Studio Ghibli Borrows The Borrowers

I’ve recently been re-reading the classic children’s book The Borrowers, by Mary Norton. It’s about a family of tiny people who live in a hole beneath a large clock in a bedridden old woman’s house. They make their living by taking things from human beings, an activity that they call “borrowing”. Our matchboxes serve as dressers for them, a tureen is a bathtub, and coins are their plates. Of course, they also steal bits of food, but even tiny bread crumbs are quite substantial for them. The author suggests that Borrowers are a more contemporary version of the magical race traditionally referred to as “little people”. However, when the daughter of the tiny family, who is named Arrietty, is asked if she is a fairy, she flatly denies it and even claims that she doesn’t believe in them!
Arrietty forms a secret friendship with a human boy who was sent to the house to recuperate from rheumatic fever. Being “seen” by people often leads to Borrowers being chased out of their homes by cats and unsympathetic adults, so Arrietty’s parents are naturally very upset by this turn of events. Unfortunately, the humans in this novel do not prove themselves to be an exception to this rule. Several sequels to The Borrowers involve the tiny family having to relocate to less hospitable habitats, including a tea kettle located precariously near a river!
By coincidence, I found out that an upcoming Studio Ghibli movie happens to be based on The Borrowers. For those of you not familiar with Ghibli, it is a wonderful animation studio headed by Hiyao Miyazaki. It is the Japanese equivalent of Disney and is responsible for such brilliant children’s films as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service. The new movie will be called Karigurashi no Arrietty and is scheduled for summer, 2010. I’ve included an image of a promotional poster for the upcoming film. If you go to see it, don’t forget to share your popcorn with the Borrowers that are surely under the seats of your local movie theater!
--Joelle Mellon

Christmas Spirit

This past Sunday, I was driving home through a nearby neighborhood with very large, well groomed houses built in the 1920's, many of them newly decorated for the Christmas holiday. Christmas music was playing on my radio but I was resistant to the spirit of Christmas, saddened because my brother is no longer with us. When I rounded a particular corner in said neighborhood, there was a very large tree, four stories tall that a local tree service decorates with lights and the neighbors were gathering for the 'lighting of the tree'. It was charming. When I arrived home, I had an email from Sue Miller, artist of the image attached to this post. You see, Sue also lost her brother this year. I was encouraged that although Sue is feeling the same feelings, she painted a Santa! And I love this Santa! And I love Christmas! Thank you Sue, for helping to bring back the Christmas spirit!

See more of Sue's art at www.suemillerart.com

A FaerieCon Review

FaerieCon is a gathering of many people who love myth, folklore, fairy tale, costuming, music, artisans & craftsmen/women, world renowned authors and artists, and very importantly - those who enjoy being around like minded folk.
The Marriot's Hunt Valley Inn was host to the event and their staff was impressive. The set up process was very organized. Special thanks to Kal from the MD Faerie Festival, you and the team were extremely helpful AND enthusiastic!
Daytime from Friday at 1pm until Sunday at 5pm, the hallways and rooms were filled with streams of happy people, some bustling about to and from informative panels and some leisurely looking about at the creative displays filled with magical faerie finery. Many new friends were made on those days. Ideas were shared, opportunities discussed and those who sought inspiration were most certainly inspired.
Many thanks to the producers of FaerieCon, Kelly and Emilio Miller Lopez and Robert Gould, to Kimmy and the many familiar faces in the faerie community who help bring us all together.
Kim


Matt 'Lycan' Hunt, Faerie Magazine graphic designer/photographer and Mark Lewis, MC extraordinaire!

