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Rating: 
Summary: Briggs' love for her subject shines through the writing.
Review: I have lost count of the number of times I've sat down with the book since the day I found it. Rarely do I have a goal in mind; instead, I simply open the book to a random page and start reading. Always, I find something interesting waiting for me on whatever page I select; often, I learn something new. Briggs' scholarship is amazing, her research is exhaustive. Even the most fanatical of folklore enthusiasts would be hard pressed to find a character from British folklore missing from this work. (Briggs wrote in her preface that she originally planned to compile an encyclopedia of global folklore, "but to treat the fairies of the whole of Europe alone, even cursorily, would have been to produce a book ten times the size of this and founded on years of further research." Certainly, Briggs treated British folklore with a thoroughness rarely seen in a milieu regarded by some as a children's fancy.
Rating:
Summary: Still the Definitive Work
Review: I was given The Encyclopedia of Faires as a gift at Yuletide in 1977 (that's how long I've been passionately pursuing all manner of writing and information on the Realm of Faery!) It's so long ago that being interested in this subject then was like being "in the closet" about the (real) faeries!! So it is high time I try to express the reverence in which I still hold this book. There are so many guides coming out any more that your library could be filled in no time, yet what would it be filled with? Not anything as authentic as what is between the pages of Brigg's Encyclopedia. Hers is not rehashed information, secondhand lore. There is a sort of "closeness to the source" about her information that lends it an unparalled authenticity.
Of course, she was British, and she was 78 years old in 1977 when the book came out, so she was closer in both place and time to the original information. We who are fascinated with the Realm owe this good woman and most competant folklorist a great debt of gratitude for what she brought forth for us to have in this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Wealth of Knowledge
Review: This book is nigh impossible to find, and an absolute necessity for anyone interested in Ireland, faeries, or folklore. Every page is bursting with myth and tradition, poetry and lore, much of it drawn from pre 19th century texts that give one a whole new perceptive on the Fair Folk (or the Gentry, or Themselves, or the Good Neighbours, and if you don't understand what I'm talking about get the book!) as seen from the point of view of those who have no doubt that they share their lands with a strange people. At the time of this review, I see that the current price of the book is $.... Please believe me: THIS IS WELL WORTH IT. I sought for ten years to find this book, paid fifty dollars from a used bookseller, and it has survived water-damage, three moves, and near constant perusal while losing none of its value or charm. This review is a plea: go to every bookseller, write to every publisher, and DEMAND this book be brought back into print.
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