Within the Western Wild was the Wood Beyond the World. In this magical wood Wilhelmina Wang, Emil Hering, and the Lost Boy Digory Kirke were journeying.
Digory Kirke frequently walked here, for sometimes, between the trees or carried by the breeze, he could see a glimpse of or catch the voice of his mother, Mabel Kirke.
And within this Wood Beyond the World, at a particular hidden place, was the Well at the World’s End. The water from this well made potions. It was water from this well that Tristan and Isolde drank, as they sailed to Mark, Tristan’s uncle. It was this water that made Tristan of Brittany and Isolde of Hibernia fall in love, even as she wed Mark, king of Cornwall.
It’s complicated.
It was water from this well that Richard Wagner thought of as he wrote Tristan und Isolde, as he neglected his own wife Wilhelmine and instead fell in love with Mathilde, the wife of his patron Otto Wesendonck.
It’s ridiculously complicated, and pretty bad form all around.
Blame the Well.
In this Wood Beyond the World lived unicorns. One was called Silverfax. He was a cousin of Shadowfax, the white horse who carried Gandolf, of whom J. R. R. Tolkien wrote so much about. But that’s another story.
In this Wood lived fairies and elves, wichtel and gnome, dwarfs and foxes, owls and hares, deer and peafowl, and all manner of creatures.
In this Wood walked Wilhelmina Wang, a princess of Chang’an, Emil Hering, a hotel-keeper, and Digory Kirke, a Lost Boy.