The Gaelic accounts do not, of course, refer to the "Fairies" under that name. It is therefore unnecessary to add anything here to the many attempted solutions of the etymology of "Fairy." But the Gaelic records speak of these people as the Fir Sithe, or Daoine Sithe—the Sithe-folk. As already pointed out, this word is pronounced as if spelt Shee or Sheeyĕ]. It is also written Sidhe, and this brings us to the older spelling before the dental had been aspirated out of existence. The older form of the word is Side, presumably pronounced as Sheedĕ. What are the conclusions arrived at with regard to these Fir Sidhe?
"We know now," says a recent writer, already quoted, "that the Sidhe were early peoples and their gods, incorporated into the following races.... We find under the Arctic Circle, and among the Finns and other 'Altaic' or Turanian tribes of Russia, the same belief in 'Tshuds' or vanished supernatural inhabitants of the land, pointing to the same mixture of ideas we find in Ireland concerning dispossessed peoples of a different tongue but high civilisation, whose record remains only in legend. The 'Shee' of Ireland is the same word we find in Asia, but softened down in pronunciation. Among the early Russians and Irish we can safely infer the Turanian underfolk with its myths and manners of life, its subterranean dwellings and repute as magicians; in both we perceive remarkably clever members of the Finno-Ugrian women-folk gaining a power over chiefs of the conquering hordes, and going down into legend as supernatural Sidhes or Tshuds."[142] According to this writer, then, the "Fairies," whose treasures were seized by the Danes of Dublin in the ninth century, belonged to the Turanian or Finno-Ugrian race of the Tshuds. And the traditions current in Ireland and Scotland regarding the Fir Sidhe, are counterparts of those current in the north of Europe with regard to the Tshuds. It does not certainly tend to the simplification of a very complex question to discover that the North Europeans, who remember so much about those Tshuds, are the very people who, of all modern Europeans, seem to have most resemblance to the Fir Sidhe. In reviewing a recent collection of Lapp folk-tales, Mr. Ralston states that "the traditions relating to the constant struggle maintained between the Lapp aborigines and their foreign enemies" forms an important portion of the collection. "The first nine stories all refer to the foes known as Tsjuderne, the Tsjuder—the Chudic Finns of the Baltic and other coasts. When these dreaded enemies appeared, the Lapps would take refuge in their underground retreats."[143] Thus, in accepting Tshud as identical with Side or Sidhe, we have to recognize that the people so named were the bitter foes of the very race that most resembles them—the "underground" folk of Lapland. Perhaps the explanation of this apparent contradiction is, that the fact of antagonism existing between two nations is no proof of any great racial difference between them.
Whether the word "Tshud" is, or is not, a variant of Sidhe, there seems good reason for believing that such a variant ought to be recognized in the seid of the Sagas. We are told by Thorpe that witchcraft was seidhr, which word some derive from siodha (modern seethe), to boil. "Boiling 'seid,' or the witches' broth, was the chief art in witchcraft," says Mr. Du Chaillu; who adds that "the witchcraft songs which were used for the seid" were called Vard-lokur,—"weird or fate songs." The "seid" platform and the rites performed on and around it are described at the same place (Viking Age, ii., 394-398:—"Seid was to be performed. A Seid-hjall, or platform consisting of a flat stone, was laid upon three or four posts, and women were to be found who knew how to recite or sing the so-called Vardlokur. When all this was ready, and the Volva [sibyl] on the platform, the women formed in a circle round it, and the effective song was chanted while the seeress, with the strangest gesticulations, made her conjurations and received her revelations." "Once at a feast, according to ancient custom, Ingjald prepared incantation (seid), that men might know their fates. There was a Finn woman skilled in witchcraft.... The Finn woman was placed high, and splendid preparations made for her; each of the men went from his seat to inquire of her about their fates."
Similar accounts are given by Thorpe, who states that it, seid, "was regarded as unseemly for men, and was usually practised by women only: we nevertheless meet with seid-men." And again:—"On account of its wickedness, it was held unworthy of a man to practise seid, and the seid-man was prosecuted and burned as an atrocious trollman.[144] The seid-women received money to make men hard, so that iron could not wound them." "The most remarkable class of seid-women were the so-called Valas, or Völvas. We find them present at the birth of children, when they seem to represent the Norns." "That the Norns, who appeared at the birth of children, were of the race of the dwarfs," is elsewhere suggested by Mr. Thorpe.[145]
Scott, also (The Pirate, Note R), quotes from Kaspar Bartholin a long account of one of those "Valas," as given in the Saga of Eric Rauda. From which it is seen that, according to the custom described by Thorpe and Du Chaillu, she stood "on a sort of elevated stage," when delivering her prophecy.[146] Scott adds that Bartholin "mentions similar instances" to that of "the little Vala" (as this one was called), "particularly of one Heida, celebrated for her predictions," who attended festivals for the purpose of telling fortunes, accompanied by "thirty male and fifteen female attendants."
In all these accounts we see the fairies of tradition, notably the "fairy godmother" who came to the birth or christening of children. The man who practised seid rendered himself liable to be prosecuted and burned as a trow, "an atrocious trollman;" or, in the Gaelic, a fear-side. If the words "seid" and "side" are not practically one, it is at least evident that they relate to the very same people. And the bean-side (banshee) of Gaelic tradition is simply the seid-woman, remembered chiefly in her less pleasing aspect, as the foreboder of death or misfortune.
Thus, whether side ought to be held as primarily denoting the incantations, or the enchanters themselves, it is this worship that is indicated in the metrical life of St. Patrick, which says of him (Skene's "Celt. Scot.," II. 108):—
"He preached threescore years
The Cross of Christ to the Tuatha [people] of Feni.
On the Tuatha of Erin there was darkness.
The Tuatha adored the Side."
Nor is there anything inconsistent with these deductions in the appearance of a Finn woman as a celebrated seid-woman. For, in Shetland, the Finns are even yet "reckoned among the Trows."[147]
To return, however, to the Sidhe people of the British Islands. The Blackwater valley of Leinster, whose "fairy" strongholds and abodes were entered and plundered by the ninth-century Danes, reminds one by its name that the Blackwater valley of Munster is also famous for its fairy associations. In one of Mr. William Black's novels ("Shandon Bells") there are frequent references to a chief of the Fir Sidhe named Fierna,[148] who is remembered as the leader of the "little people" of the south-west. His chief residence appears to have been a certain Knockfierin, or Fierna's Hillock, which has perhaps been investigated by local archæologists. Several of the Limerick traditions relating to Fierna have been contributed by Mr. David Fitzgerald to the "Revue des Traditions populaires" (April 1889), and one of these tells how a mysterious stranger one night aroused a poor cripple and gave him a letter to take to Fierna. The messenger entered the fairy "hill," where he saw the chief—an old, white-bearded man. On reading the letter, Fierna declared it to be a challenge of battle on the part of the "King of the Sidhfir of the North"; a challenge which Fierna was loath to accept, because, as he explains, "my people of Munster are the weaker party."