Note 12 — ORIGIN OF THE WORD FAIRY.
Reading edition
See below, France. It is also remarked that in some of the tales of the Pentamerone, the number of the Fate is three; but to this it may be replied, that in Italy every thing took a classic tinge, and that the Fate of those tales are only Maghe; so in the Amadigi of Bernardo Tasso we meet with La Fata Urganda. In Spain and France the number would rather seem to have been seven. Cervantes speaks of "los siete castillos de las siete fadas;" in the Rom. de la Infantina it is said, "siete fadas me fadaron, en brazos de una ama mia," and the Fées are seven in La Belle au Bois dormant. In the romance, however, of Guillaume au Court-nez, the Fées who carry the sleeping Renoart out of the boat are three in number.—See Grimm Deutsche Mythologie, p. 383.