The Secret Life of Flower Fairies: A Victorian Fairy Tale

[00:00:00]Exploring Yorkshire, warm rays wash over the horizon.

[00:00:04]Feathery meadows grace your skin, whispering against your ankles as you follow the narrow path.

[00:00:10]Approaching the creek [music] behind your home, you pause at the wildflowers.

[00:00:14]Now in full bloom at the water's edge.

[00:00:17]Bluebells, primroses, and foxgloves.

[00:00:22]You take a knee beside the stream, but the babbling waters fade and the world is silenced. You exhale shaky, staggered [music] breaths.

[00:00:31]Slowly looking up and around for signs of life.

[00:00:34]But the buzzing cicadas, singing songbirds, and rustling leaves have all but vanished. Then, just out of sight, [music] something's spied.

[00:00:45]No larger than your hand.

[00:00:47]No larger than a stem.

[00:00:49]But you notice [music] just enough to see hues of peach, cornflower blue, [music] and violet shifting, as well as delicate golden tendrils twisting and stretching into an intricate filigree over thin, translucent wings.

[00:01:07]Rubbing your eyes, you excuse [music] the sight.

[00:01:10]Rationalizing it to exhaustion or confusion, perhaps.

[00:01:15]But in the midst of your hazy, cloudy vision, a silhouette forms along the blossoms.

[00:01:20]You blink over and over, dropping your hands, forcing a clearer view.

[00:01:25]But gone.

[00:01:27]Again.

[00:01:29]Now you chuckle. Definitely a trick of the light. [music] A dragonfly, for sure.

[00:01:34]Rising to your feet and back on your way, almost giddy, ready [music] to share the experience with your family.

[00:01:40]But as you tell the tale, no one laughs.

[00:01:44]Instead, your mother [music] smiles, and your grandmother nods knowingly.

[00:01:48]Then a family friend [music] chimes in, saying she too has seen one by the glade.

[00:01:53]Finally, you catch on that maybe [music] you weren't mistaken and that this was no monster, no spirit, not some looming creature, but something far more beautiful hidden among [music] the humans just beyond our reach. And while tales of them mellowed over the years, there was a moment in time, brief but profound, where millions believed they had proof.

[00:02:22]Proof of fairies. I'm your host [music] Snow Nuts and welcome to Candy the Cryptic, your source for all things strange, spooky, and unexplained.

[00:02:30]Tonight, we're exploring flower fairies [music] and the obsession that ensued during the Victorian era. Photographs that convinced the world and the surprising [music] legacy these tiny creatures left behind on fantasy as we know it.

[00:02:43]>> [music] [music] >> But before the gilded age, when sprites graced [music] children's tales and paintings, fairies had a much darker lore.

[00:03:10]Across [music] Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and parts of England, these beings were powerful and unpredictable.

[00:03:17]So people left offerings, avoided certain hills, and steered [music] clear of draws.

[00:03:23]Warnings were issued how an encounter with one could be the loss of time, illness, abduction, and misfortune.

[00:03:32]>> [music] >> Forget the tiny winged creatures we've come to know. Now imagine, like you, [music] like me, connected to the other world.

[00:03:41]>> [music] >> In the fairy faith of Celtic countries, anthropologist, scholar of comparative religion, and orientalist [music] W.Y. Evans-Wentz interviewed believers in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, and Isle of Man.

[00:03:54]He found that [music] these beings look and act much like people, but they're captivating, beautiful, more importantly, powerful. Establishing reigns [music] and hierarchies in invisible lands, and otherwise unseen by humans [music] until parting the veil.

[00:04:11]The lore commanded respect, and sometimes fear. [music] As centuries passed, these traditions softened, transformed [music] in literature and art.

[00:04:22]Something gentler, more whimsical.

[00:04:25]By the late 19th century, they became [music] almost unrecognizable.

[00:04:38]Between romanticism, industrialization, [music] scientific discovery, there was plenty of influence over Victorians' newfound interest in fairies. [music] Enchanted by the wonders of the natural world, escapism, something to avoid the factories and technology that transformed daily life.

[00:04:56]Enchanted forests [music] and mythical realms became a comfort.

[00:05:00]And how could artists resist? Fairies became the muse of the century, becoming the subject [music] of paintings, books, poems, plays, and even greeting cards and nursery decor.

[00:05:12]The sensation grew to become a recognized [music] artistic genre in Britain.

[00:05:16]Drawing inspiration from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, Edmund Spenser's [music] Faerie Queene, and other literary works, the richly detailed scenes depicting fairy courts, women gatherings, and magical landscapes [music] seized their imagination.

[00:05:30]And it was those artists who would create some of the most memorable fairy imagery to date.

[00:05:35]>> [music] >> Canvases bridging a path between the mundane and the mystical.

[00:05:39]Pocket-sized figures perched on colossal mushrooms, bioluminescent flora bursting from mossy banks, [music] and dizzying sprites twirling endlessly beneath the surface.

