The Scouring of the Shire: Fairies, Trolls and Pixies in Eco-Protest Culture

Folklore, Oct, 2001 by Andy Letcher

It is not uncommon for minority groups engaged in some struggle against hegemonic power to develop a strong sense of identity as a David to the state's Goliath. In road protesting, people are faced with the inevitability of defeat. In spite of all the defences, the camp will eventually be evicted, the trees will be cut down, and the road will be built. Protesters never know when the eviction will occur, so they live with a constant feeling of apprehension. In response, they develop an identity based upon a narrative or belief story in which they, the little people, will be, if not literally, at least morally victorious.

Secondly, the identification of protesters as fairies is symbolic of the way they position themselves outside, or opposed to, mainstream society. Road protesting is just one strand of a wider movement that has been called DIY culture:

   A youth-centred, and -directed cluster of interests and practices around
   green radicalism, direct action politics, [and] new musical sounds and
   experiences (McKay 1998, 2).

Other strands include the anti-car campaign, Reclaim the Streets, and the campaign against the Criminal Justice Act for, amongst other things, the right to hold free parties. Heavily infused with anarchist politics, this movement defines itself as radically opposed to the mainstream.

In British folklore, fairies also exist outside of humanity. They are not necessarily nice people, but have their own morality and their own laws:

   "they" ... are not us. Their difference manifests itself in a carelessness
   about what is good for us. Just as we treat hedgehogs badly--running them
   over on our roads in appalling numbers without malice or intention--they,
   "the Lords and Ladies," treat us badly (Harvey 1997, 173).

Protesters do not necessarily treat others badly, but they too have their own morality---on entering a protest camp, one crosses a boundary where different rules come into play. McKay suggests that protest camps are examples of what Hakim Bey calls a "temporary autonomous zone" (Bey 1991; McKay 1996). Bey suggests that autonomous anarchist "Utopias" are not possible in the modern age--globalisation has meant that there is nowhere to hide from state authority. Consequently, autonomous zones are temporary, flourishing and moving on before the state can close them down. Clearly, protest camps are slightly different in that they are closed down by eviction, but the point remains that protesters position themselves as being outside, and hence independent of, mainstream society. This positioning is also seen in the dress codes, musical styles and expressions, and in the adoption of nicknames ("Swampy" being the most famous British example [13]).

The third feature is that this identification with fairies helps to justify the counter-cultural ethic of protesting. Protesters are breaking the law. Placing oneself bodily in the way of construction is a relatively minor infraction of the law (although still an arrestable offence); eco-sabotage is more serious. By naming such acts "pixieing," protesters are downplaying the legal implications of their actions. In folklore, pixies play cheeky tricks on humans; they are annoying perhaps, but ultimately harmless. In calling eco-sabotage "pixieing," protesters are portraying their actions in a similar light. In the USA, this activity is called "monkey-wrenching" after the 1975 novel The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey (Benton and Short 1999), which gives equivalent actions a very different feel. The use of the more romantic "pixieing" helps make these actions appear more acceptable. It is a form of protester "spin," incompatible with the state's view that these are acts of vandalism and criminal damage.