Folktales say it is dangerous to enter a ring of dancing fairies as one can be caught forever in the fairy world. An old Welsh tale recounts the following: "The shepherd saw the fairies, in appearance like tiny soldiers, dancing in a ring. He set out for the scene of revelry, and soon drew near the ring where, in a gay company of males and females, they were footing it to the music of the harp. Never had he seen such handsome people, nor any so enchantingly cheerful. They beckoned him with laughing faces to join them as they leaned backward almost falling, whirling round and round with joined hands. Those who were dancing never swerved from the perfect circle; but some were clambering over the old cromlech, and others chasing each other with surprising swiftness and the greatest glee. Still others rode about on small white horses of the most beautiful form. All this was in silence, for the shepherd could not hear the harps, though he saw them. But now he drew nearer to the circle, and finally ventured to put his foot in the magic ring. The instant he did this, his ears were charmed with strains of the most melodious music he had ever heard...".
by E.R Hughes
Victorian fairy painting mainly has its background in literature: William Shakespeare (eg Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest), John Milton, Hans Christian Andersen, the brothers Grimm as well as traditional folklore have provided the basis for motifs, decoration and scenes. It can not really be called a "movement" of art, but was a distinct streak during the Victorian period. Victorian fairy paintings were, however, special in the way that they did combine phantastic motifs with a naturalistic and realistic style of painting, which, according to Christopher Wood in his book "Victorian Fairy Painting", p. 11, gave them a "strange and, at times, disturbing intensity". After 1850 there was more independency of the literary inspiration to be found in fairy paintings, but it is important to take into account fairy literature in order to understand the context of Victorian fairy painting.
