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...)

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.

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.

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..."

Web Original

 * So, which one do you like? by Chirun on DeviantArt.

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...