Short Fiction · Chapter
VII: The Banished Fairies explained
This chapter describes the moral decline of a tribe of fairies who engaged in wicked deeds, including stealing children and breaking promises.
What happens
This chapter describes the moral decline of a tribe of fairies who engaged in wicked deeds, including stealing children and breaking promises. Their queen sought the Carasoyn, a magical remedy, but when Colin obtained it, the vapors transformed the fairies into old men and women, banishing them from their native Scottish hills to the rich valleys of Devon. The chapter explores the punishment of exile—the fairies' restless longing for their homeland, the deadness that falls on a landscape when fairies leave, and the difficulty of adapting to a new environment.
Themes in this chapter
Moral Growth and Redemption
The fairy queen's longing for the Carasoyn arises from her misery over the tribe's wickedness, suggesting a desire for moral improvement, though the punishment of banishment precludes immediate redemption.
Suffering and Divine Chastening
The fairies' banishment is a punishment for their moral declension, causing them to wander restlessly and long for their lost home—a form of suffering that serves as chastening.
Reality vs. Illusion
The fairies' new home in Devon, though objectively beautiful, feels alien and unsatisfying because it is not their true home, illustrating the gap between external reality and inner belonging.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“Not till Colin arose did she succeed. But the Carasoyn was only for really good people, and therefore when the iron bottle which contained it was uncorked, she, and all her attendants, were, by the vapours thereof, suddenly changed into old men and women fairies.”
Only when Colin appeared did the queen finally obtain the Carasoyn. However, because the Carasoyn was meant only for the truly virtuous, uncorking the iron bottle released vapors that instantly transformed the queen and her attendants into elderly fairies.
This passage explains the immediate consequence of obtaining the Carasoyn: the fairies' punishment through transformation.
“For when the wickedness of any fairy tribe reaches its climax, the punishment that falls upon them is, that they are compelled to leave that part of the country where they and their ancestors have lived for more years than they can count, and wander away, driven by an inward restlessness, ever longing after the country they have left, but never able to turn round and go back to it...”
When a fairy tribe's evil deeds reach their peak, their punishment is forced exile from their ancestral homeland. They are driven by an inner restlessness, always yearning to return but never able to do so.
This describes the nature of the fairies' punishment: perpetual exile and longing.
“Now that which happens to the aspect of a country when the fairies leave it, is that a kind of deadness falls over the landscape.”
When fairies depart from a region, the landscape loses its vitality and becomes dull and lifeless.
This explains the tangible effect of the fairies' absence on the natural world.