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the-moral-of-the-rose · 17 days

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A tribute to the cats of Montgomery's books.

Part 1. Anne Shirley (later: Blythe).

Rusty-the cat (the fighter):

"The animal was well past kitten-hood, lank, thin, disreputable looking. Pieces of both ears were lacking, one eye was temporarily out of repair, and one jowl ludicrously swollen. As for color, if a once black cat had been well and thoroughly singed the result would have resembled the hue of this waif’s thin, draggled, unsightly fur." (Anne of The Island).

"But, like Kipling’s cat, he “walked by himself.” His paw was against every cat, and every cat’s paw against him. One by one he vanquished the aristocratic felines of Spofford Avenue. As for human beings, he loved Anne and Anne alone. Nobody else even dared stroke him. An angry spit and something that sounded much like very improper language greeted any one who did.

“The airs that cat puts on are perfectly intolerable,” declared Stella." (Anne of The Island).

(He does get better looking though! He's said to become "plum and sleek" and his eyes heal!).

A fighter,

Independent,

Daring,

A survivor of an attempt of "chlorophorm murder".

Joseph-the-cat (a big fat softie that could fight if needed):

"Joseph, as the disgusted Stella said, looked like a walking rag-bag. It was impossible to say what his ground color was. His legs were white with black spots on them. His back was gray with a huge patch of yellow on one side and a black patch on the other. His tail was yellow with a gray tip. One ear was black and one yellow. A black patch over one eye gave him a fearfully rakish look. In reality he was meek and inoffensive, of a sociable disposition. In one respect, if in no other, Joseph was like a lily of the field. He toiled not neither did he spin or catch mice. Yet Solomon in all his glory slept not on softer cushions, or feasted more fully on fat things." (Anne of The Island).

"But Joseph rashly sat up and yawned. Rusty, burning to avenge his disgrace, swooped down upon him. Joseph, pacific by nature, could fight upon occasion and fight well. The result was a series of drawn battles. Every day Rusty and Joseph fought at sight. Anne took Rusty’s part and detested Joseph. Stella was in despair. But Aunt Jamesina only laughed." (Anne of The Island).

Joseph-with-a-coat-of-many-colors,

soft bean,

non-offensive,

sweet,

meek and gentle,

could fight if needed.

Sarah-the-cat (dignified queen):

"Sarah-cat gravely sat herself down before the fire and proceeded to wash her face. She was a large, sleek, gray-and-white cat, with an enormous dignity which was not at all impaired by any consciousness of her plebian origin. She had been given to Aunt Jamesina by her washerwoman.

“Her name was Sarah, so my husband always called puss the Sarah-cat,” explained Aunt Jamesina. “She is eight years old, and a remarkable mouser. Don’t worry, Stella. The Sarah-cat never fights and Joseph rarely.” (Anne of The Island).

"Rusty lowered his head, uttered a fearful shriek of hatred and defiance, and launched himself at the Sarah-cat.

The stately animal had stopped washing her face and was looking at him curiously. She met his onslaught with one contemptuous sweep of her capable paw. Rusty went rolling helplessly over on the rug; he picked himself up dazedly. What sort of a cat was this who had boxed his ears? He looked dubiously at the Sarah-cat. Would he or would he not? The Sarah-cat deliberately turned her back on him and resumed her toilet operations. Rusty decided that he would not. He never did. From that time on the Sarah-cat ruled the roost. Rusty never again interfered with her." (Anne of The Island).

Dignified,

Queenly,

Aloof,

A remarkable mouser,

Proud,

Ruler of the Patty's Place.

Such a queen.

Shrimp (best-family-cat):

"He seems to have recovered nicely from it," said Anne, stroking the glossy black-and-white curves of a contented pussy with huge jowls, purring on a chair in the firelight. [...] As for the Shrimp, Gilbert had called him that a year ago when Nan had brought the miserable, scrawny kitten home from the village where some boys had been torturing it, and the name clung, though it was very inappropriate now." (Anne of Ingleside).

Loves people,

good with children,

likes sleeping curled up with a member of his human family,

forgiving,

patient,

a little ray of sunshine.

Pussywillow (a little lady of the night sky):

"The Shrimp basked in the glow and Nan's kitten, Pussywillow, which always suggested some dainty exquisite little lady in black and silver, climbed everybody's legs impartially. "Two cats, and mouse tracks everywhere in the pantry," was Susan's disapproving parenthesis." (Anne of Ingleside).

