The Great Unexpected

This setting, located in Ireland, is a motif that helps to illuminate the Compatibility of Reality and Fantasy. When Naomi learns she’s going to Ireland, she thinks of how “[i]t [is] full of fairies and elves that could lure you down deep, dark holes. There [are] ogres who chopped off the heads of a dozen men in a single stroke, and giants who [catch] thunderbolts” (167). In Rooks Orchard, entities such as fairies and evil spirits are believed to be real, contradicting the belief that such creatures only exist in fictional or fantasy worlds. Sybil and Miss Pilpenny accept their reality, and Miss Pilpenny tells Lizzie that the fairy ring in the orchard is “as real as ever a fairy ring was” (183). Lizzie remembers her mother, Margaret, warning her of the “terrible fates” that await those who disturb a fairy ring. When the girls learn that Finn died the day after digging in the ring, and Nula and Naomi’s home burns down after Naomi disturbs the ring, the “story” seems to be true. Further, the man whom Mr. Dingle asks to appraise the gold found in Finn’s trunk will not even touch the coin once he sees “the mark of fairy gold” (224) on it.