One of Lord Dunsany’s fantasy novels. First, is it satire or an allegory for something happening in England at the time? The phrase “These fields we know” is often mentioned, to be changed at the end of the novel as Elfland encroaches on the human village.
neverind
Let change that to “something happening in England or Ireland at the time, 1923”
The full phrase is “the fields beyond the fields we know”, and refers to Elfland (the “we” being ordinary non-elvin people.) “The fields we know” by itself would refer to the mundane world (at least, I suppose, unless it’s being taken from the point of view of the elves; I don’t have the book either handy or memorized.)
I didn’t realize until just now that Dunsany had coined the term. At least, if this site’s correct:
But I don’t think it was referring to anything in particular happening in the non-elven lands; it’s just making a really evocative distinction between the magical place and the mundane.
Thanks. I also wonder who his readers were. Did the average guy on the street read him?