Fairy Country is another world in a dimension which Fairies reside. The place is first briefly seen at the end of "Chapter 5: The Windmill", before being properly introduced in "Hilda and the Fairy Village" and season 3 of the animated series.
Topography[]
Fairy Mounds[]
Access to Fairy Country is usually only possible through a Fairy Mound; a magical grassy hillock standing in a clearing. People who get close to a fairy mound can end up in the borderlands of Fairy Country after passing through a green mist released by the mound. If one acts fast it is possible to save these trapped people by digging into the Fairy Mound, however the mound can resist these attempts by ejecting any digging tools and instantly replacing any earth that is dug away. A witch can also use magic to forcefully create a portal in the fairy mound to let people in and out, but this takes a tremendous amount of energy. Fairy Mounds can be blocked with magical charms to keep people from getting pulled in.
The last active Fairy Mound in Tofoten dissolved after Frida had used her magic on it to rescue Anders, Twig and Hilda. It is unknown if there are any other Mounds elsewhere.
Borderlands[]
The first part of Fairy Country anyone ends up after passing through a Fairy Mound are the borderlands.
The borderlands as seen in the animated series are a gloomy, desolate place, filled with trees that have no leaves. The whole place is shrouded in a green fog. In the tie-in novel, the place is described as containing trees that look like flamingos due to their skinny trunks and pink canopies, but these are absent in the animated series.
The borderlands are patrolled by The Eyes who are constantly on the look for intruders.
People that carry protective charms can go no further than this. To venture deeper in to Fairy Country, they have to discard or break the charms.
Ocean and outer islands[]
After the borderlands comes a turquoise sea filled with jade green islands.
These are the outer islands. The islands look more like something out of the human world, containing trees and having mountains. Various Watchtowers can be found here.
One of these islands is briefly seen at the end of "Chapter 5: The Windmill" when Victoria Van Gale ends up there. In "Chapter 8: The Fairy Isle" it is shown Victoria build a shelter for herself on the island, and named the island after herself: The Island Republic of Vangalia.
Fairy Isle[]
Fairy Isle is the heart of Fairy Country.
It is a colossal island, the outer shores of which consists of huge cliffs made of black volcanic rock. The island can move freely through the sea to pursue any travelers.
Behind the dark cliffs on the edge of the island lies a beautiful landscape, the geography of which defies the laws of physics. There are curled mountains made of a jade-colored rock, and platforms that freely float in the sky. The island is rich in various kinds of plants. The vegetation mainly consists of large mushrooms, but other flowers are also seen. The sky above the island contains a moon that is broken in pieces.
The island contains a central watchtower; a piece of ancient Fairy technology that allows Fairies and others to spy on any place on Earth through so-called steam windows.
Entering Fairy Country[]
Travel to Fairy Country and the human world (known as the Overworld among Fairies) used to be very easy back when Phinium and Astrid where still children. They frequently did so to visit their human friend Lydia. Over time however it got harder and harder to make these travels. Hence why Phinium decided to stay in the human world forever, rather than risking he could never go back there again.
Besides Fairy Mounds, there are three other known ways to enter Fairy Country:
- Nowhere Space: Victoria van Gale inadvertently ended up on one of the other islands after her failed Nowhere Space experiment in the windmill.
- Deer-fox light bridges; the light bridges that Deer-foxes use to travel to and from the Land of starlight can also be used to enter and leave Fairy Country.
- Steam Windows: The steam windows in the watchtower can be used to pull people and objects in to Fairy Country, but it is a one-way trip. In ancient times this was done frequently, but the towers fell out of use after he need to bring more people dried up. Phinium and Lydia brought Anders to Fairy Country this way when they saw he was about to be attacked by a troll. Most inhabitants of Fairy Country where abducted through these windows.
Inhabitants[]
Besides fairies, Fairy Country is also home to a large number of animals, including a whole flock of White Woffs. All magical creatures originally came from Fairy Isle, but most have left for the human world. In the animated series, it is stated the Fairies actually drove these creatures off themselves.
In the center of Fairy Isle resides the Fairy Entity. The area around the cave where the entity resides is in notably worse shape than the rest of the islands, with the vegetation rotting away.
The borderlands and sea are constantly patrolled by flying, tentacled mushrooms nicknamed The Eyes.
Time[]
In fairy country, no one appears to age because nothing is ever meant to change. The island contains special properties that show any person what it believes they wish to see. Thus, it allows people to take the form they wish to be seen as, as well as the ability to show others what they wish for them to see. This explains why Lydia and Phinium appear younger-looking than they really are, as they both wish for themselves and others to see them that way.
In the tie-in book, Phinium and Lydia claim that time in Fairy Country passes differently than it does on Earth. The days are short but the years are long.
Graphic Novels[]
While Fairies and Fairy Country are never directly seen or mentioned in the graphic novels, two potential references to Fairy Country can be spotted:
- In "Hilda and the Black Hound", the last panel shows that Jellybean and Tontu escaped from the Nowhere Space of the outside world, and have ended up in an undisclosed location that strongly resembles the Outer Island that Victoria van Gale ended up on in the animated series.
- A possible Fairy Mound shows up briefly in "Hilda and the Stone Forest" during the scene where Johanna and Hilda are looking for a good picnic spot. One of the places they consider is a lonely hill that resembles the Fairy Mound seen in the animated series, but Johanna declines because the hill gives her the creeps for some unspecified reason.
However, it should be noted that both graphic novels predate season 3 of the series, so it is left ambiguous if these are indeed meant as references to Fairy Country.
Fairies are directly mentioned in "Hilda and Twig: Hide from the Rain". When Hilda and the forest animals begin to speculate what the large, hollow hill they're all hiding in might be, two rabbits think it's a fairy mound. Twig tells them there are no fairies.