(…Or a Faery’s Guide to Flying)

In folklore faeries were never winged. These came later, partly as part of Victorian re-imaginings of how Faeries should look.
According to the 17th century folklorist John Aubrey, when the Fae wished to magically transport themselves from one place to another they would cry ‘Horse and Hattock’. They could also travel on cabbage stalks, rather like the popular portrayal of witches on broomsticks.
Katherine Briggs writes of a boy who finds himself lost in the woods. A bear leads him to a little cottage where the two little women who live there invite him in for supper. During the night he is awakened by the clock striking midnight. He witnesses his hosts put on white caps which were hanging on the bed. One says ‘Here’s off’ and the other ‘Here’s after’ at which the both disappear! The boy, not wanting to be left alone takes up another of the white caps and repeats ‘Here’s after!’ He finds himself transported to the fairy ring outside the hut where the women are dancing. So begins an adventure where the women take him to a house using the same formula of magic words. The night ends with the boy in the cellar of the house (having come down the chimney), where he drinks a bottle of wine and falls fast asleep. The servants find him, alone, the next morning, and being unable to explain how he got there he is condemned to hang. The day arrives and just as it looks like all is lost, one of the women rushes to the scaffold and puts a white cap on his head, saying ‘Here’s off!’ The boy quickly cries ‘Here’s after!’ and zips off to the hut in the woods. Here, the fairy woman explains that he displeased them by taking the magic cap, and not to take liberties with the fairies property in the future. This he promises and is allowed to go home. Again, here is an alternative method of flying to the usual wings.