Faerie Folk in Role Playing Games (RPGS)

I’ve gotten back into participating in tabletop role playing games recently. Although the most universally recognized of them is Dungeons and Dragons, many other variations of RPGs exist. The Fair Folk abound in such games, notably in one called Changeling. The most recent version of it was published by White Wolf in 2007. It features six types of fae that players can choose to assume the identity of, including the Darklings, Fairises, and the Wizened. (The races are known as “seemings” in game terminology.)
In Dungeons and Dragons, the most canonical game, players can choose their personal avatars from several races that live in the Feywild. There are elves, which excel at archery and all activities involving stealth. The eladrin, which are cousins of the elves, specialize in magic and longsword fighting. Gnomes tend to favor stealthily moving against enemies and striking from great distances with magic. There are other faerie races in Dungeons and Dragons that cannot be used as identities for the players. Instead, they are usually considered foes of the main characters in an adventure. These include sprites, which are primarily dangerous when they swarm and umbral sprites, which hunt any creatures that cross into their domains. Gnomes that have been altered by dark magic are called spriggans. They are sometimes referred to as redcaps due to their penchant for dipping their hats and clothing in blood.
There are lots of opportunities for a faerie enthusiast to take on the identity of his or her dreams in role playing games. Many readers of this blog are probably already doing so in gaming groups all over the world. If so, please tell us a bit about any experiences you have had playing a member of the Fair Folk in a role playing game!

--Joelle

A Fairy Ring in Greensboro, North Carolina!

We have just received word of a fairy ring that has appeared in the front yard of Dale, Gloria, April and Brianna in Greensboro, NC.

There is much folklore about fairy rings. It has been the subject of many painters, writers and stories told throughout the years. For some, tradition would have it that this family must run around the ring 9 times to see if they hear the musings of fairies below. Others thought this was the portal to a fairy godmother, yet some may tell that here is a place of fertility and fortune. Is this a gateway to magical places?











Regardless, this family will take these photos to one of thier favorite places - The Carolina Renaissance Festival.

Thanks for sharing these photos with Faerie Magazine!

Especially for Gardeners: Faeries’ Favorite Herbs and Flowers

According to traditional European folk wisdom, certain herbs have strong associations with faeries. The one that is best known of all is thyme -- in Midsummer Night’s Dream, Titania even sleeps on a bed of it. Planting thyme in your garden is supposed to protect your home from faerie mischief, while wearing an essential oil distilled from this herb should allow you to see faeries. It is important to note that any thyme used to make such an oil must grow “where faeries used to be”. St. John’s Wort, now a popular herbal remedy for depression, was used in Shakespeare’s day to break spells cast by the “little folk”. It was considered especially useful for counteracting their “sickness darts”, which they threw at humans to cause illness. Rosemary bushes are said to be a favorite place for faeries to hide because of their dense foliage.

Foxglove may be the flower that faeries like best -- they supposedly enjoy sleeping in their bell-shaped blossoms. Perhaps like foxes, slightly larger fae can also wear them as gloves. Other flowers that attract magical beings to gardens are primroses and marigolds. Any night-blooming flowers that are white in color will draw faeries who prefer to fly about after dark. If you plant any herbs or flowers to attract faeries, it is advisable to leave wine and sweets out in the garden for your winged guests, so that they will bless your land.

Kiva’s 20th Anniversary Reunion Concert

For the Winter, 2005 issue of Faerie Magazine, I did an article on an amazing, magical band called Kiva. On Saturday, August 8, I was fortunate enough to attend their 20th anniversary reunion concert at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring, MD. In addition to the seven current core members (Ariana, Diana S., David, Diana M., Jim, Tim and Tigre), ten former and satellite Kiva musicians arrived to sing and play. It made for a very crowded stage but an all-encompassing sound! An Eastern dance troupe called Sister Luna was included in the festivities, adding a wonderful visual component to the show. The audience members themselves were also fascinating to behold, clothed in all manner of interesting dress. There were men in kilts, ladies in in shimmering gowns and even a young woman in elf ears! All in all, the performance lasted from 8 p.m. to well after midnight, and many audience members danced enthusiastically the entire time. At the show, Kiva offered a limited edition pre-release of their upcoming cd, So Far. It’s not leaving the cd changer in my car any time soon!

--Joelle