Fairies have been called by different names around the world. The word 'fairy' is derived from fays which comes from the Latin word fatum, meaning fate. It's possibly that some of the elements of fairy lore come from the three classical Fates from Greek mythology who controlled the destiny of humans.
In Ireland, fairies were known as the sidhe. They were originally a race of gods and as big as humans, but they had to flee to the sidhe (hills or mounds) to escape when the Milesians conquered Ireland. They learnt how to be invisible and could only be seen by mortals who had the second sight, or who wore a special ointment or when they themselves chose to be seen. Ordinary mortals could only see them once a year, on Midsummer's Eve.
Elves were known all over Scandinavia, England and Scotland. In ancient Germanic lore, elf meant any supernatural spirit but as time went on, it came to specifically refer to small fairies in England, and human-sized fairies in Scotland. In Scandinavia, elves were divided into 'light' and 'dark' elves, roughly matching the seelie (kind fairies) court and unseelie (nastly fairies) court of Scottish fairy lore.
In southern parts of Africa, a tiny, peaceful fairy people called the abatwa were said to live among the anthills. They were said to be very shy and only showed themselves to small children, shamens or (occasionally) pregnant women.
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