Back to Faerie with H. S. Norup

Stepping into the realm of Faerie is always a wonder and a special moment for me. For H.S. Norup that wonder became some questions. She asked herself what effect the way that humans treat nature has on the world of faerie. What would happen if the fearsome faeries decided to fight back?

With thanks to Vicki Berwick, Children's Publicist at Pushkin Press this Q&A was able to happen and I, now you, can learn more about Faerie Hill and its companion story. I urge you to visit H.S Norup's website too, there are fantastic resources and lots of fascinating background information about herself and her books. Now, to that Q&A we go...

Your newest book, The Changeling Child, continues the story of Alfred and Saga which began in Into the Faerie Hill. What prompted you to continue the story? It was always my plan to continue Alfred’s and Saga’s story. I love these characters and the world of the fearsome faeries, and I knew from the start that this story world was too expansive to fit into a single book. So, although each book can be read as a standalone adventure, there are story threads that span the trilogy.

These books are both set on the border between the world we all know and the world that only some are aware of. Is this a border you have ever been close to crossing or have crossed? I have crossed that border a million times… in my imagination. Ever since I was a child and opened the wardrobe door to Narnia, I have been drawn to that liminal space where fantasy and the real world blend together. I love books that are grounded in our world with fantastical elements or portals into imaginary worlds. The idea that a magical realm might be hidden just out of sight is so enticing.

The world of faerie is vast and wild. It varies from one country to another. You grew up in Denmark and have lived in various countries. Do you remember how much their tales of these other folk and their world differed? Did you wonder why? Whenever I move to a new country, I try to understand the culture and the stories that formed that culture. Living in Singapore inspired me to explore the beliefs around ghosts and spirits and write The Hungry Ghost. In the snowy Alps, I discovered myths about strange, bearded creatures called barbegazi that save people from avalanches, and I wrote about them in The Missing Barbegazi.

My Faerie Hill books have a much wider scope and a longer gestation, as they are inspired by the fairy tales I loved as a child, as well as folklore from Scandinavia, Germany and the British Isles.

Words, names, language, it is all important in the other realms. Was it conscious decision made by you to use the spelling Faerie and the concept of the changeling child? The spelling of Faerie was a very conscious decision. In my mind, fairies are the kind of glittering creatures that can be found in Disney films. Faeries, on the other hand, encompass all kinds of tricksy and fearsome creatures from our oldest and darkest folklore. Among those scariest stories are the tales of changeling children (stories that became even more terrifying after I became a mother), so I always wanted a changeling in this series. I hinted at this in the first book, when Saga thinks Alfred might be a changeling, and then I twisted the concept in this second book.

On the subject of words. Names, in some fairytales and folklore are precious, giving power to any who know the true name of another. Did you think about this concept when naming your two main characters? Did it influence you in any way? Yes, the power of a true name is something that is intrinsically linked to dark faeries, and it very much influenced the names of my characters. Usually, I know the names of the main characters right away, but for these books, I had to get to know Alfred and Saga a little before I discovered their true names. And then, as if there was some subconscious magic at play, it turned out their names were even more meaningful and perfect for their roles in the series than I had first imagined.

In the first book Alfred and Saga are battling the construction of a new motorway. This is a very real, tangible problem. Do you think setting that stark reality against the magic and wonder of faerie helps readers to understand the importance of protecting out world? Yes, I think blending magic into the stark reality gives a new perspective on the damage we humans often do to nature. By linking that damage to destruction of the Faerie realm, the stakes become higher and perhaps easier to understand for young readers. I also hope readers catch some of Saga’s enthusiasm for the wonders of the natural world.

The second book brings more excitement, more questions without answers and more time spent in faerie. Were you conscious of not pushing your characters into too much danger or were you confident they could cope with anything? I try to push my characters to the absolute limit, though that can be hard because I love them and wish I could shield them from danger. I believe characters in fantastical fiction can cope with much worse situations that characters in realistic fiction. It is one of my favourite things about these kinds of stories. I love the Chesterton quote: “Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.”

In this book series, the dragon is what is happening to nature and the environment, and, although I don’t tackle the biggest climate-change dragon head-on, I hope I show readers ways to combat the dragon and that it is worth taking up the fight for nature.

Alfred and Saga are complete opposites and yet the best of friends. Does this reflect on yourself, others you know and have met or is it simply the magic of writing which makes them so unique yet so important for one another? I really enjoy being with people who are different from myself and have different perspectives, and I admire them for personality traits that I lack. But it is of course also the magic of fiction that I can create characters who are opposites in many ways yet complement each other. It provides opportunities for friction and conflict, at the same time as it builds understanding and empathy.

How do you ensure that the elements of our world, sights and sounds, don’t seep into faerie as you write, that the two worlds retain their own unique qualities? That is difficult to answer, because my faerie world is inspired by places I have visited in the real world—dark nighttime forests, dripstone caverns and petrified trees in a botanical garden, to name a few. But, with the extreme decay of the Faerie forest and the fearsome creatures in that realm, I have given the whole thing a nightmarish spin. (The terrifying wolf beast are from actual recurring nightmares I had as a child.) I think that enables me to write a version of Faerie that is unique and very different from the real world setting in the books.

If there was one injustice you could fight, with the help of some faerie magic do you know what you would choose and why? I think it is awful that the way we treat nature affects biodiversity and endanger so many species of flora and fauna. So, I would use faerie magic to secure their habitats and survival, in spite of changing climate and human encroachment on the natural world.

Are there any special places where you feel that the border between our world and the world of faerie is strongest? In an old forest, overgrown with moss and lichen, at dawn or dusk. Or deep inside dripstone caverns, which have always fascinated me—perhaps because they don’t seem to be entirely part of the real world.

Have you ever thought about what faerie you would be like. Would she have any special characteristics?

I think I would like to be a demi-fae, so I would be able to do some faerie enchantments, while still being part human. And I would really want to have wings and be able to fly. That has always been one of my dreams.

Thank you for these excellent questions!