[00:05:49]>> [music] >> Paintings that established a visual language that still shapes the world to this day. Now, [music] when imagining a fairy, most people envision something closer to the Victorian painting rather than the medieval or ancient beings.

[00:06:02]>> [music] >> And flower fairies were front and center of this craze with one of the most famous expressions coming from illustrator and author Cicely Mary [music] Barker in the early 1920s.

[00:06:12]Pairing fairies with specific flowers and plants, blending botanical accuracy [music] with whimsical lore. Tiered gowns fashioned from overlapping petals, thorny green tunic [music] and a crimson berry cap, as well as a shredded bright yellow coat with a white seed parachute.

[00:06:28]These books alone helped define [music] the fairy as we know it. These delicate illustrations inspired generations of readers, artists, [music] and storytellers. Breaking free from the paintings, the illustrations, the greeting cards, fairy tales, legend follows us to the silver screen. [music] More than a century later, that same vision continued to shape fantasy. Like with the 1994 movie, Thumbelina. [music] >> You really going to marry the fairy prince?

[00:06:53]>> Yes.

[00:06:54]>> Well, then follow your heart. It will lead you home.

[00:07:01]>> [music] >> From the enchanting pages of Hans Christian Andersen's storybook classic and the imagination of Don Bluth, director of An American Tail, comes a magical ride in a world brought to life by the music of Barry Manilow.

[00:07:20]>> Thumbelina.

[00:07:23]>> [music] >> I love great romances.

[00:07:28]>> Thumbelina, nothing is impossible if you follow your heart.

[00:07:36]>> A lovely story.

[00:07:38]>> Tiny winged beings adorned in petal-like gowns, dwelling in mystical gardens, [music] flowers are transformed into homes, and nature itself is enchanted. [music] Here, there's no trace of the dangerous Celtic legends.

[00:07:52]Instead, it's a world that feels unmistakably Victorian, repeating the themes, images, and hopes of the time.

[00:07:58][music] The unpredictable inhabitants of the other world become gentle guardians of flowers. Mystery envelops the audience as the beauty unfolds, and fear [music] gives way to wonder.

[00:08:09]But even deeper than the imagery, Thumbelina echoes a Victorian longing for another world. [music] Throughout the story, Thumbelina is alone, too small for the human world, too different [music] to truly belong.

[00:08:22]Until she discovers a hidden kingdom >> [music] >> filled with beings like herself.

[00:08:27]Just sprinkle a little magic.

[00:08:30]>> Oh.

[00:08:31]Oh, you're one of them.

[00:08:33]>> Uh I beg your pardon?

[00:08:36]>> I thought I was the only one my size in the whole world.

[00:08:40]>> Huh?

[00:08:43]>> Hero, no. No, no, no, no. He's a friend.

[00:08:47]Look. Uh hello. Uh my name is Thumbelina. How do you do, sir? Uh thank you. Thank you for coming to visit.

[00:08:56]>> Uh oh, oh, I no trouble at all.

[00:09:00]The pleasure is mine.

[00:09:05]>> A place where [music] the very qualities that made her an outsider become the reason she belongs.

[00:09:11]It's a fantasy that would have felt familiar to Victorian audiences.

[00:09:14]>> [music] >> An age transformed by factories, crowded cities, and rapid industrial change.

[00:09:19]Fairy worlds offered a reprieve, [music] a quieter world, a gentler one.

[00:09:25]A place where nature still reigned supreme, somewhere where you belonged.

[00:09:31]By the story's end, Thumbelina [music] is reunited with Cornelius through their song, "Let Me Be Your Wings." As the final notes linger. Delicate golden wings unfurl from her back, shimmering [music] and translucent.

[00:09:43]>> Let's be practical.

[00:09:44]This isn't the veil of the fairies, and Cornelius is never [music] coming back.

[00:09:50]>> And I'll never let you fall.

[00:09:54]>> You, it's you.

[00:09:56]Cornelius, you're alive.

[00:10:01]>> Thumbelina, will you marry me?

[00:10:04]>> I will.

[00:10:07]>> [music] [music] >> Wait.

[00:10:17]I have wings.

[00:10:19]My very own wings.

[00:10:22]>> Thumbelina finds more than love. She finds a home, a new family, and a community [music] that finally understands her.

[00:10:29]The song itself becomes an anthem of transformation, where loneliness [music] gives way to belonging. Resigned inevitability gives way to limitless possibility.

[00:10:39]In many [music] ways, it's the very dream that captivated Victorians, that somewhere, [music] beyond the sweeping meadows and forests, lies a hidden realm, welcoming those searching [music] for more.

[00:10:59]>> Come, Mother.

[00:11:55]>> Then two young girls took to the woods, as kids do, [music] heading to a stream. A warm draft ripples across the clover. As they step [music] through mossy banks littered with ferns, tangled roots, and clusters of wild knee daisies and sweet [music] peas. And they returned with a story, also as kids do.

