Books About Faeries Derived From Folklore

[Miss Mara]

I’m looking for books about faeries/fairies that are based off of the European folklore that originally conceived of these creatures. For example, books about faeries with ties to Scottish folklore, Celtic folklore, Germanic folklore, etc.

[MJ]

Still your normal prn books, just having the base lore coming from the celts etc, rather than the author just 'grabbing a fairy' and sticking it in the story? Not sure if I'm making sense... I guess Sookie Stackhouse could be 'grab a fairy', but Shadow Sight by EJ Stevens has all the supernatural referencing from the old lore.

[Miss Mara]

Yeah, basically I’m looking for stories about faeries that aren’t just arbitrarily thrown in, and actually have some foundation in folklore.

[Marie]

Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville series. Very detailed story revolving around celtic folklore about Malt-y-Nos, Arawn, the Wild Hunt, and other stuff.

[Aerulan]

I believe Seanan McGuire's series that starts with Rosemary and Rue should fit. It's been years since I read them but she's pretty good about incorporating actual folklore in her stuff.

War for the Oaks by Emma Bull is pretty much one of the first urban fantasy books (so some of the elements are a bit dated) and she definitely used folklore roots for it so you might like it.

[Rosa]

The Moorchild has a very traditional, Celtic feeling.

[Kathy]

The Feyland series by Anthea Sharp has that feel. https://www.goodreads.com/series/8792...

It's set between a near-future earth and 'Feyland', a virtual reality game world that accidentally opened a real portal to Feyland.

I stumbled on this series in a Kindle "First books for free" offer - they give you a composite of 12 different first-of-a-series books, and while a comfortably easy read, it still had a real hook in it, through the dark, whimsical, fey world created.

[Annie]

Most of the books by Juliet Marillier

[Rosa]

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, I believe.

[Aerulan]

The Wild Reel by Paul Brandon has traditional Seelie and Unseelie courts transplanted to Australia.

Charles de Lint has some books that are truer to Celtic myths than some of his others but you might find them worth exploring, even the ones where he changes things up it's often in the same sort of vein. I'd suggest looking at the ones that aren't part of his Newford series first. Maybe take a look at Jack the Giant Killer in particular.

The Flight of Michael McBride has both Seelie court fae and Native American myths.

[Keith]

Cecilia Dart-Thornton has written several fantasy books that draw on real folk/fairy tales.

The Lyonesse trilogy by Jack Vance deals with fairies quite a lot (e.g. there's a character who gets swapped for a fairy changeling).

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Some of the Dresden books make use of "traditional" views of the fae. A Dark/Winter Court and a Light/Summer court, various fae that are part of the lore of the Celts and Germanic peoples. Jim Butcher is the author. Warning about book 1--it's a tad boring and long winded, but to be fair, it WAS his first sell and he's setting up his world. The books get better the longer you read them. The fae aren't in ALL of the books, but they are in some. And his vampires are interesting--no glitter, and no Angel (Maybe a few Spike's conversion by pre-Buffy for the "nicest" ones."

The duo who writes as Ilona Andrews also have some interesting fairytale interactions. They don't stick to the European kind either, throwing in a few from the Middle East, and even characters from Biblical--and pre-Biblical--time periods. But the series is interesting, and almost finished. I believe that there is only one book left in it.

Mercedes Lackey has a series of stories that are basically re-tellings of traditional fairytales. The Fairy Godmother is the first book in the series.

And Elizabeth Ann Scarborough has a couple of books that are interesting retellings of some of the old fairytales. The Godmother: Godmother: Book One then The Godmother's Apprentice and the last one (at least that I read) The Godmother's Web