Tinkerbelle versus the Celts: Fairy Lore as Oral History with Michael J. Simonton

Celtic fairy lore is not just entertaining stories for children, Disney-esque ‘Tinkerbell’ type ‘fakelore’ of the nineteenth and twentieth century romanticists, nor dismissible as rural superstition. Stories of the dangerous, sinister Sidh/Fey/Gentry/Good People of peasant folk tradition actually may be the oral history of a series of 2,500 to 3,000 year-old clashes between Iron Age cattle herding people and Bronze Age cultivators that resulted in continuous guerilla warfare.  Michael J Simonton, director of Celtic Studies at Northern Kentucky University, will examine some key elements of Celtic myth and legend, fairy lore, history, cultural analogies and archeology to conclude that some legends would be better considered as oral history.  Simonton earned his Ph.D. in social anthropology at the National University of Ireland-Galway with a longitudinal study of aging within the context of sociocultural transformation.  He is the author of several books and papers that include Celtic subjects.