How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The guard is relaxed once every nine years, on May Day, when a fair comes to the meadow. (1.17)
So, let's get this straight: Two men with bats guard this opening in the wall, never letting anyone through to the ordinary looking meadow on the other side. And maintaining this boundary is so important that two dudes enforce it, day and night. But it's totally fine to allow people to go through once every nine years? We're guessing there's some reason for this strict rule to be in place, but we're not exactly sure what. Plus, what's being guarded? Is it the human world or the Faerie world?
Quote #2
"Soon my time will be done, and you will take my remains deep into the mountain, to the Hall of Ancestors […] If you do not do this thing, you will each be cursed, and the tower of Stormhold shall tumble and fall." (3.10)
The dying Lord of Stormhold lays a binding curse upon his surviving sons—they have to do what he says, or risk the future of their home. It would seem like a common courtesy to make sure your dad is buried properly when he dies, but apparently these Stormhold people need a little more convincing than usual in order to follow the rules, especially when it comes to handling deaths in the family.
Quote #3
But Faerie is bigger than England, as it is bigger than the world (for, since the dawn of time, each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't there has taken refuge in Faerie; so it is now, by the time that we come to write of it, a most huge place indeed, containing every manner of landscape and terrain). (3.49)
Faerie doesn't seem to follow the normal rules that govern geography. In the normal world, when land moves, it's because of an earthquake or shifting tectonic plates or whatever. In Faerie, it could be because an imaginary land needs a new home. Cartographers of Faerie must have flexible imaginations and endless patience.