Doñas de fuera

What it is

The doñas de fuera are supernatural women in Sicilian folklore, described as beautiful and often appearing five or seven at a time. The phrase is Spanish, and it also names the human women said to keep company with them. People who testified before the Inquisition spoke of night journeys, feasting and dancing. The beings were thought to reward those they favoured and to punish those who crossed them. Historians read them as fairy belief; the Inquisition read them as leftover pagan superstition, or as no more than a dream.

Where it comes from

The earliest detailed account on record comes from an unnamed woman of Palermo, a fisherwife questioned in 1588, whose confession is among the first to describe contact between such beings and people in Sicily. Cases of this kind run from 1579 to 1651. The name is Spanish because Sicily was then under Spanish rule. Benevento, on the mainland in the Kingdom of Naples, was the gathering place in the stories, called in one comparison the Blockula of Sicily.

How it is done

Those said to have 'sweet blood' were the ones the fairies approached, and most were women. In the accounts they were mounted on goats and flown to a field at Benevento, where a red-coloured youth and a beautiful woman were seated as King and Queen. A newcomer knelt and swore allegiance, with a book of letters held open by the company's ensign, a title borrowed from military usage for the band's leader. Tables of food followed, then dancing and sex. Meetings were held in the woods.

Tools and materials

The beings were seen dressed in white, red or black. Their feet were those of cats or horses, or rounded in a shape witnesses could not liken to anything else. A male fairy played a lute or guitar for the dancing. Goats carried the travellers through the air. The oath was sworn on a book with large letters, and food and drink were laid out on tables. Two chairs stood in the field at Benevento.

What it is for

Company with the fairies was said to bring riches, good looks and lovers, and the King and Queen were believed to give knowledge of healing so that a poor woman could earn money from the sick. The Prince of the companies told them to act kindly. Not every being was harmless: a congregation called the Seven Fairies could take the form of cats, or of a creature named aydon, and aydons were able to kill.

Who does it

The humans in the stories were mostly poor women, though eight of the 65 people listed in the trial summaries were men. Each company had an ensign, and the companies together had a Prince. Rank among the fairies mirrored rank among people, with noble and common companies kept apart. One accused, Vicencia la Rosa, was a medicine woman; the Palermo fisherwife said her healing knowledge came from the royal couple. No training is described, only selection.

Peoples and places

The belief belongs to Sicily, and the trials were held there, at Palermo among other places. The journeys ended at Benevento, on the mainland in the Kingdom of Naples. Because companies were split between noble and non-noble members, the stories seem to have circulated across ranks, even though those charged were usually poor. The Sicilian tribunal forwarded its summaries to the Suprema in Madrid.

What people believe

In the stories the fairies kept a court of their own, with a King and Queen who could be worshipped as god and goddess, and a newcomer gave them body and soul. They disliked any mention of the Christian God or the Virgin Mary, and it was thought rude to speak of her in their presence. Those who confessed did not see this as contradicting their Christianity. Many said they travelled without their bodies, which stayed behind, an idea they shared with the Benandanti.

When it is done

The companies met in the woods on three nights of the week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In March the separate companies came together and heard their Prince. Journeys happened at night, sometimes after the traveller had gone to bed and sometimes before, so that a husband and children would notice nothing. The Palermo fisherwife dated her first journey to the age of eight.

How scholars and sceptics see it

The Inquisition held that fairies did not exist and that the stories were leftover pagan superstition, unworthy of serious pursuit; its questions pushed the accused to call the events either a dream or a sabbath of demons. Sicily's trials were milder than those of neighbouring countries, with exile, jail or release usual.

Compare and confuse

The doñas de fuera are the Sicilian counterpart of the fairies of English folklore, and the trial records often call them elves. Their night meetings invited comparison with the witches' sabbath, and one writer likened Benevento to Blockula. The Benandanti, an Italian group also questioned by the Inquisition, shared the belief in leaving the body behind. The same Spanish phrase also named the human women.

Law and persecution

The Sicilian tribunal sent summaries of its cases to the Suprema in Madrid. It labelled the accused as witches but often shrugged the cases off, since no one confessed to the Devil. Some meetings were likened to a witches' sabbath, yet local goodwill toward the fairies kept the court from pressing further. Sentences were comparatively light: release, banishment or prison rather than death. One woman was forbidden ever to mention the elves again.

Questions people ask about Doñas de fuera

Good reading and sources

• Doñas de fuera on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data