Fairies of New England: The Little People of the Hills and Forests

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  • Conversation with Paranormal 360

    I recently discussed the existence of the fairy realm in North America with Dave Schrader of the radio show Paranormal 360. You can catch our conversation below in two parts. Topics include:

  • Ghostly love in the folk ballad tradition

    In the modern day, we tend to think of ghosts as autonomous entities or “traces,” existing independently of those who observe them. This idea is especially common in the paranormal community, where people tend to investigate ghosts as if they were verifiable objects of study. The British folk ballad tradition teaches something quite different. Rather…

  • My travels in search of Appalachian fairies

    In spring of 2025, I set out on a long journey through Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky, West Virginia, and eastern Ohio in search of stories about fairies in the Northern Appalachian Mountains. My findings will be revealed in the book Fairies of Northern Appalachia: A History of the Little People of the Mountains, which releases on…

  • Conversation with the Paranormal Historians Podcast

    This week, I had the pleasure of joining Anthony Simonelli, Jennie Colluci, and Kimm Guyer on the Seekers Chronicles: Paranormal Historians podcast. Check out our conversation above! Topics covered included:

  • My closest thing to a “fairy encounter”

    At book talks and signings, I’ve been quite open with people about the fact that I’ve never seen a fairy and that I’m agnostic as to their existence. In my books, I treat fairy folklore as a set of stories, practices, ideas, and beliefs propagated through oral and written culture. This helps me keep my…

  • Washington Irving’s “imps and devils” (kaboutermannekin)

    In my book New York Fairies, I’ve tried to recreate the folkloric atmosphere of the Hudson Valley, which Washington Irving must have drawn on when writing stories like “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Storm-Ship” in the early nineteenth century. The theory is that Irving’s depiction of the Heer of Dunderberg (a goblin king) and his…

  • Fairy as a “third power”: Natural magic or serpent-knowledge?

    For many centuries, people have been aware of a “third power” that depends neither on the power of virtue nor the power of evil. In the ballad “Thomas the Rhymer,” the Queen of Elfland shows Thomas of Erceldoune three paths, corresponding to three spiritual powers: the path of virtue (filled with “thorns and briars”); the…

  • The Little Old Men of the Berkshires

    Some years ago I read about the legend of the “old men of the mountains” who supposedly inhabit the Berkshires in northwestern Connecticut (also called the Litchfield Hills). These little men have apparently been seen since Colonial times and are described as wearing flowing gray robes. Whenever someone lays eyes on them, they immediately disappear.…

  • The “green” fairies of Appalachia

    In my reading of Appalachian fairy tales and stories, I’ve come across a number of fairies or fairy-like beings that are closely associated with the natural world. I would even go so far as to categorize these fairies as “green fairies,” for they all seem to share a number of green traits. These fairies appear…

  • A timeline of fairy-related “elf-shot” in Appalachia

    I put together the following timeline—which shows the history of belief in “elf-shot” in Appalachia—using ChatGPT. For the record, I had to feed all of this into ChatGPT and correct it a lot, because the program invents a lot of folklore (reading between the lines and speculating). It also invents references in books that aren’t…