Fae

I love love love fairy (or faerie) legends.  Nobody seems to truly believe in them anymore.  Well, maybe except how in Ireland they supposedly diverted a road to keep from disturbing a piece of land dedicated as a Leprechaun reserve.  *cough*    But anyway, the old-time fairies, i.e. NOT Tinkerbell, seem to be going extinct in culture.  At least American culture.  They can still be found, certainly, if you know where to look.  The young adult book sections in stores and libraries still have large collections of fairy stories, new and old.  The problem is that people take huge liberties with this stuff.  Fairies become whatever people want them to be.  And even going back to old legends, this stuff is hard to pin down.  How big is a fairy?  Sometimes they're human sized, sometimes insect sized, and everything in between.  The larger fairies, with their Seelie and Unseelie courts, seem to be enjoying a resurgence in books right now.  (if you dig under the books about vampires and child wizards.)  The Tithe series, the Wicked Lovely series, etc.  I think this is a much needed return to the roots of fairy legend.  Fairies that are not necessarily good or evil, but live by their own rules and morals of right and wrong.  To hell with the Victorian age cherub fairies.  What was up with those things anyway?  And the eternally good-intentioned flower fairies and Disney fairies, which are fun and pretty, but not even remotely believable.