Titania On Mortality And Imagination

Titania speaks in works by Poul Anderson and Neil Gaiman:

"'Ye mortals do have powers, do know things, which are for aye denied the Faerie race,' she said. 'Among them is the strength of mortal love.' Wistfulness tinged her speech: 'Mine ageless, flighty kind knows love ... of sorts ... but simply pleasantly, like songs or sweets. True human love is not a comedy; time makes it tragic. In those heights and depths rise dawns and storms beyond our understanding, the awe and the abidingness of death.'"

-Poul Anderson, A Midsummer Tempest (London, 1975), vi, p. 53.

 

Titania: You wish to see the distant realms? Very well.

But know this first: the places you will visit, the places that you will see, do not exist.

 

Titania: For there are only two worlds - - your world, which is the real world, and other worlds, the fantasy.

Worlds like this are worlds of the human imagination: their reality, or lack of reality, is not important. What is important is that they are there.

 

Titania: These worlds provide an alternative. Provide an escape. Provide a threat. Provide a dream, and power, provide refuge, and pain.

 

Titania: They give your world meaning.

They do not exist; and thus they are all that matters. Do you understand?

 

Timothy Hunter: No.

 

-Neil Gaiman, The Books Of Magic, Volume III, The Land Of Summer's Twilight (New York, 1991), p. 34, panels 2-5, p. 35, panel 1.