The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Gaiman, Neil. “The Fairy Reel.” The Journal of Mythic Arts, https://endicottstudio.typepad.com/poetrylist/the-fairy-reel-by-neil-gaiman.html.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“The Fairy Reel” originally appeared in the 2004 anthology The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling. It was later included in Gaiman’s 2006 collection Fragile Things. The poem draws from traditional folklore and the oral tradition to describe a story in which the speaker, who may represent the poet himself, finds themself caught between the ordinary and extraordinary worlds. In the author’s note, Gaiman wrote that this poem was “written with the idea of a fairy reel in mind, the beats of a dance that would make your feet twitch and set its measure in the back of your head, and so it was written to be read out loud.”