The Topography of Elf-land

A quick word about geography, or topography, if these words can really be used about an imaginary place. When Thomas was abducted, where did he go?

When the Queen shows him the three (or five) roads, these are apparently metaphorical - in the same way Jesus used the image in the first place as a metaphor for our life choices. Yet straight after this, they travel on one of them, the one to Elf-land, the Queen's realm.

The geography of elf-land is not entirely consistent in the various folk-tales, but it does have some common elements, and I think these can be traced back to the pre-Christian mythology which seems to be the source or inspiration for many of these tales. In many of these stories, the earth that we live on is known as "middle earth", the term later used (quite differently) by Tolkien for the land in which the Lord of the Rings takes place. This suggests that the earth is between two things - the underworld, and the sky or over-world.

These two places should not be confused with the Christian heaven and hell - the underworld is not a place of torture, nor is the overworld a place of bliss. They are simply different places, with different inhabitants and different laws. In one of the stories in the Mabinogion, the Lord of the Underworld swaps places with the Lord of middle-earth, and rules it so well that the middle-earth lord can only get his kingdom back by trickery.

Other stories suggest that the fairies or elves are inhabitants of the underworld (while the sky is inhabited by various flying creatures and by the stars, which are creatures of another kind). For instance, fairies are often shown to be living in caves, or under hills, and people who stray into their realm are shown as wandering aimlessly through underground passages. (Fairies only grow wings in later literary creations).

This topography explains two things - their fear of light (since they live underground they would be photophobic), and their nearness to humans (they live just beneath us, out of sight but not far away). It also explains the most typical places they emerge - from caves, beside wells, at freshwater springs - places of contact between the underworld and the surface.

This would suggest, then, that Thomas, instead of being taken over the hills to the south (towards England) was taken under them - through a natural or a magical entrance - into the underworld. If the Huntly Stream is the place of meeting, he could in fact have been taken upstream to the source on the hillside and then followed it underground. I'm not sure that the actual Huntly Stream goes underground, but the water has to come from somewhere!!