The Child Thief

KNOWING THAT I didn’t want to simply retell Barrie’s Peter Pan, but
instead create my own Peter, my own world, and the darker story behind the
fairytales, I began to dig into the same Scottish fairy stories, myths, and
legends that originally inspired James Barrie himself. And I was delighted
to find a treasure trove of folktales from which to pull together the
mythology for The Child Thief. Since these legends helped steer and form
this novel, I thought some of you might find them interesting and have
listed them below.

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I found the details to these myths varied to some degree from source to
source, from region to region, and I took liberal use of many of them for
The Child Thief. But following here are the most common threads and
elements I have drawn upon:
Avalon: Avalon, or “Ynys Afallach” in Welsh, is one of the Otherworld
islands. It was originally ruled by Avallach with his daughter, Modron. It is
where Caliburn (Excalibur) was forged and where King Arthur was taken
by Morgan le Fay (Modron) to be healed of his wounds after the battle of
Camlann. Like the name of Avalon (from afal, or “apple”), the apple is one
of the most recognized symbols of Avalon, with counterparts in the Greek
Hesperides, the Norse Apples of Youth, and the Judeo-Christian Fruit of the
Tree of Life.
Avalon is closely associated with a similar Otherworld island, Tír na
nÓg, called in English the Land of Eternal Youth or the Land of the Ever-
Young, and thus I combined both mystical islands to some degree. Tír na
nÓg is perhaps best known from the myth of Oisin, one of the few mortals
who lived there, and Niamh of the Golden Hair. It was where the Tuatha Dé
Danann, or Sidhe, settled when they left Ireland’s surface. Tír na nÓg was
considered a place beyond the edges of the map, located far to the west. It
could be reached by either an arduous voyage or an invitation from one of
its fairy inhabitants. The isle is visited by various Irish heroes in the echtrae
and immram tales popular during the Middle Ages. Tír na nÓg is a place
where sickness and death do not exist. It is a place of eternal youth and
beauty.