THE NOX: FAERIES OR INVENTION?
 An overlooked episode in the first season, when "Stargate SG-1" first aired, is "The Nox." It was a far departure from the other early episodes that explored the possibilities of another civilizations' continued existence, like the Mongols and the Norse. For this race, nothing was said of their origins and they are only one of the few that has appeared again (in the third season).
For the Nox, they did not belong to any known Earth culture and they have no particular relation to the series' mythological inspiration. In that regard, one has to wonder what earth legend they represent? One has to look outside the series and into literature to find that they are faery folk.
We are not talking about little people with wings or the literature of child abduction by supernatural beings. Those are fairy. Instead, the faery folk are the creatures out of early literature, like "Gawain & the Green Knight" and "Morte D'Arthur" ("The Death of Arthur") -- during a time when Morgan Le Faye was considered to be one of their kin. While most of the traditional myths were derived out of Ireland, the focus will not be on those tales, but more on the symbolic aspects of faery literature.
For the episode, it was written like a faery tale. When the SG-1 team traverses deep into the forest, that is symbolic of them leaving the mortal realm and entering the world of the fae (the Nox). It is not because the series is filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, the province with nothing but mountains and trees. Faery lore and symbolic lore details the forest as a land inhabited by mysterious, if not threatening, creatures1.
As the SG-1 team leaves the stargate, they are leaving the protection that the "magical gate" offers. It is no surprise to find the Stargate missing when they turn around to face it. They are now subject to the faerie's mystical whims.
One of the forest's denizens is an invisible "bumble-bee," a creature the team decidedly planned to capture and use in their war against Apophis. The ability to become invisible is no surprise, since faery folk typically hide themselves from humans. (The ability became very useful in the third season episode "Pretense."
 When the SG-1 team finally encounter the Nox, they are revealed to be dimunitive in size, shrouded in nature's colors of green and brown, and peace-loving2. These traits are typical for a faery because, instead of being the modern day representation (where they are commonly known as tricksters and action-figure size), they are representative elemental spirits of the Middle Ages3.
Also, the Nox use fire to heal (bring the dead back to life) and the earth to make their home. With the former, a memorable scene is when the Nox brought the young Lya back to life. The circle the Nox family was framed in is symbolic of the Great Circle from faerie wicca -- to which it helps remove them from physical existence and tune into nature. It also represents the natural cycles of birth, growth, decay, death and rebirth4. Presumably, the same technique was done to bring the SG-1 team back to life.
The latter element is appropriate such that the Nox lives in adobe huts, which resemble the fairy mounds from medieval fairy literature and, to some extent, the Green Chapel from "Gawain and the Green Knight."5
Although an overlooked folk tale aspect of faeries is that they often abduct babies, where most faerie tale lore derives its stories from, it is reinterpreted in the television series. Instead, in the loosest sense of the word, the SG-1 team is more trapped in this world than abducted.
However, this deviates from the traditions such that the SG-1 team also considers eating the food left for them by the fairy (with no ill side effect). Also, they left the faerie realm with the Nox's consent and did not turn to dust.
 By these definitions, the Nox are part of the faery race. They are representative earth spirits with supernatural abilities. And when considering their attitude toward SG-1's iron weapons, the reaction is a typical faery response.
By introducing new alien races not inspired by Egyptian myth, it helps broaden the scope of the Stargate series and not make it stale. There is only so much that can be taken from Egyptian lore without completely redefining the characters and myth.
Also, depending on one's point of view, the Nox's realm brings more potential into the series should the writers decide to explore it further. This land can be regarded as the world of Avalon. Better known in Arthurian literature as the place where King Arthur rests until he is needed by his people again, this land is also home to one of the faery kings, Gwynn6. Also, Mary Zimmer Bradley's "Mists of Avalon" reveals this world as one of the Fae, a different spelling of the word faery.
In that regard, Avalon is a place for faery gatherings. Its mystical importance is more provoking when the final scene in the episode, "The Nox," shows "an awe-inspiring 'shadow of heaven' across the surface of the earth." This shadow is the Nox' giant cloud city looming over the forest.
FOOTNOTES
1. Biedermann, Hans, Dictionary of Symbolism, p. 141
2. Just like the fairy of lore, weapons repulse them; they are made with iron and are, thus, a symbol of technology and tools of destruction.
3. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/6990/origin.html
4. Stepanich, Kisma, Faery Wicca, p.107
5. Even the Green Chapel to where Gawain would meet the Green Knight was that of a hut, a dirt mound covered in flora. See also http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/6990/dwellings.html
6. http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/1614/Story/Arthur/arth10.htm
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