Sprite (folklore)

{{Short description|Supernatural entity}}  {{Infobox mythical creature |name = Sprite |image = |image_size = |caption = |Grouping = Legendary creature <br /> Pixie <br /> Fairy |Country = |Region = Europe |Habitat = |First_Attested = In folklore }} A '''sprite''' is a supernatural entity in European mythology. Sprites are often depicted as fairy-like creatures or as ethereal entities.<ref name=BriggsFairies>{{cite book|last=Briggs|first=Katharine M. |author-link=Katharine Mary Briggs |title=A Dictionary of Fairies|publisher=Penguin|location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex|year=1976|page=381|isbn=978-0-14-004753-0}}</ref>

==Etymology== The word ''sprite'' is derived from the Latin ''spiritus'' ("spirit"), via the French ''esprit''. Variations on the term include ''spright'' and the Celtic ''spriggan''. The term is chiefly used with regard to elves and fairies in European folklore, and in modern English is rarely used in reference to spirits.

== Belief in sprites == [[File:Richard Doyle - Spurned Suitor.jpg|thumb|The prince thanking the Water sprite, from ''The Princess Nobody: A Tale of Fairyland (1884)'' by Andrew Lang (illustration by Richard Doyle)]] The belief in diminutive beings such as sprites, elves, fairies, etc. has been common in many parts of the world, and might to some extent still be found within neo-spiritual and religious movements such as "neo-druidism" and Ásatrú.

In some elemental magics, the sprite is often believed to be the elemental of air (see also sylph).

== Water sprite == {{For|the plant species|Ceratopteris thalictroides}} {{main|Water spirit}}

[[File:August Malmström - Dancing Fairies - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|''Dancing Fairies'' by the Swedish painter August Malmström]] A water sprite (also called a water fairy or water faery) is a general term for an elemental spirit associated with water, according to alchemist Paracelsus. Water sprites are said to be able to breathe water or air and sometimes can fly.

These creatures exist in the mythology of various groups. Ancient Greeks knew water nymphs in several types such as naiads (or ''nyads''), which were divine entities that tended to be fixed in one place<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Handbook of Greek Mythology.|last=Rose|first=Herbert|publisher=E.P. Dutton & Co.|year=1959|isbn=978-0-525-47041-0|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/handbookofgreekm00rose/page/173 173]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofgreekm00rose/page/173}}</ref> and so differed from gods or physical creatures. Slavic mythology knows them as vilas.

Water sprites differ from corporeal beings, such as selkies, mermaids, and sirens, as they are not purely physical and are more akin to local deities than animals.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A Dictionary of English Folklore|last=Simpson|first=Jacqueline|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0198607663|location=Oxford}}</ref> {{clear}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Sister project links|wikt=|b=no|q=no|s=|v=no|species=no}} * [http://www.morion.com/morion/wood/beings.html Swedish myths]

Category:Sprites (folklore) Category:Fairies Category:Greek mythology Category:Water deities Category:Water spirits Category:European legendary creatures Category:Fictional fairies Category:Ghosts