this post was submitted on 07 Mar 2024
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In fairness, at the time, many Europeans believed in faries and other creatures, including these guys:
https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/720095/view/mythical-horned-beasts-17th-century
So, not much has changed then....
Yeah interesting thought there actually. In absolute numbers I wager more people believe in mythical beings of some form today in Europe than the 1700s. But as a share of the total population it's going to be a lot lower, of course.
Is it going to be a lower percentage of the total population though? There's a lot about ye olde days that kinda gets generalised, and hand-waved. Like people's ability to read in medieval times. Sure it wasn't as prevalent as today, but reading was probably a lot more common than most people think.
As for belief in mythical beings, who knows, religious belief was a lot stronger in the 1700s, but that doesn't necessarily mean everyone believed in the fae.