The marble lady materializes, but Anodos attempts to grab her. He later finds this pedestal, and, figuring a way in which to trick the statues into continuing to dance as he enters the room, he eventually sings to the pedestal. He dreams of the marble lady, that she alone has an empty pedestal among the statues. Hearing the last vestiges of song from the corridors, and considering the statues as recently frozen into immobility upon his approach, Anodos ventures deeper and deeper into the halls. In one such wandering, he comes upon corridors filled with still statues. Cosmo is a believer in fantasy who sacrifices his life to free the soul of his lover from an enchanted mirror (whether the event was a fictional story made by an author from Fairy Land or if it was a recording from an event in Anodos' world is left ambiguous).Īnodos spends much time in the palace, relating his various wanderings and readings. Anodos also finds his shadow, an evil presence that follows and torments Anodos throughout the rest of the story.Īnodos finds a palace that mysteriously belongs to him, and it contains a room with an inscription that reads "Sir Anodos." In the palace, he reads the story of Cosmo of Prague. Anodos then meets a woman and her daughter who believe in fairy tales and the magic of Fairy Land, despite the disbelief of the woman's husband. The spirit of the Ash Tree joins the Maid and is close to killing Anodos when he is saved by Sir Percivale (who chopped the actual ash tree with an axe). However, this lady is actually the Maid of the Alder Tree in disguise. He pursues the lady and finds a woman he believes to be her. After he sings to it, the statue flees from him.
He then has a nightmarish encounter with the spirit of the Ash Tree, escapes, and finds rest in the warmth and love of the Beech Tree's spirit.Īfter this, he finds the statue (fondly called "my Marble Lady" by Anodos) by Pygmalion. The flowers, he is told, die if the fairies leave. He then explores the world of the fairies, which live in flowers, causing them to glow. He is told that the spirits of these trees can leave their tree-hosts and wander throughout Fairy Land. He discovers that he has been transported to Fairy Land.Īnodos then encounters a woman and her daughter in a cottage who warn him about the Ash Tree and the Alder Tree, who seek to destroy him. After the fairy shows him Fairy Land in a vision, Anodos awakes the next day to find that his room, crafted after natural elements, is taking literal form and transforming into a wood. He discovers an ancient fairy lady (whom he learns to be his grandmother) in the desk which he opens with a key that he inherited as a birthright from his late father. The tale starts the day after Anodos' twenty-first birthday.
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