Jeremy Harte, Fairy Encounters in Medieval England: Landscape, Folklore and the Supernatural. Exeter New Approaches to Legend, Folklore and Popular Belief. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 2024, ix, 211 pp.

This is a book that sheds important light on that what does not seem to have existed, and yet it was reported over and over again, believed in, and accepted as truth by some, and not by others. Jeremy Harte writes as a folklorist about medieval beliefs in supernatural phenomena as described by many different people from various social classes. Those accounts first circulated orally, then they were translated into Latin and written down, and those narratives were then copied many times throughout the centuries. Are we talking about factual events? This big question is raised throughout the book but never answered because there cannot be a real, rational, causal explanation. On the one hand, there are countless reports about ghosts, dwarfs, giants, fairies, miraculous healing, hence wonders and miracles. On the other, there is a myriad of local names that reflect on elves and similar creatures, here all focused on medieval English history and culture.