Extra Credit 2 - Research
Alexander Bowne
In the Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher, the land of the Faeries is called, originally, Faerie, and is part of a larger realm called the Nevernever, which is composed of all the spirit realms. The closer those spirit realms are to the mortal world, the more stable they are, and since Faerie is the realm that borders the mortal world it is a fairly stable place, and will not be disappearing/fading/whatever else unstable realms do any time soon.
Faerie is characterized by two main things: First, due to the never-ending feud between the Summer and Winter Courts, Faerie is described as something like a patch-work quilt, where areas controlled by Summer are full of warm greens and golds, and areas controlled by Winter are full of icy blues. Second, Faerie is incredibly beautiful, whether in Winter or Summer, a place where you could easily sit down and just be overwhelmed by how gorgeous your surroundings are...until you are eaten by magic spiders or devoured by giant worms. It is unclear how much of that beauty is illusion and how much is simple truth, but either way, Faerie is both as beautiful and as dangerous as you would expect.
Also worth noting is that there is order imposed where chaos from unending war should be. The power of the two Courts waxes and wanes with their seasons. During Winter (from Midsummer to Midwinter), the center of Faerie and the Stone Table found there remain in Winter's control, and its power grows. On Midwinter's Day, control of that area and Table passes to Summer, and Summer's power then grows from Midwinter to Midsummer.
Through the course of the series thus far, we have been in Faerie briefly fairly frequently, but have followed two more serious incursions into that world as well. First, we hear about a credible plot to end the never-ending war, although not in the way expected. This brings us in to Faerie at Midsummer, where power should pass to Winter. There, we get a truly Shakespearean showdown between the Courts, and between Harry Dresden and the plotter. The other major excursion into Faerie that we have seen so far was to Arctis Tor, the heart of Winter. As expected, it is a cold, icy place, with a crystalline fortress at its center.
Both times, Harry (and those with him) only make it out of Faerie with the help (or at least permission) of the Faeries themselves, lending more weight to the idea that Faerie is an incredibly dangerous place. Beautiful, to be sure, but no less deadly for it.
As an aside, this series makes use of several of the traditional methods for entry into the Faerie Realm. The most commonly used method is opening a magic portal, generally described as opening a window or door to another world. Another common method is simply being taken there by a Faerie. At least once, though, we also got to see the path into Faerie as a stairway made of moonlight, stretching above Chicago.
Faerie is characterized by two main things: First, due to the never-ending feud between the Summer and Winter Courts, Faerie is described as something like a patch-work quilt, where areas controlled by Summer are full of warm greens and golds, and areas controlled by Winter are full of icy blues. Second, Faerie is incredibly beautiful, whether in Winter or Summer, a place where you could easily sit down and just be overwhelmed by how gorgeous your surroundings are...until you are eaten by magic spiders or devoured by giant worms. It is unclear how much of that beauty is illusion and how much is simple truth, but either way, Faerie is both as beautiful and as dangerous as you would expect.
Also worth noting is that there is order imposed where chaos from unending war should be. The power of the two Courts waxes and wanes with their seasons. During Winter (from Midsummer to Midwinter), the center of Faerie and the Stone Table found there remain in Winter's control, and its power grows. On Midwinter's Day, control of that area and Table passes to Summer, and Summer's power then grows from Midwinter to Midsummer.
Through the course of the series thus far, we have been in Faerie briefly fairly frequently, but have followed two more serious incursions into that world as well. First, we hear about a credible plot to end the never-ending war, although not in the way expected. This brings us in to Faerie at Midsummer, where power should pass to Winter. There, we get a truly Shakespearean showdown between the Courts, and between Harry Dresden and the plotter. The other major excursion into Faerie that we have seen so far was to Arctis Tor, the heart of Winter. As expected, it is a cold, icy place, with a crystalline fortress at its center.
Both times, Harry (and those with him) only make it out of Faerie with the help (or at least permission) of the Faeries themselves, lending more weight to the idea that Faerie is an incredibly dangerous place. Beautiful, to be sure, but no less deadly for it.
