Cinematic portrayals of the fairy dimension

Abstract

This thesis discusses cinematic portrayals of three different phases of the pilgrimage to, within, and from Fairyland, or the fairy dimension, as I am choosing to call it throughout my thesis. Discussions of the three phases of the pilgrimage are divided into three case studies from three different films. The case studies are organised into three main chapters accordingly. They contain analyses and interpretations of specific scenes and settings from the respective films. The pilgrims featured in all three case studies are mortal men who either wander or enter obliviously or get delivered from peril into the depths of hidden realms inhabited by ethereal beings. As a pilgrimage is a journey to, within, and from a sacred site, I am treating the fairy dimension as a sacred site - an ambiguous realm of intersection between Heaven and Earth. As the pilgrims experience their communion with the ethereal world and its inhabitants, they undergo specific rites of passage where they absorb secret knowledge from which the rest of mortal-kind is deprived. As the fairy dimension and its inhabitants bestow upon the pilgrims this secret knowledge, the pilgrims develop a permanent bond with the fairy dimension, establishing their superior identity in the process, even though they eventually leave the fairy dimension as the evolution of their pilgrimage dictates. All three cases studies are directed by two common themes: 1) the pilgrim's symbolic death from his previous status as established by mortal society, and 2) the pilgrim's rite of rebirth into a superior identity that cannot be measured by the standards of mortal society, as this superior identity is permanently tied to the ethereal world. Each case study interprets such common themes in drastically contrasting ways. Through such constrasts, the co-evolution between mortal-kind and fairy-folk takes on various manifestations that are diverging by way of portrayals of enchantment, inspiration, obstacles, morality, and interpretations of heroism.