Pretty,

Black and silver like a night sky,

Purring,

Dainty,

Sweet.

Jack Frost (a girl in hiding):

"Four years previously Rilla Blythe had had a treasured darling of a kitten, white as snow, with a saucy black tip to its tail, which she called Jack Frost. Susan disliked Jack Frost, though she could not or would not give any valid reason therefor.

"Take my word for it, Mrs. Dr. dear," she was wont to say ominously, "that cat will come to no good."

"But why do you think so?" Mrs. Blythe would ask.

"I do not think—I know," was all the answer Susan would vouchsafe.

With the rest of the Ingleside folk Jack Frost was a favourite; he was so very clean and well groomed, and never allowed a spot or stain to be seen on his beautiful white suit; he had endearing ways of purring and snuggling; he was scrupulously honest.

And then a domestic tragedy took place at Ingleside. Jack Frost had kittens!" (Rilla of Ingleside).

White and beautiful,

Clean and well-groomed,

Endearing,

Lovely,

Snuggler and purrer,

Mother of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,

"Diabolical" cat according to Susan.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (a cat suffering from bipolar disorder):

"In his Dr. Jekyll mood the cat was a drowsy, affectionate, domestic, cushion-loving puss, who liked petting [...] When the Mr. Hyde mood came upon him—which it invariably did before rain, or wind—he was a wild thing with changed eyes. The transformation always came suddenly. He would spring fiercely from a reverie with a savage snarl and bite at any restraining or caressing hand. His fur seemed to grow darker and his eyes gleamed with a diabolical light. There was really an unearthly beauty about him." (Rilla of Ingleside).

Orange and handsome,

Either sweet, purring, soft and cute, either dangerous and scary,

Possesed (?),

Some kind of mental illness (?),

A kitten of Jack Snow,

Called Goldie in his kittenhood,

Renamed by Walter.

Part 2. Emily Starr.

Mike the First (the fluffiest softie) and Saucy Sal (a badass girl):

"Mike had such a cute way of sitting up on his haunches and catching the bits in his paws, and Saucy Sal had her trick of touching Emily’s ankle with an almost human touch when her turn was too long in coming. Emily loved them both, but Mike was her favourite. He was a handsome, dark-grey cat with huge owl-like eyes, and he was so soft and fat and fluffy. Sal was always thin; no amount of feeding put any flesh on her bones. Emily liked her, but never cared to cuddle or stroke her because of her thinness. Yet there was a sort of weird beauty about her that appealed to Emily. She was grey-and-white—very white and very sleek, with a long, pointed face, very long ears and very green eyes. She was a redoubtable fighter, and strange cats were vanquished in one round. The fearless little spitfire would even attack dogs and rout them utterly." (Emily of New Moon).

Mike: soft, cute, fluffy, darling, handsome, purring, fat, cuddly.

Saucy Sal: a badass, fighter, brave, daring, sleek, green-eyed, gorgeous.

Smoke (the Aristo-cat):

"Smoke was a big Maltese and an aristocrat from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. There was no doubt whatever that he belonged to the cat caste of Vere de Vere. He had emerald eyes and a coat of plush. The only white thing about him was an adorable dicky." (Emily of New Moon).

Aristocrat,

Dignified,

Member of cat caste of Vere de Vere,

Eyes like jewels,

Dignified,

Beautiful.

Buttercup (a tiny cat-cherub):

"Buttercup was a chubby, yellow, delightful creature hardly out of kittenhood." (Emily of New Moon).

Delightful,

yellow ball of fluff,

cute,

small bean,

adorable.

Mike the Second (a cute furry grey demon of the night):

"Emily’s furry kitten, Mike II, frisked and scampered about like a small, charming demon of the night; the fire glowed with beautiful redness and allure through the gloom; there were nice whispery sounds everywhere. [...] (Emily of New Moon).

A gift from Old Kelly,

Cute, furry,

Charming, plump,

Fluffy,

Rescued by Emily,

A forever kitten,

Gone too soon.

Daffodil - Daff - Daffy (a life-long friend):

“The kitten was a delicate bit of striped greyness that reminded Emily of her dear lost Mikes. And it smelled so nice—of warmth and clean furriness, with whiffs of the clover hay where Saucy Sal had made her mother-nest." (Emily of New Moon).