[00:12:16]They saw [music] fairies among the dark damp earth by the babbling brook.

[00:12:21]But the adults [music] brushed them off.

[00:12:23]So, they returned, camera in hand, determined [music] to prove the naysayers wrong.

[00:12:29]This is the story of cousins, 9-year-old Frances Griffiths and 16-year-old Elsie Wright, Cottingley, England. Girls who changed history forever in July [music] of 1917. In their pursuit of the truth, they produced evidence, photographs, images that [music] showed tiny winged fairies dancing around them.

[00:12:48]At first, the photographs remained a local curiosity. Then they attracted [music] the attention of spiritualists and researchers.

[00:12:54]Eventually, they reached one of the most famous authors in the world, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of [music] Sherlock Holmes.

[00:13:02]And to many, Conan Doyle seemed like the last person who would believe in fairy photographs. After all, he created [music] fiction's most famous skeptic.

[00:13:10]Yet, he became convinced that the photographs were genuine.

[00:13:13]And to understand why, we have to understand the era.

[00:13:17]The First World War devastated families across [music] Europe. Millions died.

[00:13:22]The 1918 influenza pandemic followed.

[00:13:25]Many desperately wanted evidence of a spiritual world [music] that existed beyond death.

[00:13:29]So, Doyle would later become involved in spiritualism, believing the fairy photographs were evidence of a hidden realm.

[00:13:36]>> [music] >> Further investing by consulting photogenic experts in a 1920, publishing the images in the Strand Magazine.

[00:13:42][music] As expected, the reaction was explosive.

[00:13:47]Some believed immediately, >> [music] >> others were skeptical.

[00:13:51]But, fairy fever spread. For a brief moment, newspapers, [music] magazines, and dinner tables across Britain debated the same question.

[00:13:59]Could fairies be real?

[00:14:02]Decades later, [music] the mystery persisted. Then, in the early 1980s, the cousins [music] finally admitted the truth.

[00:14:09]The photographs were staged.

[00:14:12]The fairies were paper [music] cutouts, copied from illustrations, and supported by hatpins.

[00:14:18]But, the story doesn't end there.

[00:14:20]Frances Griffiths maintained throughout her life that although most of the photographs were fake, [music] she genuinely believed she had seen fairies as a child.

[00:14:30]The fairy [music] craze never truly disappeared. Instead, it evolved.

[00:14:34]Authors continued to reinvent the lore.

[00:14:36]Children's literature embraced flower [music] fairies and magical woodland creatures, drawing inspiration from old legends and Victorian [music] imagery.

[00:14:44]Cottingley story went on to inspire books and movies, including the 1997 film, Fairy Tale: [music] A True Story, which dramatized the famous photographs and their impact on the world.

[00:14:55]>> Come out from your fairy bower. Come upon this golden hour.

[00:15:00]>> From a motion picture event.

[00:15:02]>> I'm going. I'm going.

[00:15:03]Is it a fairy?

[00:15:05]>> The whole family [music] can believe in.

[00:15:07]>> The truth now.

[00:15:08]>> Leave her alone. The fairies are going to come out and kick your butt.

[00:15:11]>> Surely.

[00:15:13]>> Yes.

[00:15:16]>> Fairy Tale: A True Story. This year, the holidays are more magical than ever.

[00:15:22]>> And even today, many fantasy creatures retain their delicate [music] wings, form of teeth, ethereal beauty popularized during the Victorian period.

[00:15:31]And maybe we shouldn't ask whether fairies [music] exist, but why do people continue to embrace them?

[00:15:38]Unlike dragons [music] or monsters, fairies often represent wonder, beauty, possibility, the idea that magic hides in ordinary [music] places, a garden, a forest, or stream behind a house. [music] Victorian fairy paintings open a door to another world, emerging from [music] creativity rather than ancient lore, lighting the way for generations of fairy tales and fantasy. [music] The stories alone were never about sprites or fairies.

[00:16:07]They were about hope, sprinkling some magic, some [music] enchantment, in a world that desperately needed some.

[00:16:14]The tiny wings, flower crowns, secret [music] gardens, and hidden kingdoms among the blossoms.

[00:16:21]And while the photographs were fake, the paintings imagined, >> [music] >> the fascination remains very real.

[00:16:28]More than a century later, people still visit Cottingley, still collect [music] flower fairy books, and still search the wild green for something magical.

[00:16:38]Not necessarily because they expect to find fairies, but because they hope they might.

[00:16:42][music] And that's the source of their magic, not proving that this other world exists, but the reminder to look at our own with a little wonder.

[00:16:53]Thanks for tuning in on another episode of [music] Kenneth the Cryptic. If you enjoy all things strange, spooky, and unexplained, please follow for more.

[00:17:03]>> [music] [music]