Information Uncovered by Dewberry

Why Fairies are Afraid of Jigsaw Puzzles
Fairies cannot stand to do jigsaw puzzles. If faced with one, they are often bewitched by the puzzle and become trapped in it. Fairies follow the curving lines, tracing them over and over again, sometimes never making their way out of the puzzle unless helped out by a witch, elf, or some other magical creature. Occasionally, another fairy can help, if quick enough and brave enough to bear the affects of the puzzle for as long as it takes to pull out the trapped fairy.

The reason fairies are afraid of jigsaw puzzles has to do with a goblin curse, described in a book called Sixty-Three-and-a-Half Goblin Tales. The jigsaw puzzle tale is Number Forty-Two, and tells of the anger of a lady goblin toward a dandelion fairy who tricked the goblin into releasing two captured brownies.

Dandelion was carrying a jigsaw puzzle with her to a friend’s home to play when she stumbled across the goblin and brownies. Dandelion helped the brownies get free, making the goblin very angry. The goblin noticed that the fairy was carrying a puzzle and performed a clever Fairy-Puzzle-Trapping-Curse, just as the brownies and fairy escaped from her.

The dandelion fairy and the brownies were unaware of the curse. When Dandelion tried to piece together her jigsaw puzzle that afternoon while visiting a fairy friend, both fairies became trapped in the puzzle. Fortunately, a garden gnome noticed the trouble and brought a witch to help them.

Since then, the warning has been passed down from generation to generation for fairies to avoid jigsaw puzzles.

From Sixty-Three-and-a-Half Goblin Tales by Odious V. Nastia, lady goblin and storyteller:

Tale Number Forty-Two

“Why Fairies Fear Jigsaw Puzzles”
Or
“That Dratted Dandelion and Those Blasted Brownies”

Those blasted brownies were in my clutches. I had them locked in a parakeet cage, which is the most fitting place for a couple of nasty, overgrown, mischievous boys. They were only there two hours though before that dratted dandelion fairy came along. I was just stirring up a vat of Very Venerable Vittles, intending to add the brownies when the gravy was thick enough, when Dandelion popped by my hut unexpectedly. She had been on her way to a friend’s house to play. At first she acted like she had smelled my vittles stew and just could not resist stopping in to share recipes with me. She tricked me! Never listen to a fairy’s cooking advice. I told her I was using my grandmother’s recipe, and that it had always turned out very tasty. However, that dratted Dandelion managed to convince me that I needed to add tarragon to the recipe, because that was the way her grandmother used to make Very Venerable Vittles. So I had to climb up the stepladder to reach the tarragon. While my back was turned, Dandelion performed an Unlocking Spell on the parakeet cage. Then those blasted brownies threw handfuls of pepper at me, making me sneeze so much that I couldn’t catch them while they jumped out the window and rode off on a rabbit. In my sneezing fit, I also upset my lovely vat of Very Venerable Vittles. But I got them good in the end. That dratted Dandelion was carrying a jigsaw puzzle—yes, she was—and when she flew off just after the brownies escaped, I took out my Spell Stick (sometimes I call it my Curse Club) and enacted the Fairy-Puzzle-Trapping-Curse. I had one of my spies follow her, a crooked rook he was, and he came back and told me that Dandelion and her friend both got trapped in the puzzle that very afternoon. Serves them right! But a gnome noticed what had happened and brought a witch to help them. So what! Eventually, the curse will spread to all jigsaw puzzles because that is the way I designed it. Well, I don’t like to brag, but nothing can ever undo a curse like that, done by me. I plan to polish my medal every year in February over that one, I can tell you. Forever more, fairies will have to either avoid jigsaw puzzles or get trapped in them. Pretty sad for them, if you ask me, because jigsaw puzzles are actually a lot of fun. Ha!