Ainsel: this is a label for a common theme in faery stories. A human encounters a faery being and is asked his or her name. Cannily, the reply is “my ainsel” (my own self). Soon after, whether accidentally or deliberately, the faery being is injured. It runs off to complain to a parent or friends but when asked “who hurt you?” has to answer “ainsel”—myself. As there’s no one else to blame, there’s no one to be avenged against, and the human escapes punishment.
Asrai: a water sprite of the English Midlands.
Banshee or bean-sidhe: an Irish and Scottish female faery particularly tied to certain families.
Baobhan sith: a faery hag on the Highlands.
Barguest: a boggart in dog form.
Bean-nighe: a faery woman seen washing clothes in a stream.
Biasd na srogaig: a type of unicorn from the Scottish Highlands.
Bocan: a Highland bogie or poltergeist.
Boggart: a brownie gone bad who only plays pranks and does harm.
Bogie: (also boggle, bogle, or bug) a mischievous or dangerous spirit.
Boobrie: a Scottish water horse, bull, or bird.
Brag: a calflike boggart.
Brollachan: a shape-shifting and dangerous bogle.
Brownie: a domestic faery of the east and north of England and Lowland Scotland. It lives on farms and in houses and undertakes chores.
Bugbear: a boggart or bogle now mainly used to scare children.
Buggane: a Manx boggart.
Bwca/bucca: a Welsh/Cornish faery, related to “Puck.”
Cabbyl ushtey: the Manx name for the “water horse.”
Caillagh: a Manx hag.
Cailleach: the Gaelic for a supernatural hag.
Caointeach: (pronounced koniuch) a Highland banshee; her name means “keener.”
Ceffyl y dwr: the Welsh water horse.
Crodh mara: faery cattle that come from the sea.
Crodh sith: faery cattle.
Cwn Annwn: Welsh “hell hounds.”
Cwn Wybir: Welsh “sky hounds.”
Cyhyraeth: the Welsh equivalent of the Scottish keener.
Dandy Dogs: a pack of faery hunting hounds.
Doonie: a Scottish wild faery who appears as a horse or as an old woman.
Dwarf: not a British being; a German and Scandinavian goblin.
Each uisge: Gaelic, meaning “water horse,” a creature living in pools and lochs.
Elf: the Old English/Anglo-Saxon name for the being we now tend to call a faery.
Elf-bolt/elf-shot: flint arrows fired by the elves.
Fae: meaning enchanted, magical, supernatural, or linked to faerykind. Used in this sense in this book. Can also mean “a faery.”
Faery: capitalised, the word is used in the book to mean faeryland or the otherworld; otherwise it is a noun denoting one of the inhabitants of faeryland. As an adjective, as in “faery beasts,” the word describes an enchanted or supernatural state.
Fahm: a deadly Highland bogle.
Finfolk: on Orkney, the merfolk, who live in “Finfolkaheem.”
Fenoderee/phynoderee: the Manx equivalent of the brownie.
Fuath: a dangerous Highland bogie.
Gabble Ratchets: a supernatural pack of hounds.
Gallytrot: a bogle that appears in the shape of a horse.
Glaistig: a hairy female faery of the Scottish Highlands.
Glashtyn: a Manx faery related to the Scottish glaistig.
Gnome: an invented word, meaning a small, dwarfish being.
Goblin: a type of bad faery.
Gruagach: a hairy Scottish Highland being, rather like a brownie.
Gwartheg y llyn: Welsh “lake cattle.”
Gwrach y rhybin: the Welsh banshee.
Gwragedd annwn: Welsh faery women who live under lakes—the singular is gwrag.
Gyre-carlin: the faery queen in Fife who has links to spinning.
Gywllgi: a Welsh supernatural hound.
Habetrot: a faery woman especially linked to spinning thread.
Hobgoblin: hobs and lobs are a general class of beings in England, which include the pucks and the brownies.
Hyter sprite: a type of tiny faery from East Anglia.
Kelpie: a water monster of rivers in the Scottish Highlands.
Kow: a boggart that takes horse form.
Loireag: pronounced “loryack;” she is a water sprite of the Scottish Highlands associated with spinning.
Maighdean mara: Gaelic, meaning simply “mermaid.”
Moddey dhoo: on the Isle of Man, a supernatural black dog.
Njugl: a Shetland water horse/monster.
Nuckelavee: a water monster of Orkney.
Padfoot: a boggart that takes dog form.
Puck: an Old English name for a hobgoblin.
Red cap: a malevolent goblin of the Scottish Borders.
Roane: seal folk of the Hebrides.
Sea-trow: on Orkney and Shetland, trows (faeries) who were banished from land to live in the sea.
Selkie: Scottish seal folk.
Shellycoat: a Scottish water horse with shells instead of fur.
Shock or shug: a black faery dog.
Shoopiltee: a Shetland water horse.
Sidh/sith: pronounced “shee” and respectively the Irish and Scottish Gaelic words for “faery.”
Sluagh: pronounced “slooa” and meaning the faery host that rides through the skies at night.
Tacharan: a water horse of the Scottish Highlands; very tiny.
Tangie: a sea horse of Orkney and Shetland.
Tarbh uisge: Gaelic, meaning “water bull,” an animal found in freshwater.
Tarroo ushtey: the Manx equivalent of the Scottish water bull.
Tatterfoal: a bogle in the shape of a young foal seen in the east of England.
Urisk or uruisg: a brownie-like being of the Scottish Highlands.
Will of the wisp: a sprite like a flame or light that misleads nighttime travellers.
Yr hen wrach: “the old hag” in Welsh.