"Daff," said Emily wearily, "you're the only thing in the world that stays put." (Emily's Quest).

"Don't you wish—or do you!—Daff, that you and I had been born sensible creatures, alive to the superior advantages of Quebec heaters!"(Emily's Quest).

Fluffy,

Grey,

Cute,

Nice,

Adorable,

Emily's friend and companion of her lonely years,

Snored loudly in his sleep during his later years,

Followed Emily everywhere,

My personal favourite.

Part 3. Pat Gardiner

Gentleman Tom (an immortal cat):

"Gentleman Tom sat beside Pat, on the one step from the landing into Judy's room, blinking at her with insolent green eyes, whose very expression would have sent Judy to the stake a few hundred years ago. A big, lanky cat who always looked as if he had a great many secret troubles; continually thin in spite of Judy's partial coddling; a black cat . . . "the blackest black cat I iver did be seeing." For a time he had been nameless. Judy held it wasn't lucky to name a baste that had just "come." Who knew what might be offended? So the black grimalkin was called Judy's Cat, with a capital, until one day Sid referred to it as "Gentleman Tom," and Gentleman Tom he was from that time forth, even Judy surrendering. Pat was fond of all cats, but her fondness for Gentleman Tom was tempered with awe." (Pat of Silver Bush).

Ageless,

Troubled,

Mysterious,

Fascinating,

Full of personality.

Bold-and-Bad (a mad-cat ball of energy):

'"Bold-and-Bad", the kitten of the summer, came flying across the yard to her. Pat picked him up and squeezed some purrs out of him. No matter what dreadful things happened at least there were still cats in the world."

"Even Bold-and-Bad, whom ordinarily nothing could subdue, crouched with an apologetic air under the stove."

"Sure and I will, Patsy darlint. Ye nadn't be fretting over Bold-and-Bad. He's living up to his name ivery minute of the day, slaping on the Poet's bed and getting rolled up in me shate of fly-paper. Sure and ye niver saw a madder cat." (Pat of Silver Bush).

Full of energy,

Mischievious,

Living up to his name,

Bold,

Bad-but-adorable,

Brave,

Unstoppable,

Always young.

Part 4. Valancy Stirling:

Banjo (a devilish philosopher):

"Banjo is a big, enchanting, grey devil-cat. Striped, of course. I don’t care a hang for any cat that hasn’t stripes. I never knew a cat who could swear as genteelly and effectively as Banjo. His only fault is that he snores horribly when he is asleep." (The Blue Castle).

Grey devil cat,

has his own chair,

rules his kingdom of Barney's hut,

a graceful swearer,

dignified,

Good Luck (a wistful philosopher):

"Luck is a dainty little cat. Always looking wistfully at you, as if he wanted to tell you something. Maybe he will pull it off sometime. Once in a thousand years, you know, one cat is allowed to speak. My cats are philosophers—neither of them ever cries over spilt milk." (The Blue Castle).

Dainty,

Wistfull,

Charming,

Enchanting,

Clever,

Interesting.

Part 5. Jane Stuart

Two Peters (little cuties):

"The Snowbeams told Jane their cat had kittens and she could have one. Jane went down to choose. There were four and the poor lean old mother cat was so proud and happy. Jane picked a black one with a pansy face—a really pansy face, so dark and velvety, with round golden eyes. She named it Peter on the spot. Then the Jimmy Johns, not to be outdone, brought over a kitten also. But this kitten was already named Peter and the Ella twin wept frantically over the idea of anybody changing it. So dad suggested calling them First Peter and Second Peter—which Mrs Snowbeam thought was sacrilegious. Second Peter was a dainty thing in black and silver, with a soft white breast. Both Peters slept at the foot of Jane's bed and swarmed over dad the minute he sat down."

"First Peter was sitting on the doorstone when Jane came downstairs, with a big mouse in his mouth, very proud of his prowess as a hunter." (Jane of Lantern Hill).

Cute,

Soft,

Adorable,

Lil hunters.

Silver Penny (small but mighty):

"Ding-dong had brought her a kitten to replace Second Peter...a scrap about as big as its mother's paw but which was destined to be a magnificent cat in black with four white paws. Jane and dad tried out all kinds of names on it before they went to bed and finally agreed on Silver Penny because of the round white spot between its ears." (Jane of Lantern Hill).

