4
‘Why do I feel like this isn’t going to be nearly as nice as it sounds?’ said Jay.
Fairyland does sound lovely, doesn’t it? The word conjures up sweet, diminutive creatures with gossamer wings, flower gowns and stars in their hair, living in buttercup houses and feasting upon ambrosia and honey.
Most of this is nonsense. Look farther back; listen to the tales the trees tell, that the lakes and the stones remember. The Fair Folk, as they are always called in their various ways, are as diverse — and, in their own ways, as destructive — as humankind. Tolkien made bright, noble heroes of them, and sometimes that is exactly what they are. Sometimes (as with humans), the fair façade hides a rotten core.
If one is unwise or unlucky enough to set foot in Fairyland, one ought to remember this
