THE GENETICS OF FAIRIES?

Victorian fairy painting

Earlier today, I was reading ‘The Problem of Pygmy Fairies’ on Beachcombing’s Bizzare [sic] History Blog (at http://beachcombing.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/the-problem-of-pygmy-fairies/), which provides an interesting consideration of the largely-discounted Victorian belief that fairies may have been a race of primitive human pygmies. At the end of that post, Beachcombing appended the following email, received from one Firth Cultist:

“9 March 2011: This email came in from Firth Cultist and opens up a whole series of other fairy questions – Beachcombing was reminded of the stories concerning fairy changelings (another post another day). ‘I would like to know if you have ever seen the Wikipedia description of a rare syndrome called Williams syndrome here in the U.S. and Williams Beurens syndrome in the U.K. The April 2011 issue of National Geographic contains an excellent article with pretty photos and graphs on a Siberian project to domesticate foxes and study the genetic changes brought on by domestication. The rare condition Williams Beurens Syndrome was listed as of interest to scientists studying domestication because the people born with it are especially gregarious. The syndrome is described as a combination of about 26 missing genes. Further reading after quick Internet searches revealed that people with this syndrome are exceptionally kind, highly verbally skilled and they have a tendency to be famously musical and possess perfect pitch. The syndrome is characterized by a lack of elastin in the body which gives a certain look to the features. The Wikipedia entry suggests that these people were thought of as magical because they were so kind and trusting , friendly and musical. They might have been one source of fairy legends. Wikipedia is not such a great source but I just wanted to mention this connection along with the pygmy theory. God bless those who suffer from this syndrome and all those parents and loved ones who care for them. Their abilities run the gamut from needing life-long assistance to living independently and holding PHD level degrees and jobs.’ Thanks a million Firth Cultist!”

As soon as I’d read this, it reminded me about a short account that I’d written on this very same subject more than a decade ago, for inclusion in my book Mysteries of Planet Earth (1999), but which was dropped from the final manuscript for reasons of space. Until now, I’d totally forgotten about it, but when I scanned through the original unedited manuscript of that book, which I've retained on file, there was the item of text in question, which I’d written in 1998 or early 1999. So here, finally making its public debut 12 years later, is my own account on the intriguing suggestion that the Little People may indeed be linked to Williams syndrome:

“The origin and identity of fairies, or the belief in fairies, is a subject that has taxed countless generations of scholars and folklorists. Elemental nature spirits, externally-projected human thought-forms, fallen angels, the souls of dead unbaptised children or of those deceased persons too good to be condemned to Hell but not good enough to be permitted entry into Heaven, dimly-recalled memories of a primitive tribe of under-sized humans supplanted long ago by our taller burlier ancestors, even interdimensional entities that in reality are one and the same as the Grey aliens and other supposed extraterrestrials - these are just some of the many explanations postulated for these diminutive beings down through the ages.

“During the late 1990s, however, a remarkable new theory of fairies was aired, which proposed that they were real and were human, but exhibited a little-known genetic condition - one that engenders elfin features characterising typical fairy morphology.

“First recognised medically in 1961, Williams syndrome is a rare genetic disorder present at birth, affecting males and females equally, occurring in all ethnic groups, and recorded from all parts of the world. It is estimated to occur in a ratio of 1:20,000 births.

“Believed to arise as a result of an unexplained deletion of the elastin gene on one of the two chromosomes making up chromosome pair #7 in a person's genetic complement, Williams syndrome can cause a number of internal developmental abnormalities, but also yields some very distinctive facial characteristics. In children, these include large eyes (whose irises sometimes possess a conspicuous white lacy pattern known as a starburst), small upturned nose, oval ears, wide mouth, full cheeks, and small chin.

“Behaviourally, children exhibiting this medical condition are noticeably friendly and gentle, but unafraid of strangers and adults, and display a unique strength in their expressive language skills. They are also often unusually gifted in - and appreciative of - music and dance, and exhibit an extremely acute sense of hearing. Left-handedness is another widely-reported trait.

“After studying over 200 anthologies and stories of fairies, Professor Howard Lenhoff from California University was struck by similarities between traits attributed to the Little People and those noted above for persons (especially children) exhibiting Williams syndrome. So much so that media accounts (e.g. The Times, 1 December 1997) revealed that he considered it possible that tales of fairies were originally inspired by Williams syndrome youngsters - long before this was recognised and diagnosed as an actual medical condition.”