The mythical creatures found in folklore do a lot of different jobs, says Simon Young, a British historian of folklore and co-editor/co-author of the book Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies, 500 AD to the Present. In the show, these creatures are feared – and humans restrict their freedoms because of it. In the case of Amazon Prime Video’s fantasy noir series Carnival Row, for example, viewers are introduced to a world in which fabled beings like faeries and fauns live as “immigrants” amongst humans in a war-torn land.
Even today, legendary beasts and beings continue to captivate us as stories of old receive contemporary updates in books, movies and on television.
