European folklore generally insists that the fae do not like to cross running water. This would presuppose that the fae didn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t and haven’t crossed “the big pond” along with the immigrants who brought along their lore.

However, there are many documented instances of banshees following their families to America and sightings of “European” fae here on our shores. Interestingly, however, nearly all accounts of those who had “fire in the head,” or the gift of seeing and conversing with faeries “in the old land,” lost the gift upon arrival on our shores and never recovered it. Some theories are that the fae traveled under “the big pond” to avoid the taboo of crossing running water, but I’ve never read any theories explaining the loss of what most believe to be an in-born gift (usually granted to the seventh son of a seventh son or upon some other magical occurrence, such as a great act of beneficence by a parent).

Most people who study folklore and its relationship to the fae within a cultural context are in agreement that Native American folklore regarding “little folk” and nature spirits are similiar entities or come from the same plane of existence or energy source as the European “good folk”. “Faeries” are also found in Asian, African and South American folklore as well.

“Faeries,” under whatever guise or name, appear to be quite worldly and, one might say, ultimately universal.