[ANON POST] Folklore Fact-Check: Crossing Running Water Three Times

[orange_fell]

I remember reading something somewhere in some fantasy novel about how in some folklore, you get to the land of Faery(?) by crossing running water three times. Does anyone know if this is actual folklore and, if so, for which people

Comments

[tylik]

This called to mind a faint recollection of one of the versions of Thomas the Rhymer, wherein they pass multiple rivers, the third and last being a river of blood on the way into Faerie. But checking Child (at least, as is easily accessible online) this doesn't conform quite to any of the three listed there, though one could argue that it is implied (they crossed "rivers" and then a river of blood.)

[tylik]

Heh. Keeping to the model of the ballads I suppose one could argue that one river is the Styx, one Lethe, and one river of blood one must past to enter faerie.

(Or at least, this tickles my sense of humor.)

[syntinen_laulu]

You beat me to it: I suspect that this, or something based on this, is what the OP read.

[lolmac]

I've got a lot of folklore under my belt, and I have never encountered this, so I suspect that it's something a specific fantasy novelist made up because it sounded plausible. This is quite common in fantasy novels! Folklore usually presents running water as a means of prevention or dispersal, as you found.

As the others have mentioned, one of the (many) versions of Thomas the Rhymer has them crossing (or passing) three rivers before they reach Faerie; but that's only one version (and not one I've actually encountered myself). More common is a version in which they reach a point where the road divides into three: the roads to Heaven, Hell, and Faerie. (Lowry Charles Wimberly wrote an excellent book on the way in which supernatural elements in traditional English ballads emphasize Faerie as a place outside of and distinct from the Christian mythos.)

[mariadkins]

there are legends in abundance of any type of supernatural being either not being able to cross water or having to cross water any number of times to accomplish something / get somewhere.

[akcipitrokulo]

Not hear of fairies personally, but witches not being able to cross running water is one of the main plot points of Tam O'Shanter.

[alivion]

Seconding everyone else, this isn't something I've specifically encountered before, but it reminds me of Thomas the Rhymer. Running water shows up everywhere. Witches can't cross it, vampires can't cross it, ghosts can't cross it, fairies sometimes can't cross it, heroes have to cross it, even Tolkien's Nazgul are a bit put out by rivers.