49 pages • 1 hour read
Heather FawcettEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Natural World
Faeries are often described as linked with the natural world in literature. The faeries explored in Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries are not an exception. Unlike the descriptions for the novel’s human characters, with the emergence of each faerie character, Fawcett employs imagery and metaphor to relate their appearances to the natural world. Even when Wendell’s identity is still in question, the descriptions of his appearance and behavior are related to the natural world. When explaining the allure of Wendell’s eyes, Emily claims: “[they’re] not actually black, but the green of a forest at dusk, something you notice only when you are very close. [She] ha[s] seen people become lost in that gaze, foolishly wandering about and entangling themselves in thorns and God knows what else” (63). By relating his eyes to foliage green and meeting his gaze like getting lost in the forest, Emily subtly alludes to his faerie ancestry.
The changeling in Mord’s attic is described as “pale as moonlight on slow” with long, blue and translucent hair, and “upon his skin was a glimmer like frost” (75). In addition to his physical descriptions, which are in relation to weather and landscapes evident in the natural world, the faerie’s illusions he conjures to frighten his foster parents and their guests depict the natural world as well. Hallucinations of gaping chasms and snapping wolves assault Emily’s walk upstairs to his bedroom and the screams he inserts in her mind “had the cadence of a winter gale” (72). When the changeling is finally returned to his faerie mother, she is indeed a part of the Hidden King’s people, who are directly connected to the season of winter.
Similarly, when Emily encounters the terrifying bogle on her rescue mission for Lilja and Margret, she describes them as “little more than bone with something resembling skin draped overtop, but everything about them was planed and angular like ice chipped into faerie shape” (161). The bogles are part of the winter faerie realms and are in close association with the region’s Hidden Ones, which travel with the snows. This connection is evidenced in Emily’s perception of their appearance, seemingly made of chipped ice.
Words of Power
The concept of Words of Power in the novel symbolizes the power language has with the Folk, which is a significant part of faerie folklore. Folklore suggests that faeries are beholden to their bargains, and that humans who enter into bargains with the fae must be incredibly diligent and specific with their wording. Emily is very particular with her wording when making bargains with the fae; her neat answers have “gotten [her] out of many close calls, for whatever you promise a faerie you must provide, or you will lose everything” (42). It is also common in folklore for faeries to be unable to tell lies, which makes them masters of manipulating the truth through clever wordplay that humans often overlook.
The Words of Power are enchantments that hold power over the Folk. They are highly coveted and there are people who devote their lives to collecting as many as possible to achieve power. Emily knows two: one to retrieve buttons and another to enact temporary invisibility. Though the actual Words of Power are never disclosed explicitly in the narration (implying the need to withhold this information in her field notes), Emily does use them to achieve powerful feats. The word which retrieves buttons is seemingly “useless, ridiculous […] which [Emily] had long valued as a piece of esoteric trivia, a footnote, perhaps, in a paper [she] had yet to write” (241). The button-retrieving word ends up being the most powerful and influential word in the novel, as it frees the Hidden king who has been trapped for years. Similarly to Words of Power, language is also a powerful tool in terms of the Folk’s true names; using the true name of the changeling effectively banishes it from Hrafnsvik and retrieves Mord and Aslaug’s stolen human child.
Bargains
Bargains serve as a motif for Transactional Versus Unconditional Relationships. Emily views all her relationships as transactional. She doesn’t necessarily view this as a bad thing, as she knows many stories of a “poor, long-suffering mortal [who] gives away a troublesome faerie-made gift in exchange for something mundane, but which reveals unexpected uses. Sometimes that is then traded for something even more wondrous, and on and on it goes” (305). Emily is used to these types of relationships, where a mutual exchange is made between two parties. She is not used to the exchange of pleasantries and personal life details that comes with true friendship. Her skill with bargaining is depicted in both a positive and negative light. It helps her immensely with her faerie research, but it harms her relationships with other people.
When Emily arrives in Hrafnsvik, she intends to keep all her relationships transactional, both with the Folk and the townspeople. She’s soon perplexed when her bargains are ignored and villagers become offended when she doesn’t accept their one-sided help. While she doesn’t have success with the villagers, Emily does make strides in her research through bargains with Poe. Poe eventually makes Emily his fjolskylda, indicating a bond formed between humans and Brownies, where Brownies provide magical services for their human in exchange for certain conditions. While fjolskylda means “family” in Ljoslander, it is still a relationship built upon bargains. Poe explains his partner’s previous fjolskylda as someone she “always made fair exchanges with” (237). To become a faerie’s fjolskylda means a great deal to Emily, who becomes emotional by the news. She’s never had any unconditional relationships among other humans, which makes receiving even this rare, but transactional relationship with Poe significant in meaning.
