North of Nowhere, East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and South of Sirius

March 20, 2019 11:42 AM

If you want to escape in a world of fantasies, to tromp through an imagined landscape populated by creatures and characters from ancient myths, Arthurian legends, folklore, and more contemporary nursery rhymes (Atlas Obscura), check out British author and illustrator Bernard Sleigh's 1.8 meter wide excursion into unreality, An Ancient Mappe of Fairyland, Newly Discovered and Set Forth (1925, via jjjjjjjijjjjjjj''s Big Map Blog, previously). There are also two other versions at the Library of Congress: one with slight variations and an associated booklet, and a smaller scale image, possibly an early draft, or possibly designed to be a tiled image on linen.
posted by filthy light thief (5 comments total)

Here's Bernard Sleigh on Artnet, for some examples of his other illustrations. Unfortunately, I can't find any of his writing online, though his Wikipedia page (linked above from his name) lists 13 titles in addition to this map.

This map was also included previously in a collection of unusual maps, though without the alternate copies, and possibly in a lower resolution.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:47 AM on March 20, 2019

There's a jigsaw puzzle of this fairy map! I got it a while ago but haven't gotten around to actually doing it yet.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:45 PM on March 20, 2019 [3 favorites]

I can't find Dream's palace.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 2:38 PM on March 20, 2019

I adore this map(pe). We have a framed copy hanging on our wall, and it was a huge inspiration to my four year-old daughter and I as we've been having fun creating our own fantasy world.
posted by Inkslinger at 9:43 PM on March 20, 2019 [4 favorites]

Here's a link to the map on the Big Maps Blog, which sourced the map(pe) from the Library of Congress, which dates the map as being from 1920 instead of 1925.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:46 AM on April 13, 2019