Daniela Simina

I love the title of this book, which evokes memories of my aunt telling me about my grandmother. I see the fairies of her stories gathering around the jack-in-the-pulpit plant, which brings a great fondness up in me. Not a bad way to greet a book.

Daniela Simina has serious intentions for her unique inquiry. Although entertaining, this book is meant also to educate. She wants to bring clarity to our understanding of fairies in any culture, and wants us to employ greater self reflection when we come to this lore, to see it through more than our habitual lens. And for those who believe in fairies, she wants to encourage safe and meaningful relationships with them. But primarily this book is exactly what it says on the cover: an exploration of ways that the fairies and fairy lore of two far-flung European cultures resemble each other and where they diverge. The author is herself Romanian and has the great advantage of having grown up with a grandmother who was herself a Romanian medicine woman and fairy seer. She brings a perspective that is unique and valuable.

As a person who mostly gets to read only in short snatchers, I appreciate the brevity of the chapters, which focus on one topic and compare it within the two bodies of fairy lore. These chapters include“ fairies and sports,“ “fairies connection to natural features and phenomena,“ “hags“ (one of my favourites), and so on.

This short book beautifully accomplishes its task, challenging as it does so the narrow focus that commonly exists in English language popular culture of fairies from a small part of the world, and even that generally misunderstood. I look forward to Simina’s next book, which I believe will explore her upbringing with her grandmother and her natural relationship with and understanding of her native fairies.… (plus d'informations)