Fairy Queen
In folklore and literature, the Fairy Queen or Queen of the Fairies is a female ruler of the fairies, sometimes but not always paired with a king. Depending on the work, she may be named or unnamed; Titania and Mab are two frequently used names. Numerous characters, goddesses or folkloric spirits worldwide have been labeled as Fairy Queens.
For other uses, see Fairy Queen (disambiguation).Witchcraft and neopaganism[edit]
The goddess Diana was regularly portrayed as the ruler of the fairy kingdom in demonological literature, such as King James VI of Scotland's Daemonologie, which says that she belongs to "the fourth kind of spirits, which by the Gentiles [non-Jews] was called Diana and her wandering court, and amongst us is called Fairy (as I told you) or our good neighbours".[23]
Medieval Christian authorities condemned cult beliefs of nocturnal, female spirit leaders who might accept offerings or take practitioners on a nighttime journey. The Sicilian doñas de fuera of Italy were one example. In Scotland in the 1530s, William Hay described Scottish witches meeting with "seely wights" or "Diana queen of the fairies." Julian Goodare clarifies that "[t]here is no reason to believe that there was a Scottish cult of Diana"; rather, the name was contemporary authorities' way of classifying such beliefs.[24] Names used for this figure included Herodias, Abundia, Bensozia, Richella, Satia, and numerous others[25] like Doamna Zînelor in Romania (translated by Mircea Eliade as "Queen of the Fairies")[26] or Wanne Thekla in the Netherlands.[27]
A queen of the fairies or spirits, referred to as the "Quene of Elfame" and other spelling variants, was mentioned in several Scottish witch trials. In the 16th century, Andro Man claimed to have had children by the "Quene of Elphen." Scholar Robert Pitcairn reconstructed the word as "Elphame" or "Elf-hame."[28]
The concept of a Dianic queen of spirits influenced the neopagan cultures that developed from Charles Godfrey Leland's concept of Aradia "Queen of the Witches".[29] The Faerie faith developed from the same source as the McFarland Dianic tradition.