Child of Faerie, Child of Earth (Academy Storytime)
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Hate speech
4
sentences flagged
Summary
Child of Fairy, Child of Earth by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Jane Dyer. A story about a child of fairy folk and her encounter with a creature of night, and what might happen if you went into the enchanted forest at night.
Transcript
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Hi, my friends. Welcome to Storytime with Gidea Sheila McNallan. That is me. I am one of the
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teachers with our Alsatru Academy and I have some very special children's books
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that I'll be sharing with you. One I've chosen for today is especially for today
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because today is Halloween and this is a Halloween story. In the story in the
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book it is called Hallowed Evening because that is what Halloween is. It's
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shortened to Halloween but it is a remarkable story about enchanted
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forest and what might happen if you would go into the forest tonight. It is
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called Child of Fairy, Child of Earth by Jane Yolen, and the pictures are by Jane
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Dyer. The little girl in the story carries a lantern, but if you look at
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this picture you can see her there in the back wearing her orange and red outfit right up in
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the tree look closely there's somebody watching and he's wearing green he was a child of fairy folk
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a child of sky and air and she was a child of humankind of earth and toil and care they met
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on the dusk of Hallow's Eve, when widows grieve and widows weave, they met in the dark of Hallow's
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Eve, she had flowers in her hair. And again, take a look now. She's collecting flowers.
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he says to her and where do you go oh child of earth oh why do you wander here are you not afraid
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of the fairy race whose castles are so near she says mana says there's no such thing as fairy wing
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and elven's ring she says there's never been such a thing and i should have no fear
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He took her by her dirt soiled hands and led her to his hall.
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He showed her brownies and boggles and sprites and elven folk and all.
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She ate the grass, she drank the dew, the fairy brew of rainbow hue.
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And ever after Halloween, clothed all in green,
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my fairy queen, you'll be the loveliest ever seen,
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she could live there and be the queen of the fairies.
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It looks very nice, but this is right and that.
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And she says, she looked around the fairy hall beneath the hollow hill and all the glamour
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around her spun to bend her to his will. But with a sigh, she shook her head. That's not my bread
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and drink, she said. I cannot on your food be fed, and still my needs fulfill.
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But since I've danced with you this night, this day you dance with me.
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She took him by his grass green sleeve and led him o'er the lea.
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She led him down the farmyard road, past meadows mowed and gardens hoed.
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She led him o'er the human road and full of awe was he.
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never seen such things. He was a creature of night. And there they are.
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They stroke the cat, they milk the cow, they fed each chick and hen. He marveled
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at the sounds and smells of barn and yarn, yard and pen. He drank cold milk and ate brown bread.
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He made a bed. He cleaned a shed. He followed everywhere she led and round about again.
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Again, there they are. He's standing behind feeding the chickens.
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Oh, stay with me, dear fairy child, and live here on the land.
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We'll till the soil, we'll plow the field, we'll harvest hand in hand.
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The night is fair, but day is best, so be my guest, forget the rest.
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and on and on her suit she pressed with strong and sure demand hmm what's gonna
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He looked around the human world, a world of gold and brown, a world where farmyard turns
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to village, village into town, a world of colors pure and bright, of open sight, of
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warm sunlight unlike the shadowed world of night of moon and thistle down remember
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what his home is like that's where he lives he thought about the fairy hills
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the fairy queens and kings he thought about the cold cold stars that shone on
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fairy wings I miss my own I cannot stay you work I play I must away I'll keep
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the night and you the day, he stretched translucent wings.
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Oh wait, oh wait, she cried to him, at least a gift I'll give, reminding you that
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here above is where a friend does live and through the daylight world again
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plus past denizen of farm and pen she tracked past horse and cow and hen to
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find a gift to give hmm there she is wonder what you'll find that's pretty simple
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At last she found a fresh hen's egg, a gift from humankind, so he'd remember earth and
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Then in return he touched the shell, and with a spell of fare thee well, extracted from
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that fragile shell. A feather to remind. What did he do? He took a feather out of the egg without
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breaking it. And here it is. Here's the feather. I give you this that comes from that, the fairy
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child replied that egg and feather both shall serve as token and as guide that
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we may both go arm-in-arm and fear no harm nor take alarm when visiting in
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in a hall or a farm or other lands besides and there he is with his feather for her
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ah here we go time has passed they're grown up the gifts exchanged they each went back
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to homes they loved full well but now and then they visited helped by a fairy spell
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and through the years and though the years flew quickly past they were friends fast
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from first to last which left all skeptics flabbergasted at how they did so well
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So in this last picture, there's another fairy child.
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So if one lucky Hallows Eve you hear the night birds sing and see a child of fairy guise with
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bright and gauzy wing, a flutter in a moonlit glade, and all arrayed in silver shade. Be
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bold, be brave, be unafraid, and join that fairy ring.
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Wow. I wonder if you'd do that. Tonight if you're out walking around, if you go into
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the woods, do you think you'd find any fairies there? Well, we believe in the land, Vaiteer.
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all know that we have land spirits at our land and it could be that one looks like a fairy maybe a
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fairy boy or fairy girl but what's special about this is that when they left they exchanged a gift
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we call that gabo the rune is gabo we look like this it's a gift for a gift he gave she gave him
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the egg he gave her the feather from the egg and that was bound their friendship
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forever until they grew very old together and stayed friends could they
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live together no no he was a child of night she was a child of day the very
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world the human world and right now Halloween is when the veil is thin and
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things can happen like that as it shows in this story it's also a time for us to
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connect with our mothers and our grandmothers and all those ancestors who've gone on because
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the veil is thin for them too. Maybe tonight, new dream, you will get somebody that you
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don't really quite know who will whisper in your ear or touch you and make you feel very
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loved because those are our ancestors and they're always with us. I'm going to have
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more stories for you soon. I hope you enjoyed this. This is especially my Halloween story,
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but I like it any time of year it's a feel-good story and it's a beautiful
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poem there are lots of good words in here for you to learn so maybe your
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parents can go can get a copy of the book and read it with you and you'll
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learn a lot from it thank you for being here I hope to see you and more of these
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story times and if you're not in the Austria Academy maybe your parents could
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enroll you in it we'd love to see you it is a home school for our children here
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the austrofocus family thank you and happy halloween happy samhain and happy winter nights
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may our ancestors be with you and give you great blessings and love this night bye