Not Just the Tudors: “Enchanted Realms: Fairies in the 16th Century”

Podcast: Not Just the Tudors (History Hit)
Host: Professor Suzannah Lipscomb
Guest: Professor Diane Purkis (Keble College, Oxford)
Release Date: January 1, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores the profound and dynamic world of fairies in the 16th century, unpacking their roles in early modern beliefs, social anxieties, and cultural narratives—far from the sanitized, whimsical Victorian versions. Host Suzannah Lipscomb and guest Diane Purkis investigate fairies as symbols deeply entwined with transitions, sexuality, death, hope, identity, gender, and the boundaries of society and the self. Drawing on Scottish witch trials, English folklore, domestic rituals, and literary influences (particularly Shakespeare), the discussion reveals a world where fairies were dangerous, powerful, and inextricably linked to daily experience and hidden fears.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Did “Fairy” Mean in the 16th Century?

• Not tiny, winged sprites: In the early modern period, fairies were usually imagined as human-sized (05:34), sometimes child-sized, but not the “gauzy, benevolent” creatures of Victorian fantasy.
• Danger and power: Fairies always carried a sense of peril and potent magic—they could heal, reveal treasure, or destroy, but always demanded a price (06:38).

Notable Quote

“They have enormous power. They have lots of things they can give you... But they do want something in return, and they are tricksy... there’s a point at which these relations stop being consensual and become something that you can’t escape from.”
—Diane Purkis (06:38)

2. Fairies as Gatekeepers: Transitions, Death, and Identity

• Threshold figures: Fairies functioned as “gatekeepers” at moments of transition—birth, sexuality, childbirth, and even death (03:25).
• Processing grief: A relative who died young could be described as a fairy, helping families talk about loss indirectly.
• New World overlays: The “discovery” that the world was larger than previously believed encouraged society-wide transitions, mirrored in shifting fairy beliefs (05:14).

3. Witch Trials and Supernatural Confusions

• Fairies v. Devils: In Scottish witch trials, interrogators (often Calvinist) interpreted women's stories about fairies as confessions of satanic pacts, fostering tragic misunderstandings (08:17).
• Ordinary voices: Witchcraft records provide rare glimpses into non-elite worldviews and deep continuities of tradition, especially where language and culture (e.g., Gaelic regions) diverged from elites’ continental witchcraft obsessions (10:19).

Notable Quote

“Historians of the Reformation will blithely say... this is what people thought hell was in the 16th century. Well, if you go to the witchcraft trials, you’ll see it’s not that simple.”
—Diane Purkis (10:19)

4. Domestic Spirits: From Fairies to Familiars

• England’s twist: English witch trials created the “familiar”—a magical animal servant. But in wider northern European tradition, such spirits were usually household fairies (12:56).
• Confusion and projection: Authorities recast innocent stories about brownies or helpful spirits into evidence of demonic pacts, sometimes leading to absurd and tragic accusations (16:44).

Notable Moment

• Discussion of witch “marks”—alleged bodily signs found by (male) searchers, often misidentifying the clitoris or hemorrhoids—which exposes misogyny embedded in witch-hunt processes (16:59).

“It’s kind of a joke. You know, men can never find it. And then the one time they do, this is what they do with it.”
—Diane Purkis (16:59)

5. Fairies, Female Power, and Unspoken Experience

• Indirect storytelling: Women often used fairy stories to obliquely discuss taboo experiences such as incest or maternal ambivalence. This indirectness was both emotional protection and creative resource (17:58).
• Troubled mothers and changelings: The changeling myth offered psychological refuge for mothers experiencing distress or resentment toward demanding infants—a way to externalize overwhelming feelings (21:02).

Notable Quote

“We have this body of story where you’re allowed to say, I loathe him because it’s not my baby anymore. Luckily, my real baby... is somewhere else.”
—Diane Purkis (22:22)

• Rituals and dangers: Fairy rituals ranged from the cathartic (leaving a changeling at a shrine for respite) to the horrific (abandonment or burning in the hope of the “real” person’s return), highlighting both release and potential for violence (22:17-27:30).

6. Hope, Social Mobility, and Fairy Luck

• Fairies as hope-givers: Encounters with fairies represented the possibility of transformation—an “early modern lottery ticket” for escape from social constraints (28:02–28:22).
• Gendered aspirations: For poor women, fairies meant companionship or simple successes (like getting butter from cream); for men, hopes of sex and riches (32:19).