Beautiful,

Magnificent,

Adorable.

Part 6. Marigold Lesley

Lucifer and Witch of Endor (a devilish married couple):

"Of course the cats were present at the festivity also. Lucifer and the Witch of Endor. Both of black velvet with great round eyes. Cloud of Spruce was noted for its breed of black cats with topaz-hued eyes. Its kittens were not scattered broadcast but given away with due discrimination. Lucifer was Old Grandmother's favourite. A remote, subtle cat. An inscrutable cat so full of mystery that it fairly oozed out of him. The Witch of Endor became her name but compared to Lucifer she was commonplace." (Magic for Marigold).

Gorgeous,

Soulful,

Fascinating,

Witchy,

Subtle,

Almost human-like,

Clever.

Part 7. Kilmeny of The Orchard.

Timothy-The-Cat (Sir Timothy - the real head of the family):

"They have no living children, but Old Bob has a black cat which is his especial pride and darling. The name of this animal is Timothy and as such he must always be called and referred to. Never, as you value Robert’s good opinion, let him hear you speaking of his pet as ‘the cat,’ or even as ‘Tim.’ You will never be forgiven and he will not consider you a fit person to have charge of the school."

"The other end of the bench was occupied by Timothy, sleek and complacent, with a snowy breast and white paws. After old Robert had taken a mouthful of anything he gave a piece to Timothy, who ate it daintily and purred resonant gratitude." (Kilmeny of The Orchard).

Dignified,

With Royal airs,

Sleek,

Black,

Stunning,

A family member,

A family pride and joy.

I love how every cat has its own little personality!

#lm montgomery #anne of green gables #emily of new moon #the blue castle #blue castle book club #pat of silver bush #magic for marigold #jane of lantern hill #lantern hill book club #kilmeny of the orchard #cats

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kingedmundsroyalmurder · 2 months

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Oh hey, it's that 3 week break Larry West mentioned in his letter:

"the people of that delectable island [PEI] have only recently abolished the obscurantist law which gave scholars three weeks’ vacation in seed-time and in harvest, so that their parents could utilise their labour in the fields."

From a 1918 book on comparative education across the major nations fighting WWI which I am skimming for completely normal reasons.

#thoughts from the fire escape #kilmeny of the orchard

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alwayschasingrainbows · 5 months

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I didn't include Barney Snaith, Gilbert Blythe and Hilary Gordon, because they seem to be the best liked.

Also, I am curious about the results.

#emily of new moon #lm montgomery #kilmeny of the orchard #blue castle book club #anne of green gables #lantern hill book club #the blue castle #kilmeny readalong #lmm lockdown #pat of silver bush #rilla of ingleside

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no-where-new-hero · 5 months

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I have to say that, in reading everyone’s kilmeny readalong posts, I’m a bit amazed by how well Maud was able to write this chauvinistic misogynistic man? Like Eric is highly contemptible, and yet everything about him is in character. He reduces Kilmeny in exact proportion to how he flatters himself, and his narrating voice always reflects his nature. It’s absurd to think we’re supposed to sympathize with him or that he should in any way be a hero to root for re: his romantic interest, but he’s still skillfully rendered. Which is interesting to note in connection to how LMM writes her leading men in general, who are often always exceedingly positive. She might have just learned her lesson about how to write a good guy, but we never get a male character’s POV in this way in any of her other books, which is now making me wonder whether Eric embodies any of her assumptions about the baseline attitudes of men, especially since she was so young when she wrote this.

#lmm lockdown #kilmeny of the orchard #kilmeny readalong #lm montgomery

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mzannthropy · 5 months

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But how many of the orchard did she actually kill?

#kilmeny of the orchard #l.m. montgomery #lmmblogging #stupid pun #it was someone in the comments on some babynames website that pointed out #that kilmeny sounds like 'kill many'#i actually liked the name so i looked it up #it's scottish #i'm not a native english speaker so i didn't immediately realise how it sounds #also live on my own so normally don't say things out loud #unless i shout at my cat #but i don't talk to my cat about lmm #mypost

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gogandmagog · 5 months

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“A love story with a psychological interest … a rather doubtful experiment with a public who expects a certain style from an author."

