Fairy Women from the Portuguese Book of Lineages of Count Dom Pedro

Fairy women have long been seen as embodying rulership of the land. The Melusinian tradition of marrying a fairy woman to validate rulership occurred across western Europe, but the Portuguese tales of Lady Goat-Foot and Lady Marinha from the Book of Lineages of Count Dom Pedro are particularly noteworthy. As these tales evolved over the centuries, they would demonstrate their longevity and power, cross-fertilising with grimoires, Quimbanda, and Cyprianic magic.



Rulership and politics go hand-in-hand, and the author demonstrates how noble fairy wives were seen at different times as a blessing and a curse. The fascinating history he details of the use of these tales is as curious and transgressive as their heroines, and shows how fact truly can be stranger than fiction, and that when these two blur, there is a liminal place of fairy and magic, where anything becomes possible.