Storybook Guide/Key

Author: Sarah Tucker

Head Elder Titania stood and addressed the Council, Arethusa, and the assistants. "After much debate, the Council has reached a decision about the fate of Arethusa. The Council finds that Arethusa is guilty of committing child abuse and abandonment against her niece Ellette and of exposing our culture to humans.

The punishments that the Council considers as punishments for crimes are: Státseirbhís, a lighter punishment where the accused must perform service to the community for a specific period. The next level of punishment is Fineáil a Ghearradh, a fine imposed upon the accused. For severe crimes, the punishment is Déan Cúlghairm ar Reiligiúnacha, which bans the accused from religious rites for a specific period. The final and irrevocable punishment, which is only given for the most heinous crimes, is Pionós an Bháis, death.

Arethusa's punishment for child abandonment is Déan Cúlghairm ar Reiligiúnacha for five harvests and her punishment for exposing fairy culture is Státseirbhís for fourteen nights. Her punishment is to begin immediately and the Council places Radella in charge of making sure that Arethusa's punishments are fulfilled.

The Council and I wish to have Elder Foster oversee the next case because it is in regards to one of his people."

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Orin, at the request of Elder Foster, introduces the next case while Radella brings in the accused in the next case. Orin begins to describe the charges and circumstances surrounding the next case.

"The elf, Hefeydd, is accused of allowing the sacred cup of Ynys-Witrin to fall into the hands of a human during the Lughnasad festival on the outskirts of the sea-side town of Gipse. Hefeydd was an attendant in charge of allowing the partakers of the festivities to take a sip of wine from the sacred cup of Ynys-Witrin, which would bless the partakers with increased fertility.

From the information I and other investigators were able to uncover, a human, from the town of Gipse, overheard the singing and merrymaking from the festival and rode over on his horse to investigate. When the human entered the festival by crawling through the barrow to the hollowed area of the burial site where the festival took place, the elfin attendant Hefeydd offered the human a sip from the cup of Ynys-Witrin. The human then poured the sacred wine onto the ground and fled the festival with the cup of Ynys-Witrin.

Once the fairies and elves at the festival noticed that the human had stolen the cup of Ynys-Witrin, they attempted to follow the human but the human as he was riding his horse, had to much of a head start and they were unable to reclaim the cup of Ynys-Witrin. From what I and the other investigators could find, the cup of Ynys-Witrin was given to the human King Henry and due to his protection against fairy and elfin magic we were unable to retrieve the cup from his possession."

Orin concluded, "Let it be known that due to Hefeydd's lack of attention to his surroundings, he allowed one of the most sacred objects in the all of Divei Ilai to fall into the hands of humans, forever lost to us."

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After Orin's recounting of the alleged crimes, Elder Foster addressed the Council and Hefeydd.

"The Council will take into consideration the irrevocable nature of the alleged crimes when it makes its decision. Radella, please remove Hefeydd from the Council until we have made a decision."

Author's Note:

I did not really change a lot of the original story; I felt that by adding more details I could flesh out the original story and make it work within my storybook. The Festival of Lughnasadh is an actual festival in Celtic/Pagan religion. The festival is a summer festival that is linked with the harvest. This is the reason why in the story I connected the festival with fertility. The name of the sacred cup, Ynys-Witrin, is part of the Celtic legend of Avalon. It is actually the name for an island in the legend but I thought it was a great name and wanted to incorporate it into my story. I also used historical Celtic law procedures about crime and punishment when I created the different levels of punishments.

Image Information:

"The Fairies' Banquet" by John Anster Fitzgerald (c) 1859
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Biblography:

Title: The Fairy Banquet
Author: Thomas Keightley
Book and Year: The Fairy Mythology (1870)
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