Fairy in a Bottle



People Jars meet Our Fairies Are Different.

Note that we're not talking about The Fair Folk (who might object strenuously to being put in a bottle), but the more Victorian concept of the palm-sized (or smaller) insect-winged fairy creature, often ambiguously female in appearance. Small enough to be put inside a bottle or jar, it's no surprise that -- like the insects they resembled -- in art and folklore they were, where they provided magical services or simply as a Fantastic Light Source.

May be used for illumination, to grant wishes or have more arcane purpose. See also Fairy Companion. Compare Genie in a Bottle.

Not to be confused with the anime Bottle Fairy (whose titular characters would qualify for this trope if only they had wings) or a Hard-Drinking Party Girl, which is sometimes called a "bottle fairy". (Although it is entirely possible for a Fairy in a Bottle to be a Bottle Fairy...) Also not to be confused with Absinthe, a notorious alcoholic beverage sometimes called "the green fairy in a bottle".

Anime and Manga

 * In Crimson Spell Halvir gives Prince Vald a fairy in a jar to use as a light source, instructing him to smack it and make the fairy angry to make it glow.

Film

 * In the Shrek movies, bottled fairies can be seen being used as a light source.
 * In Peter Pan, Captain Hook stuffs Tinkerbell in a lantern. But it's less to use her as a resource than it's the only thing he has handy to use as a prison for her.

Literature

 * In The Incomplete Enchanter, Dolon, an evil wizard, has a collection of feys in bottles, just because he can.

Tabletop Games

 * In Rifts, the Splugorth hunts down fairies to power their Bio-Wizard inventions, heavily shown to be insanely painful. Some of the fairies needed to be lobotomize first.

Video Games

 * The Legend of Zelda series, the source of many imitations and parodies.
 * In Final Fantasy I at one point you need to buy a bottled fairy and release her.
 * Star Ocean the Last Hope, the player creates each of these for crafting purposes to make weapons and armor.
 * The one of the desert caravan's wares in Final Fantasy 1 is this. Using the bottle frees the fairy, who then helps the party by drawing Oxyale from the nearby spring, which enables (underwater breathing).
 * In Chrono Cross, you can rescue Razzly, the fairy, from a tiny bird cage. She'll join your party because of extreme gratitude. Albeit fairies dislikes and distrusts humans.
 * In Super Mario 3D World, Bowser is stuffing the Sprixie Princess in a bottle. Though in the ending credits, he gets karmic justice.
 * A Skyrim mod adds several of these, noting that the sailors have them on board their ships for good luck. Naturally, one can find them in any ships and docks around Skyrim.

Western Animation

 * Samurai Jack had to rescue a fairy, who is trapped in a orb jar.

Web Comics

 * In The Dreadful Liz had one... but forgot to feed her.
 * Nerf Now on Link capturing and selling fairies: "The Terror of Hyrule". The comments agree that "Hyrule's a sick, sick place..."
 * In Elf Life, one can capture fairies with bottles, this disables them completely. Though one character was able to catch one by closing the big book on her.

Web Original

 * So, which one do you like? by Chirun on DeviantArt.
 * The Legend of Neil, a Legend of Zelda parody. The moblins use bottle fairies so for the kicks of it all, they can sort fairy dust.

Other Media

 * "Fairy Jars", both with and without lights inside, are very easy to find on Etsy. Tutorials for making your own can be found on YouTube, as well.
 * In the early-middle 2010s, the Cracker Barrel restaurant-gift shop chain sold a product called "My Pet Fairy", which was essentially an LED with butterfly wings on a thin wire inside a mason jar; when turned on, the LED lit up and a mechanism in the jar lid intermittently flailed the wire about, making the "fairy" fly around inside the jar. The jar was made from thick and slightly wavy glass embossed with logos, obscuring the wire and enhancing the illusion.
 * In Neopets the Faeries are often bottled and sold, freed, caught again...