— Lucy Maud Montgomery, the Selected Journals of, on the subject of 'Kilmeny of the Orchard'

#the kilmeny read-along has been sooo funny to third-party #you guys are so genius #i always felt like kilmeny was maud’s ‘gotcha’#mostly because of this above journal entry #it felt like a total satirical play on traditional fairy tales #right down to how we see kilmeny’s life truly begin and develop and the moment she meets her ‘prince’ eric #like #right after she meets eric things progress for her… she sees herself for the first time… she perceives herself… and in the end she speaks #all things she hadn’t or couldn’t achieve without him #so here we have our damsel in distress… given growth and a beginning by a man that only wants to really trap her again #say nothing of the way kilmeny is the titular character and yet it is ERICS story #with god all things are possible and with maud all things are intentional #this feels like maud (a huge lover of fairy tales in general) having a bit of a go at these old-timey stories #how easy it is to suppose she was poking some fun at the Way of the World then too #her own existence as a woman was about to transform at the time she wrote it… she was engaged to ewen in 1908 #ANYWAY that is my whole entire 2¢#i’m about to go like posts and make it EVERYONEs problem so RIP to y’all’s notifs #lucy maud montgomery #kilmeny of the orchard

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asymphonyofstarlight · 3 months

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I love looking at book descriptions from the 90s

#kilmeny of the orchard #lm montgomery #certainly a take on kilmeny!#“emotional” being me thinking about sucker punching eric marshall

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batrachised · 5 months

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I am SO curious what you think of specific LMM short stories - namely, The Waking of Helen, The Doctor's Sweetheart, and The Growing Up of Cornelia - but also just all of them bc there is so much going on in literally all of them (not even counting the insanity that is tannis of the flats). apologies if you've talked ab them before but I am intrigued as to if you've read them/have thoughts

Thanks for this ask, I find it really interesting! I also find it very appropriate for this kilmeny shebang, because I think kilmeny provides a very good illustration for this.

I don't think I've read all of LM Montgomery's short stories, although I know I've hit a good chunk of them, so that in and of itself tells you something. There are some I really, really love and that I think are LM Montgomery at her best (The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham's), but I find a lot of them to be LM Montgomery at her worst. Some of them encapsulate LM Montgomery's strengths in a really potent, concise way; a lot of them emphasize her weaknesses in parallel.

Because I haven't read a lot of them since I was a teen, I mostly have dim memories of the ones I liked, or of ones where I was like hmmm...that's funny, or the ones that I liked but now looking back am like hmm...that's funny. I used to love the Growing up of Cornelia quite a bit, but now I squint at it for obvious reasons. I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVED the fake dating one because I thought it was hilarious (this spinster lies to the town about having someone courting her, someone she completely fabricates - only for a man who happens to fit the description to a tee show up in a sheer shenanigan of fate). The Strike at Putney is my sister's favorite (the women of a church go on strike to combat sexism).

So overall, there are some jewels in in the mix. The form of a short story is such that in some ways, you have to strip writing and storytelling down to its bare elements. As such, I think the form of a short story is particularly well-suited to demonstrating Maud's strength of humor. When they're good, they're good.

However, as referenced, that often means when they're bad, they're bad. Some are technically well-written but gross in plotline (these are the ones that tend to be the ones I liked as a child, but as an adult..); a lot are both disturbing and imo pretty poorly written, much like a certain novel we've been discussing lately. We have Tannis (YIKES), the Education of Betty (YIKES), and others which kind of pull back the curtain on Maud.

LM Montgomery was no angel, and even beyond aspects of her you'd expect historically, she was just...kind of mean. I remember reading a letter of hers where she visited some equivalent of a girl scout troop and frankly talked about how she couldn't imagine any of the girls finding husbands because they were so plain and ugly. You see it pop up in her books, but it pops up a lot in her short stories as well. In the end, to answer your question in a general sense, I feel like overall the short stories have more kilmeny's than anne's.

Regarding the specific stories, I'd have to reread them. We did discuss the Growing Up of Cornelia on here a while back - I used to LOVE that one, but now as an adult I'm like more errrr. It is interesting to me because Sidney is the Dean Priest figure that ever haunts LMM's work. As for The Waking of Helen, iirc this is @mzannthropy's favorite! Unlike Kilmeny, it actually commits to its premise and so I think it works. I'm not really familiar with the Doctor's Sweetheart - I looked it up and nothing rang a bell.

