A tiny fairy woman emerges from Anodos's father's old desk and promises him he will reach Fairy Land.

Anodos's bedroom slowly transforms into a fairy meadow of grass, flowers, and a running stream.

A maiden emerging from the forest warns Anodos to trust the Oaks but avoid the Ash and Alder trees.

The towering, translucent Ash spirit pursues Anodos through the dark forest, filling him with unspeakable terror.

A woman's soft arms catch Anodos as he flees, and the Beech tree woman holds him safely through the night.

Anodos spontaneously sings over a marble statue, shattering her alabaster shell; the white figure immediately flees into the forest.

The Alder woman lures Anodos into her grotto and puts him to sleep with a magical fairy tale.

Anodos opens a forbidden closet door in the ogress's cottage and releases his own shadow into the world.

Anodos takes hold of a crystal globe a maiden greatly treasures; it shatters and she flees heartbroken.

A river carries Anodos on a boat through beautiful country until he reaches a grand fairy palace.

The Marble Lady finally comes to life in the palace but tears herself free from Anodos's grasp and flees.

Anodos pursues the fleeing Marble Lady to a deep pit in the earth and descends into the underworld.

A painted boat carries Anodos to a small island where an ancient old woman lives in a cottage with four doors.

Anodos defeats his giant in battle; the two brothers each kill theirs but both die from their wounds.

Anodos wakes in his own world and learns from his sisters that he was gone only 21 days.

Anodos is summoned to Fairy Land by his fairy grandmother and enters an enchanted forest in pursuit of beauty and enlightenment. He survives the terror of the Ash spirit, frees a beautiful Marble Lady with his singing, and is deceived and betrayed by the hollow Alder woman. After releasing his own shadow from a forbidden door, he travels to a fairy palace where the Marble Lady appears again, only to flee when he grabs her. His relentless pursuit leads him through the underworld, a mysterious island cottage, and a battle with three giants alongside two new brothers. His journey ends in a sacrificial death at the hands of a death cult, a mystical union with all of nature, and a final awakening back in his own world.

Anodos's quest from Fairy Land entry to homecoming.

Anodos wakes on the morning after his 21st birthday and opens his father's old inherited desk with its key.

Anodos arrives at a cottage built between four great oak trees and asks the woman there for food and shelter.

The mother at the cottage shows Anodos the massive shadow of the Ash spirit passing across the window blind.

Anodos reads a passage about Sir Percival, whose armor is covered in rust from a past failure with a demon woman.

Anodos pauses in the moonlit forest to watch the tiny flower fairy children at their play before moving on.

The unnamed knight in rusted armor warns Anodos to beware of the treacherous Maiden of the Alder-tree.

The Ash spirit enters the cave to seize Anodos but shudders and retreats at the sound of a distant axe blow.

Anodos stumbles to a farmhouse where a motherly farmwife comforts him and he bursts into tears of relief.

The shadow follows Anodos everywhere, scorching the grass and flowers and robbing the landscape of all joy.

A village girl provokes Anodos toward a kiss, but as he approaches her face becomes hideously distorted.

Anodos discovers a room in the fairy palace bearing his name and is served food and wine by invisible hands.

Anodos reads the story of Cosmo, a poor proud student who falls in love with a princess seen in a magic mirror.

Through the cottage's first door, Anodos watches his childhood brother drown in a river after they quarreled.

The old king knights Anodos with a shaking hand and presents him with a magnificent suit of new armor.

The unnamed knight and the Marble Lady weep over Anodos's coffin and bury him in the castle grounds.

This pool traces the supporting events that fill in the texture of Anodos's adventure, from his very first discovery of the desk key to the burial of his body in the fairy castle grounds. It covers his early encounters with helpful and dangerous figures, including the mother at the oak-tree cottage, the unnamed rusty knight, and the farmwife who comforts him after his failure with the Alder woman. The shadow's corrosive effect on the world, the disturbing village encounter, and the tale of Cosmo read in the palace library all reveal how Anodos learns from his mistakes and slowly matures. The four doors of the old woman's cottage open wounds from his past, while his knighting by the old king begins a new chapter of misplaced pride. Together, these events show the full human cost and inner drama of Anodos's long coming of age.

The encounters and trials that shaped Anodos's journey.

Anodos enters the deep forest and veers from the clear path, choosing his own course despite a vague unease.

The Beech tree woman gives Anodos a protective belt of her leaves and warns him away from dangerously beautiful tree spirits.

Anodos cuts away moss and alabaster from a cave wall to uncover a carved marble statue of a beautiful woman.

Anodos wakes in the Alder woman's grotto to find her hollow from behind and his protective belt of leaves destroyed.

The farmer's cheerful pragmatism almost convinces Anodos his adventures were only the product of a diseased imagination.

The farmwife's young daughter shows Anodos a window looking out over Fairy Land, and his belief floods back.

Anodos encounters the unnamed knight a second time and notices the rust on his armor has visibly diminished.

Cosmo breaks the magic mirror to free the enslaved princess and collapses dead in her arms on a moonlit bridge.

Anodos sings the Marble Lady back into visible form in the palace, lifting her from beneath his own shadow.

Kobolds in the underworld mock Anodos with his own song and tell him the Marble Lady belongs to a better man.

Through the cottage's second door, Anodos overhears the Marble Lady tell the knight that Anodos's song made their love possible.

Through the third door, Anodos sees the girl whose heart he broke and discovers the knight and lady are his ancestors.

Outside the tower, Anodos finds the maiden whose shattered globe taught her grief, and whose songs now free others.

Anodos strips off his tarnished armor, takes only an axe, and begs the unnamed knight to accept him as squire.

Buried in the earth, Anodos's consciousness merges with all of nature and embraces all of suffering mankind.

This pool focuses on the moments of discovery and decision that mark each stage of Anodos's development from reckless youth to humble servant. Beginning with his first willful divergence from the forest path, it traces his growing awareness of beauty, his failures, and his gradual self-knowledge. Key revelations include the Alder woman's hollow treachery, the diminishing rust on the knight's armor, and Cosmo's death in the palace tale that mirrors Anodos's own quest. The descent into the underworld, the enchanted cottage doors, and the woman who sings him free of his self-made tower prison each strip away another layer of pride and vanity. By the time Anodos discards his tarnished armor and offers himself as squire, he has earned the capacity for the selfless sacrifice that ends with his joyful union with all of nature.