This is an incredible image: Titled ‘An anciente mappe of Fairyland: newly discovered and set forth’, it was created by Bernard Sleigh in 1917 as a comprehensive mashup of a whole bunch of fairy tales.

Expand the picture to its full size to really get a good look at it.

Sleigh was an English landscape painter, and had been heavily influenced by British fantasists such as George MacDonald and William Morris, who wrote extensively about fairies in England. He was also reportedly struck with inspiration after seeing a staging of Peter Pan. His atlas of Fairies includes things like Hansel and Gretal, Rapunzel’s tower, Never Never Land and Jack’s house, in addition to tons of other references.


In 1926, Sleigh went on to write his own novel about British fairies, The Gates of Horn: Being Sundry Records from the Proceedings of the Society for the Investigation of Fairy Fact and Fallacy. The Fairyland map became particularly popular in the 1970s, when it was reprinted as a poster - this makes a considerable amount of sense, considering the popularity of fantasies such as Lord of the Rings around that time.

What stories have you picked out from it?


[Library of Congress, Slate]