Bernard Sleigh's *Anciente Mappe of Fairyland* (ca. 1920 edition)

Maps of fictional worlds generally fall into one of two distinct categories. Some are officially approved by the author and printed within the book itself, often as a frontispiece to guide the reader. Others are born from fandom, created later by readers who wish to plot the imaginary journeys they have taken in their minds. The first group includes famous examples like Edwin Abbott's charts for Flatland, the original map of the Hundred Acre Wood, and the anthropological diagrams drawn by Ursula K. Le Guin. Fan-made maps might seem like a modern phenomenon, but their history is actually very old. For centuries, people have tried to map the complex architecture of Dante's Divine Comedy. Among all the maps created by explorers of literature, one stands out as truly unique: the Anciente Mappe of Fairyland by the English artist and teacher Bernard Sleigh, first published in 1917.

This remarkable map is almost six feet long. It presents a vast, interconnected universe where mythology and fairytales blend together. Characters from different stories and traditions appear together in a single, unified landscape. In the woods near Little Red Riding Hood's house, the Greek figure Narcissus gazes at his reflection. In a nearby cove, Ulysses sails past while Peter Piper and Puss in Boots play. Sir Lancelot climbs a mountain that also serves as the home to the Hydra and Cerberus. The map's borders are filled with tanning mermaids, playful fairies, and intricate decorations. At the very center, sitting on the distant horizon, is the Moone's Sphere, circled by enchanted rainbows. The overall effect suggests that all human stories of magic and mystery are actually fragments from one enormous, cohesive world.

The map creates a powerful sense of place where the roots of mythic imagination blend and remix. It offers a world that one might almost wish to inhabit. When it was first published, it provided a necessary form of escape from the grim aftermath of World War I. However, Sleigh had first drafted the map nearly a decade earlier. Like many great fan works, it grew from a deep love of reading and sharing stories. His daughter, the children's author Barbara Sleigh, later recalled the memory vividly. She explained that every day after lunch, before he set off on his bicycle for the afternoon session at the Art School, he would read to the two of them. She noted that one wet holiday, her father drew a Map of Faeryland for them. On it were marked the sites of all their best-loved fairy-stories. There was Peter Pan's House, and the palace of La Belle Dormante and the Bridge of Roc's Eggs, along with succinct entries such as 'Here be bogles' and 'Warlocks live here'. She added that this map has fascinated several generations of children.

Fairies were the consistent theme throughout Bernard Sleigh's artistic career. Part of his fascination with Fairyland may have stemmed from a severe medical trauma. In the late 1890s, he developed a severe abscess in his inner ear. Doctors performed a trepanation, a procedure involving drilling a hole in his skull. Afterwards, he began experiencing vivid, otherworldly visions. It was reported that "Sudden, overpowering, colour visions, came to Bernard at any time — in the street, when at work or among friends." He described these experiences as feeling suspended between childhood and adulthood, existing on both a temporal and a psychic plane.

The Anciente Mappe was first published as a three-sheet lithograph in scroll form in 1917. The version discussed here is the smaller, single-sheet edition released around 1920. Later, Sleigh adapted the design into a fabric print for Rosebank Fabrics. This led to profitable textile commissions after he retired from teaching in 1937. Before that, he created other works centered on fairy lore. The Faery Calendar (1920) was a set of twelve woodcuts accompanied by prose and verse. Its preface stated plainly, "I believe in Faeries. It is very natural and not a bit foolish; for in these days we are quickly learning how little we know of any other world than our own."

His next work, A Faery Pageant (1924), was published in a limited edition soon after the famous Cottingley fairy photographs hoax. Sleigh fully believed the photographs were real, siding with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In 1926, he published his most substantial prose work: The Gates of Horn: Being Sundry Records for the Society of Faery Fact and Fallacy. Across nearly three hundred pages, Sleigh presented case studies of human encounters with Dreamland. He discussed using mescal buttons to access the fairy world, a topic he explored through conversations with the psychologist Havelock Ellis. The book unequivocally answered "yes" to Peter Pan's famous question, "Do you believe in faeries?" Unfortunately, the book was poorly received. This failure meant his subsequent works, including an autobiography titled Memoirs of a Human Peter Pan, were never published.

Perhaps his most beautiful piece of writing was the pamphlet that accompanied the original 1917 map. Dedicated to his children, it was titled A Guide to the Map of Fairy Land. This slim work presented a philosophy as richly visual as the lithograph itself. It sought to capture the sublime feeling of childhood encounters with fairytales.

The Guide begins poetically: "In the heart of every child, is hidden away a little golden key which unlocks the door of a silent, cleanswept room full of changing lights and mystic shadows. There, every child that is born into the world enters at times to gaze eagerly upon the one great window, pictured with ancient legends, and glowing with many colours: amber and scarlet, lapis blues and strange greens. . . . At one time or another of its life, every child that is born of a woman sets trembling fingers to open wide the flashing casements—to stand gazing, awed and silent, upon a sea and sky of gold and crimson, full of winged forms grey against its summer radiance."

Sleigh ended his pamphlet with a bibliography for young readers. He pointed them toward writers who had "travelled across the mountains and plains of Dreamland; returning to record their experiences in the world of men." The list included Malory's Morte d'Arthur, One Thousand and One Nights, the works of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, and his beloved J.M. Barrie. His final sign-off was mournful and nostalgic, the voice of an adult looking back at faded childhood memories: "And so, farewell; until that day of days when you and I may meet together there."

The Anciente Mappe of Fairyland was originally made to be displayed on a wall. It remains a unique artifact of literary fandom and personal imagination. Bernard Sleigh's map merges countless stories into a single, wondrous landscape, suggesting that all tales of wonder are connected in one vast, unseen country.