Eleganta - An Introduction

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What must first be told is that somewhere in the northern seas of our earth, there was an isle, fairly small in size, but large enough to contain a variety of different landscapes, strewn with snowy mountains, thriving forests, dry plains, and snaking rivers.  The location of the isle today can only be given in such terms as northwest of the land of the Irish, or somewhere in the seas beyond England, but before reaching Greenland.  

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No one is quite sure, even to this very day, how to find the place.  It is said to be hidden behind the fog, and the only way to happen upon it is to get lost in a northern storm.  At the storms end, the isle will be seen granting the safety of its shores.  Some have even said the isle does not really exist and that the tales coming from it are but myths derived from traveling storytellers.  Perhaps youll form your own opinion, when all is said and done.  

For many thousands of years, the isle, undiscovered by human kind, nurtured and evolved an array of interesting creatures, not unlike any isolated environment left alone to give rise to animals found only there.  One such creature said to have arisen from the rich forests there is known today as the fairy, and it was one such fairy who unknowingly, for better or for worse, changed the course of every species on the isle.

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By most accounts, though variations have been told, it was the year of the modern calendar 876 A.D., on a day in the month of June.  The world was well into its age of darkness, lost in the savagery and ignorance brought forth from the collapse of empires.  In the region to the north of Western Europe, where lie the great isles of Britain, people were sparse and uncivilized, and fierce men from the icy Norse lands roamed the seas, seeking out new land to pillage and plunder, and form new settlements of their own.  It was a time ruled by the sword and the shield, when people lived in fear and desperation, and the mysteries of the earth had yet to be solved.

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Although I am technically the author of this book, I think of myself more as a kind of ghost writer.  This is because fairies and goblins are telling it to me as I write it.  The tale has been passed down through many generations of both species (resulting in often differing versions from the two), and I am merely attempting to record the said events in a balanced manner.  'Eleganta' is a true story, in so much as the words of fairies and goblins can be believed.  Why they've chosen me to record their story I don't know, but I find myself with fairies on my right and goblins on my left, eager to see their tale in print, so what choice do I have?

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I will write it, and I hope many will read it, for the subjects of its plot are far too often forgotten, or pushed aside as mere fantasy.  'Eleganta' is their story, from their own mouths, through my pen, to you.

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-Denny Swartzlander