Super Glossary

The Other World

Entertainment / Literature / The Other World: A motif in folklore and mythology in which an alternative world exists in conjunction with the physical world. This world is typically occupied by mysterious or unknowable beings that resemble humanity but who are alien in their motivations and concerns, often toying or playing with mortals for their own amusement in one moment, or showering them with gifts and benefits the next. In Old Irish myths, for instance, a tall and frightening race of Elves (the Sidh, pronounced like the modern English word 'she') lived underneath the hills. A similar race, the Alfar, appear in Norse mythology. In some myths, the race is divided into good and evil races, the Blessed or Unblessed Courts, or the 'Light-Elves' and 'Dark-Elves' (liosalfar and svartalfar), but in most accounts the elvish races are merely capricious and unpredictable in their behavior. Anthropological studies note how primitive societies often consider liminal (in-between) times and places to be dangerous or magically charged, and this holds true for the Other World motif. Journey back and forth between the human world and the realms of Faerie might be achieved at liminal times. Examples of such times might be Beltain or Samhain, the two holidays marking the transition from winter to summer and vice-versa, or at sunset and sunrise, a liminal time between day and night, or at noon or midnight. At such moments of flux, gates into fairyland might open in hillsides or in lake ways. Likewise, liminal spaces might provide permanent entrance into the Other World, transitional places that were neither one location or another. Suspect places or areas include Ymp-trees (which are artificially grafted blends of two tree species), doorways (which are neither indoors nor outdoors), sea-shores (which are neither sea nor land), fords for running water (which are neither rock nor river), boundary markers, gates, crossroads, graveyards, gibbets, and the north side of churches. Finally, unusual geological or architectural features were thought to be dangerous spots where ruptures might manifest into the other world, including barrow-mounds (cf. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), standing stones, unusually large or twisted trees, and fairy-rings (circular growths of mushrooms).
Search Google for The Other World: