Tales Before Tolkien The Roots Of Modern Fantasy

The Elves by Ludwig Tieck Translated by Thomas Carlyle In his famous essay "On Fairy-stories" Tolkien wrote that "Faerie is a perilous land, and in it are pitfalls for the unwary and dungeons for the overbold." Ludwig Tieck's story of the young girl Mary and her encounter with the Elves is one of the very best stories of the German kunstmarchen, or "literary fairy tales." Here the otherworldly and perilous nature of Faerie that Tolkien later described is very evident. "The Elves" was first published in volume 1 (1812) of Tieck's three-volume Phantasus. The translation into English by Thomas Carlyle first appeared in German Romance (1827). "Where is our little Mary?" said the father. "She is playing out upon the green there with our neighbour's boy," replied the mother. "I wish they may not run away and lose themselves," said he; "they are so thoughtless." The mother looked for the little ones, and brought them their evening luncheon. "It is warm," said the boy; "and Mary had a longing for the red cherries." "Have a care, children," said the mother, "and do not run too far from home, and not into the wood; Father and I are going to the fields." Little Andres answered: "Never fear, the wood frightens us; we shall sit here by the house, where there are people near us." The mother went in, and soon came out again with her husband. They locked the door, and turned towards the fields to look after their labourers, and see their hay-harvest in the meadow. Their house lay upon a little green height, encircled by a pretty ring of paling, which likewise enclosed their fruit and flower garden. The hamlet stretched somewhat deeper down, and on the other side lay the castle of the Count. Martin rented the large farm from this nobleman; and was living in contentment with his wife and only child; for he yearly saved some money, and had the prospect of becoming a man of substance by his industry, for the ground was productive, and the Count not illiberal. As he walked with his wife to the fields, he gazed cheerfully round and said: "What a different look this quarter has, Brigitta, from the place we lived in formerly! Here it is all so green; the whole village is bedecked with thick-spreading fruit-trees; the ground is full of beautiful herbs and flowers; all the houses are cheerful and cleanly, the inhabitants are at their ease: nay, I could almost fancy that the woods are greener here than elsewhere, and the sky bluer; and, so far as the eye can reach, you have pleasure and delight in beholding the bountiful Earth." "And whenever you cross the stream," said Brigitta, "you are, as it were, in another world, all is so dreary and withered; but every traveller declares that our village is the fairest in the country far and near." "All but that fir-ground," said her husband; "do but look back to it, how dark and dismal that solitary spot is lying in the gay scene: the dingy fir-trees with the smoky huts behind them, the ruined stalls, the brook flowing past with a sluggish melancholy." "It is true," replied Brigitta; "if you but approach that spot, you grow disconsolate and sad, you know not why. What sort of people can they be that live there, and keep themselves so separate from the rest of us, as if they had an evil conscience?" "A miserable crew," replied the young Farmer: "gipsies, seemingly, that steal and cheat in other quarters, and have theirAnderson, Douglas A. is the author of 'Tales Before Tolkien The Roots Of Modern Fantasy', published 2005 under ISBN 9780345458568 and ISBN 0345458567.