, etc. I'm sure this is only confusing the issue even more I am afraid. There are many good online German-English dictionairies to find out more...heer is an example of the word 'uber' in a sentence... uber und uber : all over.

ok, so the guy was speeking in German. but is it good or bad?

A great potato would be an uber-tuber.

Deutchland, Deutchland über Alles
Germany, Germany over/above/beyond all (others)

Nietzsche wrote something about the free spirits to come - the "uber-mensch"

Uber is generally good.
(I think)

If someone called me 'a great fairy', my sense of masculinity might be mildly offended. :)
'Uber faerie' would be complimentary (unless you have a problem with 'faerie')


This message is uber.

ok, thanks. i'll tell my friend tomarro when i see her.

so ... is a uber-tuber a very sucesfull 'couch potato'??? We call them 'Norm' ... i guess ya have to be here *L*

I hope the love is is proceeding your way, GWench. (good handle, that, by the way *L*)

thanks, i'm glad someone likes it. my best-friend thought i was crazy to name myself that.

duh. i nick-named my best-friend the Queen of Fearies,aka Morrighan. i think i already know they are myschievious.

Good lord, child; you're everywhere! And not exactly the most polite little thing, either. Could you drop the sarcasm, maybe?

sorry, i don't mean to be rude. and as for the sarcasm, the last mesage was realy posted by my best-friend; Morrighan.

There is such a thing as Multiple Personality Disorder.

*Rifling through Tir hat rack for new hat for the rude Gypsy* How is this 'GUEST' hat, Gypsy? The Guest hat is very popular at Tir. It even has a long yellow rose in it for a peaceful interlude while at Tir and to distinguish yourself. *smelling succulent fragrance* Hmmmm...*Grabbing Multiple Personality Disorder Hat* Let's see...do I want it on Me? Myself? I? My other selves? *giggling* I can't decide which one looks best on me. *Looking in Multiple Personality Catalog* Guess Disorder will work! *Hugging Gypsy tightly*

Some of the coolest people have M.P.D. *s*

no i don't have M.P.D. my best-friend really did take over keyboard.

Sheesh

Ahhh...we are watching history in the making, folks...another Tir first...the discovery of a new pyschiatric afflication, ...M.G.D. Multipule Guest Disorder. Hmmm...or is that Mighty Good Dialogue? Moose Gravy Dispesia...no, thats another story. Well, tune in next week folks, when the topic will be, More Goose Droppings.

Aaahhh..Rogue...*wry grin slowly shaking head* I like your style.

In the movie "Titanic" toward the end there is a Irish mother in her cabin telling a tale of "...and they lived happily together for 300 yrs in the land of Tir na nog" Does anyone know of which tale she speaks of? Pam

I could be the story of Oisín and Deirdre. Oisin was Fionn MacCumhail's son. According to the legend, he fell in love with Deirdre, who was from the Otherworld, and went to live with her in Tír na nÓg. After three years (I think), he began to miss the companionship of the Fianna and wanted to return to Ireland. Although it only seemed like three years to Oisín, Deirdre knew that 300 years had passed in Ireland and he would die if he set foot there again. She gave him a magic horse and made him promise not to dismount when he arrived. Much to his despair, he discovered that all his friends were long dead and the stories of their exploits almost forgotten.

He fell off the horse when a strap broke and became an aged man immediately. Some workmen called St. Patrick and, before he died, Oisín related all the stories of the Fianna to him.

There's a recent translation of Oisín's discourse with St. Patrick in:

'Tales of the Elders of Ireland'
Ann Dooley (Translator), Harry Roe (Translator)

Paperback - 294 pages (September 1999)
Oxford Paperbacks; ISBN: 0192839187

Sorry!! *It* could be the story. . . .

Tir na nog is also the name for heaven in the druid path,aka religion.

