Fairyland orFaerie[1] (Early Modern English:Faerie;Scots:Elfame (Scottish mythology; cf.Old Norse:Álfheimr (Norse mythology)) in English and Scottish folklore is the fabulous land or abode offairies orfays.[2]Old Frenchfaierie (Early Modern Englishfaerie) referred to an illusion or enchantment, the land of thefaes. Modern English (by the 17th century)fairy transferred the name of the realm of thefays to its inhabitants,[3] e.g., the expressionfairie knight inEdmund Spenser'sThe Faerie Queene refers to a "supernatural knight" or a "knight of Faerie" but was later re-interpreted as referring to a knight who is "a fairy".[4]
Fairyland may be referred to simply asFairy orFaerie, though that usage is an archaism. It is often the land ruled by the "Queen of Fairy", and thus anything from fairyland is also sometimes described as being from the "Court of the Queen ofElfame" or from theSeelie court in Scottish folklore. TheScots wordelfame orelphyne "fairyland"[5] has other variant forms, attested inScottish witch trials, butElf-hame orElphame with the-hame stem (meaning 'home' in Scots) were conjectural readings by Pitcairn.
Records of the Scottish witch trials reveal that many initiates claimed to have had congress with the "Queen of Elfame" and her retinue. On November 8, 1576, midwifeBessie Dunlop, a resident ofDalry, Scotland, was accused of sorcery and witchcraft. She answered her accusers that she had received tuition from Thomas Reid, a former barony officer who had died at theBattle of Pinkie 30 years earlier and from the Queen of "Court of Elfame" that lay nearby.[6] It resulted in a conviction and she wasburned at the stake[7] in 1576.
Allison Peirson was burned as a witch in 1588 for conversing with the Queen of Elfame and for prescribing magic charms and potions (Byre Hills,Fife, Scotland).[8] This same woman (styled "Alison Pearson") is also featured inRobert Sempill's ballad (1583) where she is said to have been in a fairy-ride.[9][10][11] Sempill's piece mentions "Elphyne" glossed as "Elfland"[12] or "Fairyland".[5]
In the medieval verse romance and the Scottish ballad ofThomas the Rhymer, the title character is spirited away by a female supernatural being. Although identified by commentators as the Queen of Fairies, the texts refrain from specifically naming her or her domain except in ballad version A, in which she is referred to as the Queen of Elfland. Poet and novelistRobert Graves published his alteration of the ballad, replacing her name with "Queen of Elphame":
I'm not the Queen of Heaven, Thomas,
That name does not belong to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elphame
Come out to hunt in my follie.
Elfhame or Elfland is portrayed in various ways in these ballads and stories, most commonly as mystical and benevolent but sometimes as sinister and wicked. The mysteriousness of the land and its otherworldly powers are a source of skepticism and distrust in many tales. Additional journeys to the realm include the fairy tale "Childe Rowland", which presents a particularly negative view of the land.
Fairy, as a noun more or less equivalent to elf, is a relatively modern word, hardly used until the Tudor period. The first quotation in theOxford Dictionary (the only one before A.D. 1450) is significant. It is taken from the poetGower:as he were a faerie. But this Gower did not say. He wroteas he were of faerie, "as if he were come from faerie".
