'Complex, dangerous, sexual beings': The erotic, so-called 'faerie smut' craze with medieval roots

The fairies in fairy romantasy – or erotic "fae" fiction – are not the cute, sparkly, wish-granting and benevolent sprites of children's bedtime stories. They are complex, dangerous, sexual beings – which is exactly what they were in centuries-old folklore, according to a new book about fairy history. From the ancient Nordic forest fairies and the 16th-Century ballad of Tam Lin to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, faerie folklore is full of deception and seduction.

Two new novels were announced in the romantasy series A Court of Thorns and Roses recently – and immediately the share price of the books' publishing house soared by an astonishing 20%. The series' author Sarah J Maas is a very big deal in publishing, with her books translated into 40 languages and global sales of more than 70 million. Her success is part of a wider surge of fairy romantasy – also jokingly referred to as "faerie smut".

The genre typically sees a female heroine facing challenging quests in an elaborate fantasy world, usually the world of the fae, an Old French word for fairies. She becomes romantically involved with a complicated, unpredictable and otherworldly figure. There is typically an erotic element – fans refer to the level of "spiciness", which can range from relatively chaste kissing scenes to explicit descriptions of sexual encounters.

Yet the steamy element of the current genre is nothing new. The fairies of fae fiction are not the sparkly, wand-waving, wish-granting benevolent beings of young children's bedtime stories and Victorian imagery. They are complex, dangerous, sexual beings –  which is exactly what the fairies of folklore were originally like.  

"The connection between fairies and sexuality goes all the way back," says Francis Young, the author of new book, Fairies: A History. "It's there in the tradition of fairy women or fairy men seducing human women or human men. Probably the most famous example of a story like that would be the story of Tam Lin." 

In this old Scottish ballad of the 1540s, a woman named Janet plucks a rose in the forest of Carterhaugh and is confronted by a handsome young man named Tam Lin. Later she discovers she is pregnant and seeks out Tam Lin again. He tells her he is being held captive by the Fairy Queen but Janet can win him back if she follows his instructions.

There is a strong sexual subtext to the ballad. Janet wears green, associated with seduction, has possibly gone to the forest with the purpose of enticing Tam Lin, and in some versions she has to hold on to him tightly as the fairies magically transform him into various forms, ending with him as a naked man.

The traditional notion of the male hero rescuing the imperilled damsel is reversed here, and Sarah J Maas has cited the ballad as one of her inspirations. One of the main characters of the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) universe is called Tamlin.

Young points out that there are similar stories well beyond Britain and Ireland. "There is the Nordic skogsrå [forest fairy or spirit] who appears as a beautiful, seductive woman in the woods, but if you look closely........

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