Reflection and Inversion in the Faery Courts with Morgan Daimler

About this episode

Morgan Daimler discusses the political and social structures of the Faery Courts and their reflections on human society.

If you had to guess the political persuasion in the land of Faery, what's the first thought that comes to mind? I think for most, it would be hard to separate our preconceived notion of faeries from their titular tales, replete with Queens, Kings, and courts. Although there is no lack of allusions to a Faery adherence to some form of Otherworldly monarchy (or monarchies), there are just as many instances of clear inversions of the etiquette and mores of our human royal courts, in their Faery reflections. In the Early Modern period, we also see a number of social rebellions on the part of the human working classes against the tyrannical excesses of their own monarchs, carried out in the name of faeries. How much of this mirroring of our own realm, that we see askew in Faery, is an expression of their inherent nature, and how much is it actually a form of theatrics or co-creation? When is Faery an interface? In the US today, are there still Faerie Queens, or have they decided to try out the popular mode of democratically elected authoritarian? In Morgan Daimler's latest book on The Fairy Courts, they challenge many of the pre-conceived notions we have about the social structures of…

People in this episode

Host: Chad Andro

Guest: Morgan Daimler

Topics covered

• Faery Courts
• political structures
• social rebellion
• monarchy
• cultural reflections
• morality

Keywords

• Faery
• monarchy
• social rebellion
• Seelie
• Unseelie
• cultural reflections
• politics
• Morgan Daimler

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Fairy Courts

Places: US, Early Modern Scotland

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