There are many parallels within the world of folklore such as the existence of magic and the inevitability of good conquering evil. Many peculiar characters rise in similar fashion out many worlds, such as talking beasts in Narnia and Oz, as well as good faeries and bad witches, talking goblins and secret heroes destined to be Kings. Cinderella's lesson of patience is shared by many other hero and heroines alike, but what of the terrain of these magical lands? Many trends appear through out faerie realms, one of the most fascinating being the exploration of subterranean territories.
Alice in Wonderland, Arthur Rackham (1907)
The most well known tale of a hero/ heroine slipping into subterranean territory is perhaps Alice in Wonderland. Alice's extravagant and unusual experiences begin after chasing the White Rabbit into a hole within the ground. Upon slipping into the rabbit hole she falls for a long period of time before landing into a hall with many doors, one of which leads directly to Wonderland. It is interesting to note that Lewis Carroll's original 1864 manuscript for this tale was originally titled: Alice's Adventures Underground.
The Princess and the Goblin, Jessie Willcox Smith (1920)
The famous fantasy writer George MacDonald, who is known to have inspired Lewis Carroll with his fiction, published a tale in 1872 titled The Princess and the Goblin. In this tale a young Princess named Irene, who lives in a mountainous kingdom, is drawn into a deep realm below the kingdoms mines where goblins have been dwelling. The goblins are malevolent creatures with an unusual flaw in their anatomy, they have very weak feet. The princess befriends a boy named Curdie who works with his father in the mines. Curdie and Irene begin several adventures when they learn about the goblins future attempt to flood the mines. For a good portion of the tale the two are focused on escaping the goblin dominion.
The Goblin King, Alan Lee, Warner Bros. Pictures (2012)
The Goblin dominion within mines appear also in J.R.R. Tolkien's 1937 tale: The Hobbit. Early in the novel, Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, along with Thorin and Company (a group of Dwarves,) find themselves below the Misty Mountains where they are accosted by goblins who live in deep strongholds. In a battle, the company is driven deep underground where they are eventually saved by Gandalf the Grey (,wizard). Thereafter Bilbo is separated from the group and manages to get further lost in the deep caverns. It is there that Bilbo discovers the peculiar creature named Gollum, and there where he discovers the ring that is the driving force for the whole saga that is The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien later describes that the Orcs, the citizens of the dark army in The Lord of the Rings are one in the same with goblins.
The Hobbit, Arthur Rankin & Jules Bass, Warner Bros Pictures (1977)
The irony of Bilbo's adventures into deep dark caverns is that he himself is described as living under the earth: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort" – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (1937).
The Silver Chair, Pauline Baynes (1953)
C. S. Lewis, Tolkein's longtime academic companion, also incorporated a deep subterranean plot within The Silver Chair, the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia. In this tale two English children are selected by the great and powerful lion Aslan to save the missing Narnian Prince Rilian. Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole have many adventures through vast terrain including a trek through marsh-land and a city inhabited by giants. Eustace and Jill take shelter in a cave to escape the cannibalistic giants where they slip on a slope and fall deep into Underland.
Puddlegum the Marsh Wiggle, Pauline Baynes (1953)
Underland is inhabited by an army of small earthmen (gnomes) who are slaves to an enchantress Queen called the Lady of the Green Kirtle and who have spent a lifetime in eternal darkness. This enchantress is considered to be one in the same with the White Witch of Narina, who was defeated in the first book: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. She uses her power primarily for transformation. Once in Underland Eustace and Jill travel by boat across the Sunless Sea to a gigantic city, there they discover the missing Narnian Prince under enchantment. At one point the enchantress uses sorcery to try and convince the heroes that the world above does not exist.The evil Queen is eventually destroyed but not before she transforms into a giant serpent. The heroes thereafter flee from the underground kingdom which was tied to the witches magic and begins to collapse.
Hades, The Divine Comedy
Underland is similar to Hades the underworld in Greek Mythology. The Sunless Sea and the hopeless earthmen are strikingly similar to the ferryman Charon, who carries souls of the recently deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that separate the world of the living from the world of the dead. C. S. Lewis' characters are very similar to figures in Greek Myth who were told that once in Hades they could never leave and still managed to escape (Theseus, Odysseus, Orpheus, etc.).
John R. Neill (1908)
Dorothy of Oz fame even has an adventure under the earth. L. Frank Baum's fourth Oz book titled: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, written in 1908, features unusual subterranean adventures. At the very beginning of this tale Dorothy and her cousin Zeb are riding together in a buggy when an earthquake occurs and pulls the two deep into the earth along with Dorothy's cat Eureka and a horse named Jim. The group falls into a land called Mangaboo which boasts a race of vegetable people. The Mangaboo's condemn Dorothy and Zeb for bringing with them Rain of Stones. The group is sentenced to death but saved when a mysterious balloon appears carrying The Wizard of Oz.
Dorothy & the Wizard in Oz, John R. Neill (1908)
An underground Nome Kingdom is featured throughout the Oz series predominantly in Ozma of Oz (1907), Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz (1908) and Tik-Tok of Oz (1914). The Nome Kingdom stretches throughout Oz and even under the impassable Deadly Dessert. This is where the Nome King resides and in the literary world he is a greater threat to Oz than any of the witches.
Alice in Wonderland, Walt Disney Pictures (2010)
In Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, 2010, Alice returns to Wonderland after being away for a great amount of time. Upon returning to the surreal landscape Alice discovers that when she was younger she had the name wrong and it was actually called: Underland. This is perhaps an homage to Lewis Carroll's original text title Alice's Adventures Underground.
Underground is the title track and song for Jim Henson's 1986 film titled Labyrinth. The film boasts the most traditional character found underground, goblins, along with the Goblin King played by David Bowie. There are many significant moments in the film when the main character Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) falls down and finds herself in more mysterious circumstances. One of the most visually stunning moments of the film is when she slips into a dream state and finds herself at a masked ball with the mysterious Goblin King, who sings a song titled: As the World Falls Down. The entire ballroom scene appears to be within a bubble. In the end of the film when Sarah defeats the Goblin King she falls out of the sky back into her bedroom, a sort of backwards exit from the Underground.
Labyrinth, Universal Pictures (1986)
Many myths are adapted from others. The Mayans had many wells and sinkholes which were believed to host magical and spiritual powers. The Hopi tribe of America has a creation myth that begins inside the earth. They believe that their people traveled through four worlds before they climbed out of the earth into this one. New-Age philosophers speak of Agartha a peaceful inner earth realm that can be related to the Tibetan Buddhist's Shambala. It seems as if every culture has at one point pondered or mythicized the subterranean worlds that exist under our feet.
Mayan sinkhole in Tulum Mexico, Picture by Patrik Gustafsson, National Geographic 2014
Source Material:
The Silver Chair, C. S. Lewis, Macmillan Publishing Co. 1953
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, L. Frank Baum, Dover Publishing Co. 1984
Another wonderful journey of enlightenment!! I especially love the moving pic & ability to listen to things such as the music you provided Loved it!!!
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