Although no longer associated with magic, “fascinate” comes from a Latin root meaning a spell or witchcraft.  Specifically, “fascinate” denotes removal of the ability to resist.  I heartily recommend Dr. Tom Shippey’s thoughts on riddles and the dance they weave between truth, meaning, and obfuscation.  I might need to create our own word – legerdelangue, the sleight-of-words equivalent to legerdemain.  And now we know more about the weakness of dragons.

• 12.058 No dragon can resist the fascination of riddling talk

“fascinate, v.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.

Shippey, T. A. “Approaches to Truth in Old English Poetry”. University of Leeds Review 25. 1982.  PDF of reprint.

“Falter” may be related to “fold” in the sense of legs folding under unexpectedly.

• 08.029 but they heard the sound of hooves quickly falter

“falter, v.1.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2015. Web. 27 July 2015.

Meaning, of course, a bundle of small sticks for use as woodfire fuel.  Its second meaning in the OED dates from the 1500s, a heretic who was burned alive as punishment.

• 03.015 The faggots are reeking,

“faggot | fagot, n.” OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2015. Web. 11 February 2016.

Remember, in Tolkien’s parlance, “Faerie” is a place.  “Fairy”, by the way, is within the Ten Thousand most common words.

• 08.131 that never went to Faerie

Update 2016.02.11