Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

Professor Emily Wilde arrives alone in the remote village of Hrafnsvik, Ljosland, to finish the final fieldwork for her encyclopaedia of faeries. She is intellectually formidable but physically and socially unprepared for life in a freezing cottage above the village. Her landlord, Krystjan Egilson, warns her not to interfere with the greater Folk, and his son Finn helps her master basic survival. Emily explains that she is studying the Hidden Ones, and from the beginning she relies on stories as much as direct observation. A letter from her Cambridge colleague Wendell Bambleby irritates her and revives an old suspicion that he is not entirely human.

Emily begins surveying the nearby forest and mountains, quickly finding signs of faerie activity. At a sulphur spring she makes offerings and successfully contacts a small common faerie she later calls Poe, bargaining for bread in exchange for a skin and future help clearing snow. Her first evening among the villagers is less successful. Hrafnsvik treats her with skepticism, and Emily is shaken by the sight of Auður Hildsdottir, a young woman left eerily diminished after an encounter with the Hidden Ones. Emily also inadvertently offends Aud Hallasdottir, the village authority, by mishandling local hospitality. The result is practical hostility: inflated prices, poor meals, and less cooperation just when Emily most needs local knowledge. At the same time she investigates a decaying blue house and discovers that Mord and Aslaug Samson’s son Ari was stolen years before and replaced by a changeling. The child-faerie torments the household with illusions and cold, but gives Emily little useful information.

Wendell soon arrives unexpectedly with his students Henry and Lizzie, proposes that he and Emily collaborate, and offers to present their findings at ICODEF in Paris. Emily dislikes the intrusion but accepts the scholarly opportunity and secures first credit on their paper. Wendell’s charm immediately succeeds where hers failed: he wins over Finn, Krystjan, and much of the village. Poe also confirms Emily’s suspicion that Wendell is one of the high Folk and that he has been asking about doors into Faerie. After Henry and Lizzie flee Hrafnsvik in fear, Emily tries to manage the cottage herself and accidentally gashes Wendell’s arm with an axe. Aud, Thora Gudridsdottir, Lilja Johannasdottir, and others save him, and Aud realizes he is one of the Folk. This crisis unexpectedly repairs Emily’s place in the village, because accepting Aud’s help finally lets Hrafnsvik treat her as someone within its bonds of hospitality.

Now trusted, Emily gathers much richer material. She learns that the courtly Hidden Ones in Ljosland move with the snow and have recently been preying on local young people with unusual frequency. Village lore points toward a mysterious white tree in the forest. Emily and Wendell find it, and when roots try to seize Wendell, Emily deduces that some enchantment tied to his exile prevents him from naming his nature aloud. Once she states that she already knows what he is, Wendell can use his magic to escape. He explains that an ancient king is imprisoned within the tree and sought to use him as a vessel. Soon afterward Wendell finally tells Emily the truth: he is an exiled faerie prince, his older siblings were murdered by his father’s third wife, and his academic career has partly been a way to search the mortal world for a hidden path back to his realm.

The danger in Hrafnsvik worsens when Lilja and her beloved Margret are abducted by the tall ones. Poe says the kidnappers have gone to the place where the aurora bleeds white and that they fear fire. Emily refuses Wendell’s cynical suggestion that they fake a rescue for scholarly prestige, and instead binds him to help her. Their pursuit through the mountains reveals both Wendell’s homesickness and his terrifying power when he slaughters attacking bogles. Emily enters a faerie winter fair alone with Shadow, who grows more formidable in Faerie and shields her from enchantment. She partly frees Lilja and Margret, but cannot escape. Wendell follows into the shifting borderland, heals Margret enough to break the fair’s hold on her, and confirms that Shadow is a glamoured Black Hound. When an ancient Hidden One attacks, Emily uses story logic rather than magic: she wounds herself and lets her grief and blood form a sword from an old tale, giving Wendell the weapon he needs to kill their attacker and bring the party home.

Back in Hrafnsvik, Emily realizes the changeling is not the target of courtly faeries but a beacon drawing them toward the village. To protect Hrafnsvik, she and Wendell confront the changeling again. Using a token from his homeland and the threat of fire, Emily forces him to reveal his true name, Aðlinduri. He leads them to a hidden threshold, where his mother explains that her people backed a deposed winter king now imprisoned in the white tree, and that the reigning court freely treats mortals as prey. She returns the real Ari, allowing Mord and Aslaug to recover their son at last. That same night Wendell confesses that he loves Emily, offers her his true name, and proposes marriage. Emily is deeply shaken, partly because she wants to say yes.

Instead, the white tree’s enchantment tightens around her. To break its pull, Emily uses the axe technique Lilja taught her and cuts off her own ring finger. Then, acting by choice rather than compulsion, she questions Poe, learns that the imprisoned king is trapped inside a season-cloak fastened by buttons, and frees him with an obscure Word. The Hidden king emerges, heals her hand, claims prophecy has made Emily his bride, and raises an ice palace whose return intensifies winter across Ljosland. Emily is taken to his court, where enchantment muddles her memory and constantly redirects any attempt to flee. She slowly grasps that the king’s mercy is performative: he speaks of forgiveness while rewarding murder, prolongs deadly winter for his celebrations, and plans to keep Emily only for the span of her mortal life. Meanwhile Wendell, Aud, Thora, Finn, Lilja, Margret, Ulfar, and the rest of Hrafnsvik spend weeks trying to rescue her through bargains, rituals, disguises, and alliances with the king’s enemies.

Wendell finally reaches Emily in disguise and reveals the rescue plan. During a public gift-giving ceremony, mortal visitors from Hrafnsvik will present poisoned wine while the king’s former queen and rebel courtiers move against him. When the moment comes, Emily cannot bring herself to hand over the poison, sensing that the story would turn against them if she did. Aud instantly improvises a cover story when the wine spills, and the court erupts into panic and violence as the former queen is exposed. Wendell guides Emily, Aud, Finn, and Aslaug through weakening glamour and out of the palace. Back in Hrafnsvik, Emily recovers, Aud secures an end to the unnatural winter, and the village helps pack Emily’s cottage with the ease of family rather than ceremony. Wendell finishes their paper from Emily’s notes and heavily annotates her encyclopaedia manuscript. Emily admits she is seriously considering his proposal, though she does not answer yet. She, Wendell, and Shadow leave Hrafnsvik for London, where they prepare to present physical evidence of the Folk at ICODEF. The book closes with Emily appending an old Irish tale, The Golden Ravens, a folktale about curses, hidden faerie labor, and transformed identity that echoes the patterns she has spent the novel studying.