Fairies fascinate young and old alike; to some they offer tantalizing glimpses of other worlds, to others a subversive counterpoint to human arrogance and weakness. Like no other author, Katharine Briggs throughout her work communicated the thrill and delight of the world of fairies, and in this book she articulated for the first time the history of that world in tradition and literature. From every period and every country, poets and storytellers have described a magical world inhabited by elfin spirits.

This remarkable book explores the history of these wondrous creatures, the most powerful and enchanting denizens of this enchanted place the Little People. Capricious and vengeful, or beautiful and generous, theyve held us in thrall for generations. And on a summers morn, as the dew dries softly on the grass, if you kneel and look under a toadstool, well...