As an aside, this series makes use of several of the traditional methods for entry into the Faerie Realm. The most commonly used method is opening a magic portal, generally described as opening a window or door to another world. Another common method is simply being taken there by a Faerie. At least once, though, we also got to see the path into Faerie as a stairway made of moonlight, stretching above Chicago.
Ariella McManus
The story I have chosen is "Mr. Skelmersdale in Fairyland" by H. G. Wells. This story caught my attention, not only because of the vivid detail that the author used in depicting the fairy realm, but because of the rich contrasts he employed in portraying a portrait both intriguingly beautiful and horrifyingly frightening. The differences in scenery are reflected in the moods and actions of the main character, Mr. Skelmersdale, who comes across as one who is both to be pitied for what he has lost and envied for what little he was allowed to gain.
Though the fairy world in the story is not given a particular name, it is rumored to be hidden deep inside Aldington Knoll, or at least so Mr. Skelmersdale's story would have us believe. It is on top of this very Knoll that Mr. Skelmersdale fell asleep after an argument with his betrothed, and awake to quite a different world to the one he had fallen asleep to; how he got there remains a mystery. There were decidedly differences in the scenery; the trees were darker, and they completely hid the sky (which seems, as the narrator put it, to always be hidden in Fairyland, save when the fairies are dancing). This element does seem to be expected (at least by the narrator), fitting in with his idea of what Fairyland would be (should there actually be such a place, for he is never quite certain if Mr. Skelmersdale's story is real, a dream, or fiction created by an overwrought imagination). As it is, Mr. Skelmersdale is rather allusive about the details at first, and sketchy on some of the finer details, but what he does remember is priceless.
For instance, he describes the trees as being dark, but lit up by scores of glow worms lying on the turf underneath, giving one a sense of playfulness, not foreboding in the least. While a bit vague on the details of what the elven inhabitants of the land were wearing, he gives the illusion that they are quite friendly, their garments light and airy, very bright in hue (quite in keeping with the bright light of the glow worms on the ground). These glow worms also lit up a broad avenue; the very avenue on which he first met the Fairy Lady. (As the purpose of this assignment is to focus on the land itself and not the people, I will forgo the temptation of describing in detail the very beautiful and elegant Lady, but suffice it to say that she surpassed even the lightness and beauty of the land in which she dwelt).
He speaks of "pink toadstool things" and "great open spaces where the fairies would dance and have races, of great pools of water where they would bath, and moss-covered thickets where they made love. Though his memory of his time in Fairy Land may have holes in it, he gives the impression of a capricious, light-hearted, enchanted land of much merriment and laughter. The narrator of the tale certainly seemed to hold no contrary view of Fairy Land, so in this sense, I find it safe to conclude that the depiction was exactly what he expected it to be. That is until...
It was time for Mr. Skelmersdale to leave the Land in the Knoll and return to the human realm, and that is when things take a very definite dark and unexpectedly malevolent twist. The Fairy Lady leads him to a 'great cavernous place, lit by a red nightlight sort of thing", piled high with coffers of gold boxes and trinkets, guarded by a band of gnomes. At her insistence, they try to pay the young man for staying with her for so long, but at the last minute he has a change of heart and runs after her; one would assume back to the land of beauty from which he came...wrong.
He emerged from the cave into a long grotto, and finally to a 'great desolate place', filled with mocking will-o-wisps and gnomes dancing their derision of him. Quite a difference from his earlier welcome!! He begin a perilous flight through a swampy land of briers and weeds, with roots and vines jutting out to trip and scratch him at every turn. In fact, it was due to a gnarled root that caused him to lose his footing that he managed to 'escape'; he fell and when he awoke, he was back atop the Knoll in human land, three weeks time having elapsed after his initial departure.
