Fairies weren’t always cute – they used to drink human blood and kidnap children

+Print Archive
In print
After Hours

Fairies weren’t always cute – they used to drink human blood and kidnap children

The conversation

The Conversation

Peter Pan
An illustration for Barrie’s Peter Pan book by Arthur Rackham, 1906

‘Disneyfication’ of fairies has helped us forget their darker origins, writes Sam George

When most people think about fairies, they perhaps picture the sparkling Tinker Bell from Peter Pan or the other heart-warming and cute fairies and fa, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's vampire story, Illustration in Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's vampire story