Notable Quote

“What you’re really buying with the ticket is hope. You’re buying the idea that things can change, that you’re not condemned to farm this tiny piece of land...”
—Diane Purkis (28:22)

7. Shakespeare and the “Taming” of the Fairy

• Shakespeare’s influence: Plays like Midsummer Night’s Dream helped shrink and soften fairy imagery but, as Purkis argues, left traces of danger and ambiguity (34:24–38:58).
• Literary afterlife: Literature following Shakespeare often diluted fairies into safe miniatures, but echoes of menace and eroticism persisted.
• Victorian transformations: The tiny, winged, harmless fairy is a much later invention—early modern fairies were always more ambiguous.

“They are tamed, but only just. The wildness is still there. And if you’re an alert viewer, you can still detect it.”
—Diane Purkis (38:58)

8. Did People Really Believe?

• Between belief and “possibility”: Early modern people inhabited a mental universe where believing in fairies was hardly distinct from believing in ghosts or, for moderns, extraterrestrial life—not fact, not fantasy, but a possible way to explain or understand the world (39:09-40:36).
• The imaginative community: Fairy lore provided a shared vocabulary for expressing uncertainty, possibility, and the ineffable (41:18).

“It’s less about belief—maybe belief’s too strong. It’s maybe more about a sense of possibility.”
—Diane Purkis (40:36)

9. Revisiting History “From Below”

• Feminized imagination: The move to study “women’s history” and the imaginal world of ordinary people allows richer, more relatable insights than politics or bureaucracy alone (42:07).
• Continuity of emotional experience: Despite the strangeness of the past, human challenges—loss, hope, resentment, change—are perennial.

Memorable Moments & Quotes (w/ Timestamps)

• [03:25] Fairies as boundary-crossers: “The fairy represents a moment in life where you pass from one identity to another... they are almost psychopomps standing on and crossing the boundary between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living.” —Diane Purkis
• [08:17] Witch trials & cultural gap: “Each of them is kind of deaf to what the other is saying. And this happens a lot in Scottish witch trials.” —Diane Purkis
• [16:59] Witch marks & misogyny: “The kind of people who are looking for witch marks... either find the clitoris or they find hemorrhoids. And they don’t really distinguish very sharply between them.” —Diane Purkis
• [22:22] Motherhood & changelings: “You’re never supposed to say, ‘Oh my God, I loathe them,’ even though all mothers feel that way sometimes. So we have this body of story where you’re allowed to say, ‘I loathe him because it’s not my baby anymore.’” —Diane Purkis
• [28:22] Fairy gold as hope: “What you’re really buying with the ticket is hope... a value massively over and above the value that we in our society can easily assign to it.” —Diane Purkis
• [34:24] Shakespeare’s ambiguous fairies: “William Shakespeare is a big agent in taming the fairy, but I would also argue it’s not his fault... The taming [is] only just. The wildness is still there.”
• [40:36] Belief and possibility: “It’s less about belief—maybe belief’s too strong. It’s maybe more about a sense of possibility.” —Diane Purkis

Selected Timestamps for Key Sections

• [03:25] Fairies as gatekeepers and boundary figures
• [05:34] What did a “fairy” mean c. 1500?
• [08:17] Scottish witch trials: Fairies, devils, and tragic misunderstandings
• [12:56] English “familiars” as reframed household fairies
• [16:59] Witch marks and sexualized/maternal anxieties
• [17:58] Fairy stories as indirect expressions for women
• [21:02] The changeling myth: ambivalence, babies, and psychological release
• [28:22] Fairies as hope and agents of possible transformation
• [34:24] Shakespeare’s lasting impact on fairy imagery
• [39:09–41:18] Belief, skepticism, and the enduring “sense of possibility”
• [42:07] The new history: From events and bureaucracy to imaginative, everyday worlds

Final Reflections

This episode powerfully reframes “fairies” as complex, capacious vehicles for processing the pressures, hopes, and transitions of early modern life. Far from childish fantasy, fairy belief served as a language of possibility, fear, and agency—especially for women negotiating restrictive, sometimes violent social worlds. The hosts illuminate why understanding these unseen realms is essential for a deeper grasp of 16th-century minds and hearts, reminding us that the borderlands of belief and imagination may be thinner than we think.