Fairy Tale Spotlight: Frank Martin and the Fairies [Story Review]

I recently came across an Irish folk tale called "Frank Martin and the Fairies," written by William Carleton. It's a bit too lengthy to post in its entirety, and I won't really be spoiling any of the main plot points. I do want to talk about Frank though.

Frank Martin is a man who lived with fairies. He had the ability to see and hear them. He could touch them and talked to them. He communicated with them, and they could talk back. Despite this report, they would still do fairy things in fairy ways. They would play their own music and go about their business. Apparently they would all sleep in bed with him as well.

Frank was apparently impervious to their mischievousness because he was baptized as a child in a particular way that was adverse to the influence of fairies. His parents specifically asked for this sort of baptism. It may have been because they had had fairy problems themselves and could do nothing about it.

My main concern with the presentation of Frank Martin was that he was the type of person who would talk and talk and never shut up. If you would go into a conversation, he would dominate it and never hush for long periods on end. And the topic he liked talking about the most were of the fairies he lived with. This out-rightly came across as a mental disorder.

I am not insinuating that he was making the fairy stuff up due to this disorder. I am saying that his prolonged exposure to the fairies is what caused the disorder. I could plainly see that he had been engulfed by their influence to a point where it was likely all he thought about. He still held a job though, it seemed. He was a weaver by trade. Imagine, though, trying to work your craft while little people are running all around. Just try and imagine what that would be like.

I am convinced that the baptism worked; however, the mere exposure to these creatures would have still messed with his mind. As I read the story, I felt real sorry for him.

The thing I see in a lot of these Irish fairy tales is a lot of people trying to live their lives while dealing with the ever-present influence of fairy creatures. They accept that they are real, sure. But they can't just live their lives without having to put up with it. I wonder how many Frank Martins have existed in history. I wonder how many exist today.

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