Sorry Shae, but the lady's name was Naimh... I was told the following story by my mother long long ago..*s

Once upon a time, Oisín and the Fianna were out hunting.They saw a beautiful girl riding a white horse. "What is your name?", asked Oisín.
"My name is Niamh", she said."My father is the king of Tír na nÓg". She fell in love with Oisín."Come with me to Tír na nÓg", said Niamh.Oisín went with her on the white horse.
They crossed the sea to Tír na nÓg.Oisín was very happy in Tír na nÓg. 300 years passed.Nobody got old or sick in Tír na nÓg.But Oisín got lonely:"I want to go back to Ireland to see Fionn and the Fianna again"
Alright", said Niamh."Bring the white horse with you.But don't set foot on land in Ireland!"Oisín crossed the sea back to Ireland.
But the country had changed a lot.Fionn and the Fianna were dead. Oisín was very sad."I'll go back to Tír na nÓg",he said
He saw a group of men working in the field. He bent down and moved the rock. But he fell to the ground. The horse ran back to Tír na nÓg.
Oisín grew very old.He was over 300 years old!The men took him to meet St. Patrick.Oisín told him about Fionn and the Fianna.He told him about Niamh and Tír na nÓg.Then Oisín died.

for a more adult version of this story click on to http://indigo.ie/~legends/tirnanog.html

opps... should be Niamh...

It think Caoilte also had eyes for Niamh ..*s

The host is riding from Knocknarea
And over the Grave of Clooth-na-Bare;
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away:
Empty your heart of its mortal dream.
The winds awaken, the leaves whirl round,
Our cheeks are pale, our hair is unbound,
Our breasts are heaving, our eyes are agleam,
Our arms are waving, our lips are apart;
And if any gaze on our rushing band,
We come between him and the deed of his hand,
We come between him and the hope of his heart.
The host is rushing 'twixt night and day,
And where is there hope or deed as fair?
Caoilte tossing his burning hair,
And Niamh calling Away, come away.
---W.B. Yeats 1893

Ooops here too! Thanks for the correction, Caoilte! Yes, it should have been Niamh. I always get these tragic/heroic women mixed up. You'd think they'd have learned by now to stick to domestic stuff like magic and not get involved with fellas. It causes boundless confusion!

Gypsywench, there's nothing to support the view that druids had any concept of heaven. Places like Tir na nOg and Hy Brasil were inhabited by mythical people with mythical magical abilities. There are some indications that the early Irish and their druids believed in reincarnation, though.

i was only going by what a druid told me years ago. but there are so many paths of druid that it's confusing.

*narrows eyes @ shae*

Too many names and details to remember.

One has to remember the sounds of the old tales, not the details :)
Niamh Cinn Óir (Niamh of the golden head/hair) sticks in my memory like a melody.

As for paths. I believe that many of them are recent inventions. We don't actually know a lot about 'the' druids.

*shakes robes in a druid way* .. follow me!!

Lacie i don't think that you're in the ren-fair so you can't be the Druid that taught me. :>

Had the ancient Irish people an ancestors' cult, like the Romans or the Chineses?

They didn't have ancestor worship but they were very conscious of their ancestry. The bards always went to great lenghts to trace a person's ancestry back to someone famous or important and you'll often find long passages that say "So-and-so, son of. . ., son of. . . , son of. . ." and so on.

I surely hope someone reads this one! What a interesting site this is.Of myths and magic,druids and elves,as a Deirdre i have egaged in enough sorrow to be as the first.Now of the riddle no prize but wisdom for the answer.

'Deirdre of the Sorrows' is one of the 'Three sorrows of story-telling' in Irish mythology. Deirdre was promised to the aging Conchobar, king of Ulster, in marriage, but she ran away to Britain with Naisi, one of the three sons of Usnech. His two brothers accompanied him. After many years, Conchobar promised them a safe return to Ireland, although he was still secretly jealous. He killed the Naisi on his return, and tried to make Deirdre marry him. She refused, so he gave her to the Eogan, the person she hated most after Conchobar. On the way to the wedding ceremony, she dashed her head against a stone and died.

I'd come to this site because of the mention of fairies/faeries and I see that the subject has traveled through Deirdre and all sorts of things.

My grandmother used to tell me that "the fairies would take me" (she didn't spell it for me) when she was mad at me. I grew up as an Irish kid who didn't think of fairies as cute and harmless. When she threatened me, I wasn't going to ask her anything, so I didn't learn much about fairies from her.

