Fairy Music and the Danger of Following

A recurring fairy-lore motif describes people hearing music or dancing from a mound, field or distant place and being drawn towards it. In some versions they join the gathering, struggle to leave or discover that time has passed differently in the human world.

The motif makes attraction part of the danger. The supernatural world need not appear frightening; beauty, music and abundance can be precisely what draws a person across an uncertain boundary.

Source trail: British and Irish fairy narrative traditions discussed by The Folklore Society and in regional folklore collections.

Related Journal record: Fair Folk in British Folklore.