The first chapter begins with a study of the fairy godmother archetype, tracing its origin back to folktales and rituals of the ancient world. What follows is a detailed and in-depth catalogue and evolution of fairy types during the birth of the great, legendary French romances written between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries. Among these are imaginary lovers such as Morgan Le Fay, Mélusine and the Lady of the Lake. Less well-known are male fairy figures, of which the author has compiled an impressive catalogue, among these the mesnie Hellequin, one of medieval folklore’s most obscure figures, leader of an army of demons, who some believe is at the origin of the Harlequin figure we know today. In addition, the book covers werewolves, wizards, dwarves, hobgoblins, elves, and the like, emphasizing the varying degrees to which medieval folk of all classes believed in them.

Most interestingly, the author probes the different ideological prisms that have transmitted and sometimes altered these tales. Clerks, rationalists, ecclesiastics, and epic poets at the service of feudal lords were all invested, at one point or another, with bringing these out in new forms. All, it seems, held a stake in the popular imagination, and their revisions of these deeply embedded tales tended either to demonize or deify these various denizens of another world. Ultimately, we learn that fairies are predominantly a creation of the Middle Ages, and about how they consistently fed the imaginations of authors at the dawn of literature: «The magical powers of fairies” Harf-Lancner concludes, “find their echo in those of ficiton. For medieval storytellers, the fairy is a means of affirming the all-encompassing powers of creative invention. »