[ The Chatwins ] [ Ember and Umber ] [ Castle Whitespire ] [ The Watcherwoman ] [ The Cozy Horse ] [ The Neitherlands ]
Hi Everybody. This website is a place for fans of Fillory and Further to share their love of the books and the characters and the world they're set in. These books have meant a lot to me when I was growing up and they still do now. If you've ever wished you were one of the Chatwin kids, or that magic was real, or that you could go to Fillory, this site is for you.
This site is also to introduce people who have never read the books to what Fillory and Further is all about. The Fillory books were published in England in the 1930's by a man named Christopher Plover. They are about the five Chatwin children-Martin, Fiona, Rupert, Helen and Jane-and their adventres in a magical land called Fillory. Even though they are kids the Chatwins are treated like kings and queens, and they have many adventures there, and they keep the people and animals of Fillory safe from danger. Their main enemy is the Watcherwoman. This site is a guide to what Fillory is all about.
The Chatwins
There are five Chatwin children. From oldest to youngest they are: Martin, Fiona, Helen, Rupert and Jane. In each of the books, two of them get to go to Fillory together and have adventures. Each of them has a different personality: Martin is the serious, intense one. Fiona is a princess. Helen is the good girl, but kind of scoldy. Rupert is goofy. Jane is sad and thoughtful.
The Chatwins were a real family who lived next door to Plover, and the children had the same names as the ones in the stories. Martin Chatwin disappeared in 1935 when he was 13 and was never found. He may have run away or been kidnapped or had an accident. Some people even suspected Plover had something to do with it. In the books Plover had Martin go to Fillory and stay there forever.
Rupert died in World War II at Dieppe.
Ember and Umber
Ember and Umber are the giant twin rams who rule over Fillory. They are peaceful and keep order, and decide who can and can't come into Fillory. Their wool is golden and they have huge curly horns. They often appear near the end of the books to explain the moral of the story.
Essentially they are the gods of Fillory and have been there since it was created. They may even have created it, Plover never says. My question is, if they're so powerful why do they need the Chatwins to come and solve their problems????
Castle Whitespire
Located on the Eastern coast of Fillory, Castle Whitespire is the capital of the entire country. The Chatwins have their thrown rooms here. The citizens of Fillory come here to pay tribute to them and have their disputes settled. The accomodations are exceptionally luxurious. Each of the Chatwins has their own royal apartment, decorated in their favorite color, where only their favorite foods are served.
Interestingly Castle Whitespire was built on a foundation of clockwork designed by the dwarves. (The dwarves can build pretty much anything if they put their minds to it!) The mainspring is wound by a system of windmills. The clockwork makes the towers of the castle to slowly rotate around one another - slowly, so that you would never notice it from inside, except that your view changes. Also there are secret clockwork defenses for when the castle is besieged in The Secret Sea.
(I realize now this sounds a lot like a revolving restaurant, which is kind of cheesy. But remember there weren't any revolving restaurants back then. The first one opened in 1959. Thank you Wikipedia!)
The Watcherwoman
The Watcherwoman is the main antagonist in the Fillory novels. She is a mysterious person whose main power seems to be over time. In The World in the Walls she is trying to halt the advance of time altogether, and to trap Fillory forever at five o'clock on a rainy afternoon in September. One way she does this is by planting clock-trees, which look like regular oak-trees except that they have a ticking clock set in their trunk.
The Watcherwoman looks like an ordinary woman, excep that she always has a veil over her face - nobody has seen her actual face. She always carries a large pocket watch, and sometimes she drives around in an elaborate clock-carriage that makes a ticking sound. Clockwork is a theme in Fillory and Further.
The Cozy Horse
Who or what is the Cozy Horse? And why? We know this much: the Cozy Horse is an enormous horse-like animal who trots around Fillory silently and more or less at random. She is soft and made of velvet, or something like it, even her hooves, and her back is broad enough that you can sleep on it. Her saddle is outfitted with ladders where it would usually have stirrups, so you can climb up.
I think the Cozy Horse is a little like the Cat Bus in My Neighbor Totoro. Sometimes she seems like an animal, other times like some kind of magical machine. She is friendly, but she has her own ideas about where she's going, and where she's going to take you.
The Neitherlands
In the last book -- The Wandering Dune -- there's a talking rabit named Highbound who gives Helen and Jane a box of magic buttons. The buttons can take you to another world that the rabbits call the Neitherlands, "because it's neither here nor there." The Neitherlands look like an empty twilight city made up of empty stone squares. In each square is a fountain. Jump into a fountain and you get transported to another world.
At the end of TWD Helen decides the buttons are evil and she hides them. Jane tries to find them but can't. They have a big argumenet about it. I actually kind of agree with Helen, because that way anybody who wanted to could get into Fillory whenever they wanted. So maybe it's good that they're gone. But I still want one anyway!