#the fay

The words Fae/Fay originate from the 12th century in old French. It likely stems from the word Fata meaning "spirits of fate". It was possibly used as a term for Celtic goddesses, before evolving into a word for enchanting or something of enchanting nature. In old English, the term transformed into Fay-erie or even has been seen as "Fayereye" in The Wife of Bath's Tale.

Honest question: If doormats are generally frowned upon because they can be considered inviting to the fae, and its also generally frrowned upon to have a doormat that says something like "go away" something like that because its rude and you may offend said fae, would a doormat that says "Ask not for who the dog bars, it barks for thee." Because its implying a dog barking at you which means please leave, but is not directly being rude just because a dog is protecting its territory.

The other romance is the French Artus de Bretagne, which displays another potential of an indentification of the land of fays with the classical Graeco-Roman underworld. Instead of emphasizing its king, it foregrounds its queen, the ancient goddess Proserpine, and makes her a sovereign of fairie [...] Not surprisingly, with all this cross-referencing between the realms of fays and of the dead, a preacher's manual from the early fourteenth century, Fasciculus Morum, could condemn a current belief that elves could carry off humans to their own land, where heroes of the past dwelt. This may have been an old aspect of native belief, or a product of the equation between fairyland and the ancient underworld, or a result of the developing legend of the Isle of Apples or Avalon.