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07 May 2019

and a spell / his voice laid on her






Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinuviel! Tinuviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her:  
(FR 1.xi.192)
I can think of no other instance of a human enchanting, or appearing to enchant, a fairy, except for this:
TITANIA:
I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:
Mine ear is much enamour'd of thy note;
So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me
On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee. 
(MND 3.1.130-34)

I am just going to leave this here. It's just something I noticed in the middle of the night. It reminds me of what Tolkien does with Birnam Wood and 'No man of woman born'.

I would love to hear of other instances.

1 comment:

  1. Perhaps not exactly the same categories, but some stories of Hermaphroditus describe how the human male ensnared the nymph Salmacis - although, as Hermaphroditus was the son of Hermes and Aphrodite in the first place, perhaps it's pushing it to say it is a human ensnaring a fairy! (See Ovid, Metamorphoses, IV.274–388)

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