Fairy (or Faerie) and Ferry are homonyms in as much as they have the same pronunciation but a different meaning. However, while their meaning is clearly distinct, Faerie or Fairy (spelled with a capital “F”) or in some cases Faërie, indicating a place or realm and a people (generally spelled with a lower case “f”) and Ferry denoting a boat for passage across water, we Silver Elves still sense a harmony between them.

When one of us elves was very young, we used to take the ferry across the Chesapeake Bay to visit our grandparents, usually very late at night, and that was a bit mysterious and magical. Although, we were quite wee elves at that time. We were at that age when nearly everything is mysterious and magical. There is some lore that states that we elfae folk cannot cross over water. The same thing is sometimes said regarding vampires, but Dracula overcame this limitation when he traveled to England from Transylvania (meaning across the forest) by sleeping in a coffin that contained the soil of his native land. Surely, if we elfae were limited in our ability to cross running water, we would have figured out we could just put some soil in our pockets or the bottom on our shoes to cross streams and rivers, etc.

And what about mermaids and nixies and selkies and sea sprites and other fae of the waters? Clearly, they can cross water and the selkies, taking on humanoid form can cross land as well. So, that bit of lore doesn’t seem to actually apply to us. Although, it may come from a sense of territoriality, since rivers, streams, etc. were commonly used as territorial boundaries in the past and even in some cases today. If we are seen as being like many animals and like men as well for that matter, not being able to cross running water may indicate that we’d be passing out of our own clan territory if we did so. It wasn’t that we couldn’t cross the water but that conflict would surely develop if we did.

You can find this idea of we elfae having territories in such works as Sylvia Townsend Warner’s The Kingdoms of Elfin, in Marie Brennan’s Onyx Court series, The War for the Oaks by Emma Bull and many of Holly Black’s books about we elfae folk as well as other books, many of which follow the legends of we elfae as having winter and summer courts that are in perpetual, as well as seasonal, conflict. Notice how, in The Fellowship of the Ring, the Nazgul who were men who had become powerful dark spirits, in other words had been transformed into Unseelie fae, were unable to cross the river and enter the Realm of Rivendell due to that elvish realm’s powerful magic that repelled them with the waters of the river rising and flooding them away.

On the other hand, we should be aware that we fae folk are often associated with death and in some Celtic lore, Faerie is the land of the dead where people went to live until they died there and then returned to another life on Earth. And it is common as well in mythology for those who die to be seen as being ferried (faerie-d?) across a river to be taken to the land of the dead. We find this prominently in Greek mythology, which also gives us tales of fauns, satyrs, dryads, nixies and myriad other fae folk. But note also Hel, the goddess of the dead in Norse lore, and her boat of the dead that her father Loki uses in the battle of Ragnarok when the trolls, giants and other ancient gods confront the warrior gods of the Aesir and attempt to overthrow them. And notice, also, the tradition among the Norse of sending warriors to the other world in a burning boat, which would be a type of ferry in a sense as well. You can also find, in the beliefs of the Dayak people of Borneo, a ship that conveys people to the land of the dead and a boat that conveys souls to the land of the dead in Egyptian lore.

But even more germane here, we should consider that when King Arthur died or was severely wounded (the tales differ in this regard), he was ferried to Avalon on a small boat by the women/witches/fae of that island to be healed, one of whom it is said was his sister Morgan la Fay (Morgan the Fae).

Water is traditionally symbolic of the mystery of creation and thus of birth, death and resurrection. However, it is also associated with purification and redemption and with fertility and growth. Carl Jung viewed it as a symbol for the unconscious elements of the psyche. The ferry crosses over the water conveying one to another land, a land that is separated by water or the unconscious or by death. It is not too much of a stretch to presume that it may very well be we elfae folk, we faerie, who do the ferrying. To enter Faerie, one must ferry or cross the unconscious realms of being, the realms of the unknown and be transformed (as death often represents transformation) and arise again in a new land. A land that is not only different from whence we came, but in which we are changed as well. The portal to Faerie then would be a ferry. Which is to say, to enter Faerie we must be transformed. And this is to say transformed as soulful spirits. A transformation of our inner nature or, in truth, a purification of our nature so we become more of who were truly are.

When we die, we change our bodies, but our spirits remain the same. This is one of the meanings of the concept of karma. We carry who we are from one incarnation to another. The very purpose of coming into material manifestation is that here we can consciously transform, hone and empower our spirits. To enter Faerie, we need to transform as spirits, as individuals, as people. Changing bodies is transubstantiation, the altering of the body and its essence. To enter Faerie, we need to change who we truly are, not necessarily what we look like. To enter Faerie, we must become faerie, which is to say more truly fae. Then Faerie will recognize us as one of its own and embrace us readily.

It is rather, in that way, like buying a new car. One can get a totally new vehicle, but that doesn’t make one a better driver. Getting into Faerie isn’t about getting a new vehicle but about becoming a better driver/enchanter. One that is better able to perceive the Faerie world and all of us who are a part of it. And then one discovers, as we and others of our kind have through the ages, that we have been here all along.

Kyela (the elven word for ‘love’ in our Silver Elves magical language Arvyndase),
The Silver Elves

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Elven Blessings dear Kindred!