(As for gay men, they are generally very kind, but they have their 2% of nasties, too.)

G: did I miss...the point?

Must be some kind of reference there. *waves to Wundamom*

In Ireland, the equivalent of fairies are known as the Good People.
We call them Good because they are definitely *not* good. However, it is thought wise not to get on their bad side, hence the description of Good.
Getting on "their bad side" is easy as all sides are bad :)

And they do/did take children. :)

So: People don't go into or interfere with fairy forts (the circular remains of Iron Age structures), and avert their gaze when passing a hawthorn tree.

A handy thing to know:
If you happen to be out walking, even in a familiar location, and suddenly find that you are unaccountably going in circles with no escape, you'd better not be naked.
You are on a Seachhrán Sí ( a fairy wandering).
Take off your coat. Turn it inside out. Put it on. Et voila!! You'll find your way home.

That happened to me once. Fortunately, I was not naked. I didn't know about the coat thing, so I went in circles in the wood until I climbed a tree to see where the sun was. I then found my way back to civilization.

"Climbed a tree"?

Wow! Science and technology. The modern age. What will they think of next?

Don't try this on a hawthorn tree folks! No amount of science will save you.

*laughs*... I had one in my backyard at our old place... just mowing around it was a hazardous!

So, like... what does it mean fairy forts show up in the U.S.A?

Ever been to the French Quarter in New Orleans?

Fairy forts show up in the U.S.A. ???

If they hover over your cities....... run away!!!

*Looks up* I don't see anything.

That's deeply worrying.....

They must be using some advanced cloaking device.

Have any large buildings been vaporised yet?

No, but there was some definite tampering with the Democratic Caucus last night.

Hmmmmm.....

pssst... Mac, those aren't fairy forts in NOLA - they are houses-of-ill-repute.

Here's a technical question:

Could I build my own fairy fort? And, assuming the answer is yes, would it then require;

1. a building inspector's report
2. certifed appraiser's certificate
3. a human sacrifice

Anything else in the "need-to-know" category?

A few fairies might come in handy.
1) to do the building
2) to magically forge the required documentation
3) to curse and confuse the authorities if they ever came to knock it down

ah the voodoo queens in Nawlins are too tough, they kicked out all dem fairies years ago, ;)right mac?

Oh no, not at all *LOL* There's still lots of fairies in New Orleans. Take Bruce and Maurice, for instance...

I know peolple here who are convinced faeries are round and about different areas of BC - they swear by them, my Gran used to swear she could see them and when I was little would keep me away from certain areas of her gardens and the woods surrounding the house....others have told me them same, to avoid some areas to avoid encountering the "little people as they called them, as they said it was dangerous to encounter or come across the areas they inhabited...."little people" being their polite way of referring to faeries..sometimes I have wondered if it really was true, because there have been areas where I have wandered where I knew my way, but wandered lost for what seemed a very long time until finally breaking free...or losing all track of time and coming out of the area many hours later than I should have...hmmmm....perhaps it is true after all

Could someone explain to me the difference between the "little people", the "wee ones or wee folk" and "faeries"...are they the same? I think not, I think they are all different, but in what ways...forgive my naivete here but my Gran refused to tell me saying some things were best left unknown and better not to explore to deeply, and there must be some mysteries in life...

Never mind...I figured it out exploring the net and various sitews..hope they were accurate...

But - why do faeries have such a bad rap? You say they are Not nice quite emphatically, what would be the reasoning behind that? Are they just naturally that way, or have they evolved that way because of the way they have been treated over the centuries? When I checked the web for faerie sites, there were literally thousands...a bit overwhelming..and many were of differing opinions..

And then, Shaman.... there are Second Life Wee Folk, Little People and Faeries. (not to complicate things)

...with Assumed names, i.e. Barrymore, Slade, Rockefeller and Clinton to name a few.

Oh No! Second Life Wee Folk, Little People and Faeries!!! And going under assumed names too??? Dear lord I think I need a major education...would you be so good and kind as to enlighten me Wundamom? I think I need all the help I can get! A now very confused Shaman...