Demons

A fourth belief was the fairies were demons entirely. This belief became much more popular with the growth of Puritanism. The hobgoblin, once a friendly household spirit, became a wicked goblin. Dealing with fairies was in some cases considered a form of witchcraft and punished as such in this era.

Disassociating himself from such evils may be why Oberon, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, carefully observed that neither he nor his court feared the church bells. The belief in their angelic nature was less common than that they were the dead, but still found popularity, especially in Theosophist circles.

The children of Adam and Lilith / Adam and Eve.

According to a Scandinavian myth, Eve went on to have a multitude of children after Cain, Abel, and Seth. Once upon a time, God Almighty came to visit Adam and Eve. They received him with joy, and showed him everything they had in the house.

They also brought their children to him, to show him, and these he found promising and full of hope. Then he asked Eve whether she had no other children than these whom she now showed him. She said “None.”

But it so happened that she had not finished washing them all, and, being ashamed to let God see them dirty, had hidden the unwashed ones. This God knew well, and said therefore to her, “What man hides from God, God will hide from man.”

These unwashed children became forthwith invisible, and took up their abode in mounds, and hills, and rocks. From these are the elves descended, but we men from those of Eve’s children whom she had openly and frankly shown to God. And it is only by the will and desire of the elves themselves that men can ever see them.