The Construction of Fairies in Sir Orfeo Sara Manlowe College

In Sir Orfeo, ‘a once-achieved but subsequently lost partner is rescued from a dominant and possessive rival by an act of supreme generosity’ (Shippey, 83). Dominant and possessive are words one might associate with an overbearing, abusive lover, but the Fairy King is both more and less than a domineering partner. Through his actions, primarily, the reader is able to learn about the world of the fairies: how they must always keep their word despite their attempts to trick their victims, how they are drawn to beauty, how there is an unnaturalness to their beauty as though they are frozen in time, and, finally, how that beauty is unnervingly matched by the brutality inherent within the fairy court. Through these lenses the reader is able to see the contradictory nature of fairies, and how, despite their appearance of great beauty, the world of fairies is in fact a stagnant place of great danger.

It seems almost counterintuitive that creatures as mercurial as fairies would be so bound to keep their words, and indeed when Orfeo first requests Queen Heurodis as the reward for his harp-playing, the Fairy King denies him his request flat-out, stating ‘A loþlich þing it were, forþi, / To sen hir in þi compayni’ (461-62); he denies...