Fairies, elves, and other magical beings... they're so much more than just children's tales. For centuries, Europeans believed in a parallel supernatural realm inhabited by these beings who lived much like humans in their own communities. This 'social supernatural' world mirrored ours with troll weddings, pixy battles, nereid picnics, dwarf migrations, and the like. Social supernatural beings were thought to interact with the human world in profound ways: they whipped up storms, ensured good harvests, and healed (and, all too often, caused) illness. The Exeter Companion to Fairies, Nereids, Trolls and other Social Supernatural Beings dives into the rich folklore and oral traditions around the social supernatural across Europe; in fact, it pioneers the term 'social supernatural' as a folklore and supernatural category. Bringing together eighteen experts, this is the first comprehensive Europe-wide look at these beliefs and practices. Through in-depth studies, the volume explores how diverse cultures from Ireland to Ukraine, and from Norway to Greece, envisioned their supernatural neighbours and how these parallel societies reflected human concerns and desires. Our authors employ ancient, medieval, modern and, in some cases, contemporary material to tease out the 'hidden people' from obscure and, all too often, forgotten sources. The book resurrects captivating stories and traditions. For anyone fascinated by European folklore, magic, and mythology, it provides a rich research seam with up-to-date bibliographies for a dozen European countries. It will be of use to folklorists, historians, ethnologists, sociologists and also the general reader interested in the supernatural beliefs of traditional European societies. ...essential reading for anyone researching popular belief and supernatural traditions in Europe, regardless of whether they label themselves folklorists, historians, or scholars of religion. --Ethan Doyle White "Reading Religion" ...fascinating reading... These essays help us to understand the wider context both of human experience of supernatural societies, and those societies themselves, and are a valuable addition to Exeter's growing catalogue of folklore titles. --John Billingsley "Northern Earth" The Exeter Companion to Fairies, Nereids, Trolls and Other Social Supernatural Beings is a rigorously and meticulously edited reference work that brings together top-level specialists. It is, without a doubt, a fundamental contribution to the study of European imaginaries. --Óscar Abenójar "Boletín de Literatura Oral" It's not really possible in such a short space to do justice to these enchanting studies. Each contains so much detail, interest and scholarship that my review would have needed to be twice as long... but I hope at least to have provided a hint of the richness of this book. --Katherine Langrish "Gramarye" Simon Young is a British folklore historian, based in Italy. He has a longstanding interest in the study of the supernatural. In 2017 he edited Magical Folk (2017) with Ceri Houlbrook, and has published dozens of peer-reviewed articles in Folk Life, Folklore, Gramarye, Supernatural Studies, Tradition Today and other journals.