For my favorite short stories (You didn't ask, but I shall answer anyway) - here are the ones that I remember even years later:

The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham's: iconic, in a word. endlessly quotable. A spinster woman who hates men quarantined with a confirmed bachelor who hates women? Much like the blue castle, this takes a basic fanfic trope (for tbc, 'where is my wife;' for this, quarantined together) and so successfully executes it you're left with your jaw on the floor.

The Strike at Putney: this is a sister's favorite, and I can see why. Women of the church learn that a missionary will not be allowed to occupy the pulpit to speak because she's a woman, and so they go on strike. It's also a emphasized critique of the undervaluing of women's work.

The Materializing of Cecil: GOD I REMEMBER LOVING THIS ONE. This unmarried woman is embarrassed to be unmarried at forty and so flagrantly invents a lover to her sewing circle - only for a man who fits the description to SHOW UP. It's hilarious. However, as a content warning, I reread it to find there is less than fantastic description of a Chinese man near the end.

The Little Brown Book of Miss Emily: guess what? this one is in first person, and that person is ANNE. 😱 this one...it's sad, but it always stayed with me. I have read quite a few lmm stories and forgotten most, but not this one. Also, its final line is beautiful to me.

#thanks for the ask!#lm montgomery #lm montgomery short stories #aogg #kilmeny of the orchard

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the-moral-of-the-rose · 17 days

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Thank you for voting!

#lm montgomery #anne of green gables #emily of new moon #aogg #the blue castle #blue castle book club #rainbow valley #pat of silver bush #kilmeny of the orchard #magic for marigold #rilla of ingleside

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kingedmundsroyalmurder · 5 months

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Okay, so Kilmeny opens with an epigraph from a poem called The Queen's Wake, by James Hogg. I looked it up, and it is free to read on google books. The overall poem is a bardic competition held by Mary Queen of Scots, and the ballad of Kilmeny is one of the songs in the competition. (If you ctrl f 'kilmeny' you can go straight to that ballad if you don't want to read the whole thing.) The epic is in Scots, so I didn't grasp all the nuances (also I'm Bad At Poetry) but from what I can tell, the epic is about a beautiful young woman named Kilmeny who is so beautiful and pure that she gets kidnapped by fairies and taken off to their world. She sees sights too wondrous and complex for human recounting (literally at one point the narrator of the song is like, 'I would love to tell you what she saw, but human lips can't express such things so I can't. Moving on!') but eventually asks to be shown her own country again. She is then returned to her country and tells of what she saw, but she was away for seven years and hasn't changed at all and everyone -- including possibly her? -- is unclear on if she's actually alive or even human anymore, so fairly quickly she goes back to fairy land because she no longer belongs to the human world anymore.

So. There is A Lot To Unpack here! With the caveat that I haven't read the actual novel yet, because I got sidetracked into poetry, several themes emerge:

1- obviously, Mortal Woman Is Too Beautiful. LMM pulls out several snippets for the epigraph, and all of them are about how beautiful Kilmeny is: “Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace, But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny’s face; As still was her look, and as still was her ee, As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea, Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Such beauty bard may never declare, For there was no pride nor passion there; . . . . . . . . . . . . . Her seymar was the lily flower, And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower; And her voice like the distant melodye That floats along the twilight sea.” — The Queen’s Wake JAMES HOGG

2- Even in these snippets we see that Kilmeny has been changed by her experiences. She does not smile anymore, and her beauty is passionless and serene. Later, we learn that when she comes back to the human world she avoids men (I think meaning all humans here) and roams the countryside singing to wild animals. This bodes ill for a story about how a man bursts into Kilmeny's garden and takes her out of it.

2.5- Anyone else know the song "The Willow Maid" by Erutan? Don't take the fairy women out of their forests!

3- I know this is intended to be a romance, and that Eric is not written as the bad guy, but starting with this particular poem is really priming me to be wary of him. In general, in folklore, you Do Not Marry the fairy women. Bad things will happen to them if you do.

3.5- I haven't even started the actual text but, uh, changeling AU anyone?

#kilmeny of the orchard #kilmeny readalong #I don't know how far i'll get today since i'm at work and i spent my lunch break being distracted by poetry lol

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