Not even remotely true. Many of the humanoid creatures have been (I'll get to that in a minute), but the laundry list of mythological creatures, even if we're focusing on European, are not fey. They are monsters, giants, undead, spirits, or demons/devils. Not fairy.
This is true. Whether you call them hobgoblins, alps, barbegazi, boggart, buggane, cuegle, far darrig, galtzagorriak, grindylow, kobold, pech, trow, or others, they all have historically been considered more fey than anything else.
As mentioned above, this isn't true. Normally, I wouldn't be any more knowledgeable than the next person. However, for the past 6 months or so, I've been working on a historical folklore book, so I've manage to do quite a bit of research on the topic. To save some time, I'll just cut and paste some of the info below:
"...most of the original stories can be traced back to a causality that includes trance
or dream-like states, psychic experiences, or a belief in a
“hidden people”, which in turn is traced back to indigenous
peoples hiding from invaders. Cultures that believe in
ghosts or the supernatural also relied on those beliefs when
coming up with stories (MacCulloch, 1912).
In Irish mythology, fairies are referred to as Tuatha Dé
Danann. Their origin is derived from ancient goddesses,
priestesses, nature spirits, nymphs, druidesses, and the fates.
Thus, the Irish fey are descendants from the primordial
gods and goddesses. (MacCulloch, 1911). Contrast that to
the Nordic vættir which includes the Dökkálfar, Ljósálfar,
and Dvergar. Or the southern England coinage of the term
“fairy” having originated from fear sidhean (fair-sheen) or
“sidhe” from the Celts.
In the late Middle English period, the term “feyrie” meant
“enchanted” (Silver, 1999). Also by this time, most mythology of the fey
were heavily influenced by Christianity (Yeats, 1988)."
So while there were a lot of creatures considered what our modern term "fey" would encompass, it's not nearly as much as people think. Ghosts and spirits aren't considered fey. Neither are dragons, monsters such as the balaur, biasd na srogaig, carcolh, cornu, gulon, kulshedra, tatzelwrum, or others. There seem to be just as many creatures one would call giants as there are fey in all of the European lore I've researched, especially in Scandinavian and Basque folklore.
Very much true. Like the Unseelie Court for example. Or pretty much all hags. Even the Seelie Court, while not malevolent, is known for playing pranks that often resulted in harm. Changelings could be considered evil. And don't get started on the whole kidnapping and violating consent themes that pop up everywhere in fairy folklore.
For those who are upset that goblins are now being classified with fey ancestry, you might be interested in knowing that the kobold was supposed to originally follow the lore, and someone got the description wrong when doing the original art for them. There's a thread about that somewhere here from a year or so ago (maybe six months? Who knows with COVID timelines).
So yeah, goblins, ogres, and trolls can all fit to be classified as fey.
www.enworld.org
