The Spirited Review - Child of Faerie, Child of Earth

Child of Faerie, Child of Earth by Jane Yolen, ill. by Jane Dyer

He was a child of faerie folk,
A child of sky and air,
And she was a child of humankind,
Of earth and toil and care.

Thus begins an unusual interpretation of a familiar myth. A fearless child of earth meets a faerie boy in the woods on Hallow's Eve, and he brings her to his halls to dance the night away. Yet in the morning she brings him back to dance the day with her on human earth. Each of them is enchanted by the other's home, but remains more in love with their own. The gift of an egg and a feather bind the two across the borders, and through their long lives, human and faerie remain fast friends.

The earth-loving spirit of this story is subtly evident from the first page. Unlike the many stories that glamorize the aloof, isolate aspects of the mythos of the fey, this story recognizes and celebrates the land. When the faerie boy brings her to his hall, it is a dirt-soiled hand he takes, and her head is garlanded by the flowers of her own earth, not by rainbows or dew. When she brings him to her own home, he is "full of awe" for the glory of the place, for the animals, for milk and for bread, for the simple work of cleaning and living. There is no derision of the earth or of her richness here. Dyer's paintings give honor to the land; both the day earth and the halls of faerie are saturated with color, with vigor and beauty.

Too often have authors and illustrators rendered the earth voiceless beside the mystery of the fey, or presented the options as a dichotomous rift. In Child of Faerie, Child of Earth, Yolen and Dyer offer a healing bridge across the lands of night and day, of solitude and community, of sun and moon, of human and fey. Here the spirit does not transcend the earth, but instead weaves a path between possibilities.

It is also worth commenting that both children remain loving of their lands, their homes, their communities. In this time of cultural unrootedness, Child of Faerie, Child of Earth recognizes the need to remain.

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