The story does not end happily (his betrothed marries someone else), but again, that is not the point of the assignment, I suppose (though tragic nonetheless). I do believe, that whether or not Mr. Skelmersdale actually survived a visit to Fairy Land and returned to tell of it, or whether it was an elaborate dream, it showed without a doubt that the land is certainly much more complex than one would initially be led to believe. Which, incidentally, mirrors my view of most things..nothing is truly light or truly dark but a mixture of both. And that perhaps, is the most intriguing thing of all (at least to me) about the Fairy Realm. It is the complexity, the nuances, and the subtle shifts that draw me in, the light and the dark working together to create something..magical.
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Though the fairy world in the story is not given a particular name, it is rumored to be hidden deep inside Aldington Knoll, or at least so Mr. Skelmersdale's story would have us believe. It is on top of this very Knoll that Mr. Skelmersdale fell asleep after an argument with his betrothed, and awake to quite a different world to the one he had fallen asleep to; how he got there remains a mystery. There were decidedly differences in the scenery; the trees were darker, and they completely hid the sky (which seems, as the narrator put it, to always be hidden in Fairyland, save when the fairies are dancing). This element does seem to be expected (at least by the narrator), fitting in with his idea of what Fairyland would be (should there actually be such a place, for he is never quite certain if Mr. Skelmersdale's story is real, a dream, or fiction created by an overwrought imagination). As it is, Mr. Skelmersdale is rather allusive about the details at first, and sketchy on some of the finer details, but what he does remember is priceless.
For instance, he describes the trees as being dark, but lit up by scores of glow worms lying on the turf underneath, giving one a sense of playfulness, not foreboding in the least. While a bit vague on the details of what the elven inhabitants of the land were wearing, he gives the illusion that they are quite friendly, their garments light and airy, very bright in hue (quite in keeping with the bright light of the glow worms on the ground). These glow worms also lit up a broad avenue; the very avenue on which he first met the Fairy Lady. (As the purpose of this assignment is to focus on the land itself and not the people, I will forgo the temptation of describing in detail the very beautiful and elegant Lady, but suffice it to say that she surpassed even the lightness and beauty of the land in which she dwelt).
He speaks of "pink toadstool things" and "great open spaces where the fairies would dance and have races, of great pools of water where they would bath, and moss-covered thickets where they made love. Though his memory of his time in Fairy Land may have holes in it, he gives the impression of a capricious, light-hearted, enchanted land of much merriment and laughter. The narrator of the tale certainly seemed to hold no contrary view of Fairy Land, so in this sense, I find it safe to conclude that the depiction was exactly what he expected it to be. That is until...
It was time for Mr. Skelmersdale to leave the Land in the Knoll and return to the human realm, and that is when things take a very definite dark and unexpectedly malevolent twist. The Fairy Lady leads him to a 'great cavernous place, lit by a red nightlight sort of thing", piled high with coffers of gold boxes and trinkets, guarded by a band of gnomes. At her insistence, they try to pay the young man for staying with her for so long, but at the last minute he has a change of heart and runs after her; one would assume back to the land of beauty from which he came...wrong.
He emerged from the cave into a long grotto, and finally to a 'great desolate place', filled with mocking will-o-wisps and gnomes dancing their derision of him. Quite a difference from his earlier welcome!! He begin a perilous flight through a swampy land of briers and weeds, with roots and vines jutting out to trip and scratch him at every turn. In fact, it was due to a gnarled root that caused him to lose his footing that he managed to 'escape'; he fell and when he awoke, he was back atop the Knoll in human land, three weeks time having elapsed after his initial departure.
The story does not end happily (his betrothed marries someone else), but again, that is not the point of the assignment, I suppose (though tragic nonetheless). I do believe, that whether or not Mr. Skelmersdale actually survived a visit to Fairy Land and returned to tell of it, or whether it was an elaborate dream, it showed without a doubt that the land is certainly much more complex than one would initially be led to believe. Which, incidentally, mirrors my view of most things..nothing is truly light or truly dark but a mixture of both. And that perhaps, is the most intriguing thing of all (at least to me) about the Fairy Realm. It is the complexity, the nuances, and the subtle shifts that draw me in, the light and the dark working together to create something..magical.
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