So one of my very favorite parts of the festival meeting on Saturday was that we were joined by Virginia of Fairfield who wants to help out with our next beaver s0iree and we were chatting about how I imagined it might help to personal mics if we’re all still wearing masks and she said casually, “Yes my sister uses them for her work now. She’s a fairy”
To which we all blinked heartily and said politely “What?”
Prompting her to explain that she was fairy for children’s birthday parties and that was her job. Which sounded to us like the very best job ever and reminded me greedily of hearing about Frank Baum’s chapter in one of his Oz books called:
Being the JK Rowling of his day, the author of the Wizard of OZ had a great many more fanciful stories which young people of his day read through at a great rate. In fact my mom remembers pouncing on the new books in the library and waiting ravenously for the next one. Now one of his books was
Which detailed the story of a pricess befriended by a gingerbread hero (John Dough – get it?) Who is separated from her parents and encounters and endures many adventure – the final of which is meeting the Beaver King who takes them below the river to his palace and introduces them to the fairy beavers.
I just had to hear and read their adventure for myself so I listened to this,
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An excellent fanciful listen but just case your schedule doesn’t allow such whimsy I’ll explain that the fairy beavers live beneath the water in an elegant palace and that after the visitors are treated to many splendors ending with a sumptious dinner they are entertained by a beaver kit minuet and many glorious things.
After which the king promises the princess the greatest gift of all and says he will grant one wish. To which she asks just like Dorothy to go home to her parents because they need her and so he summons 4 and twenty beavers who bring a great glass cylander with elaborate harness to be pulled by beavers underwater and she rides home in her elegant submarine carriage looking out the window to see seaweed and fish and underwater delights all the way back to her parents.
“The King now opened the door in the top of the cylinder and the girl stepped inside. The space was just big enough to permit her to lie down comfortably, and the bottom of the cylinder had been thickly covered with soft cushions brought from the palace.
When the King had closed and fastened the door, he gave a signal to the four-and-twenty beavers, and at once they dashed into the water, drawing the glass submarine after them, and began swimming with powerful strokes down the river. They swam well under the surface of the water, and the glass boat followed them without either touching the bottom or rising to the top.
At first the Princess was much bewildered by her strange journey, for it seemed as if the water was pressing upon her from all sides. But presently she realized that she was quite safe in the glass tube, and began watching curiously the pretty weeds and water-flowers that grew at the bottom of the river, and the queer fishes that swam around her.
The speed of the swimming beavers was surprising. It was not long, indeed, before they reached the mouth of the river and swam boldly out into the sea. Jacquelin had no idea of the direction they took, but she trusted to the wisdom of her friend the Fairy Beaver, and was not at all frightened.
And now the sights that she saw were very strange indeed; for the seaweeds were of most gorgeous hues, and there were not only big and little fishes of every description, but brilliant sea-anemones and jelly-fish floating gracefully on all sides of her.
After which magical journey the princess of course finds her parents and the beavers bring them all in the submarine to a beautiful island where they can live safely. Because really Baum well understood that after fanciful adventures of any kinds which children wanted most of all was to be home safe with their parents.
Stay tuned to see how a fairy beaver might feature in our next beaver festival!
