Folklore: Tradition stories and explanations passed down in a community or country; stories and gossip that become traditional within a group of people; the study of traditional stories, music, and customs.
The origins of folklore tales are most likely as old as human language. Story telling was a part of life throughout human history. Folktales cover everything from a person's genealogy to lessons learned. Until the 1800s most people could not read or write, and the numbers are not really impressive after the 1800s either. Oral tradition was the only way stories were told and remembered by those who were not, or chose not to be, associated with the written word.
This doesn't make oral or written ways wrong, just different. If there is one thing people use everyday to communicate, now you would find a computer that has replaced the local story teller, sitting in at least one room of every home. This paper will NOT discuss, in any length, a scientific approach to the discovery, proof, or data of any elemental. Instead, a modern attempt to share information that has been gathered about the elementals as a personal experience or a story told to them by others will be the focus. This brings the paper as close to an oral tradition as modern times will allow.
The human race will always have traditions, and we have added a sort of variation to the oral tradition. Word of mouth is of course how folk stories are told, unless you live in the modern world. Here, we have technology, we have books, most can read (not as many as should), we can communicate with people we may never meet, much less know. This way of communication becomes the variation to the tradition of the oral ways the old or older world experienced.
The subject of this paper, as mentioned but not in detail, will be the folklore stories about elementals. Elementals are faeries that have been assigned to the four most important supports of human life: water, earth, air and fire. Each section will attempt to give a brief but detailed explanation of each elemental, followed by the purpose of the elemental and finally with a short account of a type of elemental, and what they do and look like according to folklore. There will be only one example given for each elemental so the focus will stay on the paper's purpose of showing I do not have to live in Ireland or Scotland or England to learn about elementals. The variation is in the oral tradition not the story itself.
All of the information and stories about the elementals is found from books and websites but all informants claim to have had actual meetings with elementals or to be recording events experienced by others. None of the sources are based in science. All accounts are stories told and retold by people claiming an experience with an elemental.
Water: Undies
Undies are a sort of umbrella-like family name for any water spirit associated with any form of water. Spirits of the water can be mermaids, mermen, nymphs, or Oceanids. Undies can be found in almost any source of water. It is also said they can live in coral caves beneath the ocean and iin water rainbows. These rainbows are usually associated with waterfalls when the sunlight bounces off the mist of the falling water, creating a rainbow of any size. Water elementals can also be found in marshlands, lakes, rivers, streams, puddles, and even underneath lily pads. Folklore states that undies can rarely be seen by humans.
Their purpose is to direct the flow and course of the waters on the planet. They are concerned with how the water flow relates to human souls and emotional responses. One type in particular is called an Asari. The Asari are usually female, and live in darker parts of the body of water. If they are seen, it's only in full moonlight. Contact between them and sunlight can prove to be fatal to the Asari. She wears a long robe of seaweed and, according to personal accounts, she is more beautiful than anyone could imagine. If you are able to see one, she would most likely be in human form, and she can be friendly and approachable. The Asari story comes from the lake districts of Wales, the highlands of Scotland, and in the English areas of Cheshire and Shropshire. Her story stretches across three countries.
The only way for someone from another country to learn of their existence is to read about it. Either from books or websites. The story of the Asari only varies from layout to layout. One story may say she is vulnerable and shy, and another story would state she is elusive and quiet. The variation, then, for the story of the Asari would then lie on the shoulders of the written word. Oral tradition still exists and is still used here, but how the information is shared is varied. If two people stood face to face, the story would be told to them through voice. When the said two people live on opposite sides of the world, the information is transmitted through a form of written word.
