One of my favorite preoccupations when it comes to research and writing is folklore, specifically tales of faeries. Most of the fictional characters I write about are either faeries or mortals who encounter them, and I can’t resist a book about the Folk.
I’ve been interested in faerie folklore for a long time, but it’s only in the past year that I’ve really begun to indulge in it again. Like most things that I love, I went through an odd spate of years where I decided that I should have grown out of it, and set it aside, only to come back and wonder why I had been so silly.
When I look back at what initially piqued my interest, I realize that I can blame it all on three things:
Tithe by Holly Black
I read Tithe the Spring of my freshman year of high school, and it’s one of those books that left such an impression on me that I even have an indelible memory of reading it, not just the words, but the setting: sitting on the front porch of my high school, on a cold April day, waiting for my mom to pick me up. Tithe really was the beginning for me. It’s where I learned about changelings and the Sidhe, where I first saw faeries as anything but tiny women in flower petal dresses. It was the first time I read a book about faeries that were dangerous. For whatever reason, this was the only Holly Black book that I got around to reading for years, and it was only when I reread it–and read the other two books in the trilogy–last year that I realized what a profound influence it had on my writing.
Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Strangely, this is the book that I remembered kicking off my faerie obsession, but according to the reading log I kept at the time, I actually read it after Tithe. I had already read the volumes of Sandman that I could find at the library, but Stardust was my introduction to Neil Gaiman’s prose and, well, things were just never the same after that. He quickly became my favorite author, due largely in part to this story of fallen stars and witches and ghost princes.
Labyrinth
I had a lot of issues with my English teacher freshman and sophomore year, but one thing she did that I will always be grateful for is deciding to show our class Labyrinth. Looking back, I’m not sure why she did it. She had to have suspected that a sparkly ’80s fantasy musical would not appeal to 90% of the class. It was a rural high school. It was a very horses, Wranglers, country music, Skoal can audience. There was a lot of tittering about David Bowie’s bulge. But I fell in love with everything about the movie… except maybe the Fireys.
This isn’t a definitive list of faerie-related media that I consumed around that time, of course. The artwork of Charles Vess, Charles de Lint’s Newford stories, and the wonderful anthology The Faery Reel did their part, too. But I like threes, and when it comes down to the biggest influences, Tithe, Stardust, and Labyrinth are it. The faerie trinity.
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