The Land of Faerie is a legendary home of the fairies.[1]
Background[]
It is legend spoken of in England. It is ruled by a fairy queen. It his home to Fairies, a race of graceful and delicate beings with magical powers, fairies are said to live hundreds of years, but must spend one day of each week in the form of some animal-a bird or dolphin, for instance. Most cultures have a tradition of fairies. The English version-the one we are most familiar with-holds that they come from, and dwell in, the Land of Faerie, where they are ruled by a queen. Fairies are said to be interested in human affairs and often aid and protect people. In fact, so many tales have been told about good fairies, that they have given us the term "fairy tale."[2] In deed, William Shakespeare speaks of the rulers of this realm as being Oberon and Titania in his plays, as collected in The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare.[3]
The Realm of Eldritch (Eldritch) is also known as Faerieland and has sometimes been described as the 'land of Faerie'. Indeed, the entire Realm of Eldritch is referred to as the land of Faerie. Though it is unclear if the mystical realm spoken of in England is the same place, or a separate Faerieland (but there does appear to be a connection considering both were ruled by Oberon and Titania). In Eldritch time functions differently than it does in world of Daventry (& Earth) moving at a faster rate. Graham listened to his family speak of their adventure in in the land of Faerie, not all of which was as lovely and serene as its name might suggest (for Faeries are a fair and peaceful folk).
Genesta is the Queen of the Fairies in Daventry. She has been said to be a Faerie Queen, and rule the throne of Faerie (though its unclear if that is the Land of Faerie). Lolotte coveted her position, and Good and Evil vied for the throne of Faerie. Rosella was sent to 'another world' (or at least one connected to Daventry) on a quest to save Genesta and her father. It was not a task, as simple as it seemed.[4]
The realm of the Woodland faeries in the Old Woods near Daventry is also known as Fairie (time and space functions differently there as well than the outside world with mortals visiting it losing track of time, unless the fairies will it otherwise).
See also[]
- Fairy Kingdom
- Faerie
- Fairie (Old Woods)
- Avalon
- Faerieland (Faerie/Realm of Eldritch/Eldritch, Etheria & Dreamland)
- Tamir (Fairy Island)
Behind the scenes[]
The Land of Fairy (aka Faeryland, or Fairyland) is prominent in Shakespear's A Midsummer's Night's Dream. The play consists of five interconnecting plots, connected by a celebration of the wedding of Duke Theseus of Athens and the Amazon queen, Hippolyta, which are set simultaneously in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon.
The Fairy Queen or Queen of the Fairies is a figure from Irish and British folklore, believed to rule the fairies. Based on Shakespeare's influence, in English-speaking cultures she is often named Titania or Mab. In Irish folklore, the last High Queen of the Daoine Sidhe - and wife of the High King Finvarra - was named Una (or Oonagh, or Oona, or Uonaidh etc.). In the ballad tradition of Northern England and Lowland Scotland, she was called the Queen of Elphame. The character is also associated with the name Morgan (as with the Arthurian character of Morgan le Fey, or Morgan of the Fairies), or a variant of Mab (such as Maeve or Mabd). In the Child Ballads Tam Lin (Child 39) and Thomas the Rhymer (Child 37), she is represented as both beautiful and seductive, and also as terrible and deadly. The Fairy Queen is said to pay a tithe to Hell every seven years, and her mortal lovers often provide this sacrifice. Both Edmund Spenser and William Shakespeare used folklore concerning the Fairy Queen to create characters and poetry, Spenser in The Faerie Queene and Shakespeare most notably in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In The Faerie Queene, Spenser's fairy queen is named Gloriana, and is also referred to as Tanaquill, which "appears to be an epithet for Gloriana, Queen of Faeries" derived from the name of the wife of Tarquinius Priscus. She is the daughter of Oberon, who in Shakespeare's later play is married to Titania, a name derived from Ovid as an epithet of the Roman goddess Diana. Diana was regularly portrayed as the ruler of the fairy kingdom in demonological literature, such as King James VI of Scotland's Daemonologie, which says that she belongs to "the fourth kind of spirits, which by the Gentiles [non-Jews] was called Diana and her wandering court, and amongst us is called Fairy (as I told you) or our good neighbours" In one of the earliest of the Peter Pan novels, The Little White Bird, author J. M. Barrie also identifies Queen Mab as the name of the fairy queen, although the character is entirely benign and helpful.
The term "Fairy" was used to represent: an illusion or enchantment; the land of the Faes; collectively the inhabitants thereof; an individual such as a fairy knight. Faie became Modern English fay, while faierie became fairy, but this spelling almost exclusively refers to one individual (the same meaning as fay). In the sense of "land where fairies dwell", archaic spellings Faery and Faerie are still in use.
Avalon is associated with the Land of Faerie. 15th-century poet and monk John Lydgate wrote that King Arthur was crowned in "the land of the fairy" and taken in his death by four fairy queens, to Avalon, where he lies under a "fairy hill", until he is needed again.[5]
In fairy tale and mythology the fairylands often in other worlds, seperate universes from earth (Otherworlds but sometimes 'world within a world', a secondary universe co-existing both inside and outside of the main universe).[6] Similar concepts exist in the Narnia series, and Hero-U/Gloriana universe. In these stories for mortals to visit the realm they must enter through special means.