Houles fairy

Houles fairy

Illustration of the tale La fée des Houles, collected by Paul Sébillot, published in 1883 in Contes de terre et de mer.
Grouping	Popular folklore
Sub grouping	Fairy
Similar entities	Morgen
Country	France
Region	Upper Brittany, Cotentin, Channel Islands
Habitat	Seaside caves

Houles fairies are fairies specific to the Channel coast, stretching from Cancale to Tréveneuc in Upper Brittany, to the Channel Islands, and known from a few fragments of stories in the Cotentin region. They live in coastal caves and caverns known as houles. Reputed to be magnificent, immortal and very powerful, they are sensitive to salt. Rather benevolent, the swell fairies described in local stories live in communities, do their own laundry, bake their own bread or tend their own flocks, marry male fairies and are served by warrior goblins called Fions. They come to the aid of humans in many ways, providing food and enchanted objects, but get angry if anyone disrespects them or acquires the power to see their disguises without their consent.

Paul Sébillot's collections, in French and Gallo, have yielded some fifty tales and fragments of legends evoking these creatures. The houles fairies, considered "semi-divinities", were probably worshipped locally by the Upper Bretons. Belief in them waned considerably in the 19th century, under the religious influence of Christianity and teachers. Collected stories themselves evoke the disappearance of these fairies, often as a consequence of the loss of their immortality and powers.