#lady wilde

[ttexed]

the other side of Lady Wilde

"Lady Wilde is Marie Smith, who actually was from the UK, and was recording in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. They appeared locally as Lady Wilde and the Warlocks and played at Louann’s in Dallas and Panther Hall in Ft. Worth. 

The Warlocks are the same band that included future Z.Z. Top bassist Dusty Hill and his brother Rocky Hill."

[filmjunky-99]

w i l d e, 1997 🏳️‍🌈 dir. brian gilbert

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Lady Wilde - Ancient Legends Of Ireland - O'Gorman - 1971

[laurasimonsdaughter]

The idea of fae leaving their own children behind as changelings always makes me sad and recently I stumbled upon the first story where the fae mother seems to agree with me!

It’s from Lady Wilde’s Ancient Legends of Ireland (1888) and it tells of two fae stealing into a house with a hairy little fairy child in their arms. Even though the parents wake up, they are not in time to save their child from being taken. The changeling is left in its place and the poor parents weep and wail until suddenly a young woman rushes in and asks them why they are crying.

They show her the changeling and to their surprise the strange woman laughs with joy. She tells them that this is her own dear child, stolen from her because her fellow fae under the hill would rather have the beautiful human child. “But after all, I would rather have my own, ugly as he is, than any mortal child in the world.” She promises the human parents that if they let her have her baby back she will help win back their own.

The three parents strike a deal and both children end up safe and sound where they belong and the kind fae leaves the parents with this advice:

“But mind, take good care of him after, and tie a nail from a horseshoe round his neck, and then he will be safe.”

[goblinfruitbakery]

Changelings

“When a woman first takes ill in her confinement, unlock instantly every press and drawer in the house, but when the child is born, lock them all up again at once, for if care is not taken the fairies will get in and hide in the drawers and presses to be ready to steal away the mortal baby when they get the opportunity, and place some ugly, wizened changeling in the cradle beside the poor mother. Therefore every key should be turned; every lockmade fast; and if the fairies are hidden inside, let them stay there until all danger is over for the baby by the proper precautions being taken, such as a red coal set under the cradle, and a branch of mountain ash tied over it, or of the alder-tree, according to the sex of the child, for both trees have mystic virtues, probably because of the ancient superstition that the first man was created from an alder-tree, and the first woman from the mountain ash.

The fairies, however, are sometimes successful in carrying off a baby, and the mother finds in the morning a poor weakly little sprite in the cradle in place of her own splendid child. But should the mortal infant happen to grow up ugly, the fairies send it back, for they love beauty above all things; and the fairy chiefs greatly desire a handsome mortal wife, so that a handsome girl must be well guarded, or they will carry her off. The children of such unions grow up beautiful and clever, but are also wild, reckless and extravagant. They are known at once by the beauty of their eyes and hair, and they have a magic fascination that no one can resist, and also a fairy gift of music and song.”

- Irish Cures, Mystic Charms & Superstitions by Lady Wilde

[theroyalhistory]

Lady Wilde (née Jane Elgee; poet Speranza; mother of Oscar Wilde) in the Irish Fireside, September 2, 1885

[wilde-incarnate]

Oscar Wilde in a letter to Lady Wilde, his mother, from 24 June 1875

Found in: Oscar Wilde. A Life in Letters. Ed. Merlin Holland