The latest fairy I made was called dryad, which is a tree nymph. I had this great idea to write an article about dryads. 🙂

Nymphs are female spirits that live in places of great beauty. They represent the pure, female aspect of nature and appear as beautiful and attractive ladies. Most of the time, nymphs are half undressed and their nakedness represents their innocence. The different kind of nymphs look like each other, but each has her own task. They are all servants of the goddess of nature Diana.

The name dryad has become a general term for all spirits of the trees, but originally they were called dryads, from drys in Greek, which means oak.

They were normally considered to be very shy creatures, except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs. They are playful creatures who seem androgynous, though they are always referred to as female. This labeling is actually a guess, because they are nothing more than pure light and energy.

Each tree has its own spirit that is born when the tree germinates and they were believed to die together with the tree they belonged to. All these spirits give their tree a unique personality, that’s why some trees can look creepy, while others look like they’re inviting you to climb them.

Dryads are often depicted with a trunk and roots as a lower body. From the waist up they look like beautiful women. It is said that dryads can go from tree to tree, while hamadryads are connected to their tree.

Their origin lies in the celtic countries, and it were the dryads that gave the secret of tree magic to the druids. The dryads make beautiful music with their voices, sounds that are very compelling to humans. Dryads may have been native to Greece, where they were called drayades and were also female tree spirits. The most famous Greek dryad was Daphne, who was pursued by Apollo and became a dryad associated with the laurel.