Willa of the Wood

Willa of the Wood draws on a rich heritage of folklore, traditions, and mythology to characterize the Great Smoky Mountains as a magical land, even if the enchantment is slowly eroding through human interference and corruption. The Faeran people are Robert Beatty’s invention, as no obvious exact parallel exists in Appalachian or Cherokee mythology, but they share similarities to some tales all the same. 

One such tale is the reported “moon-eyed people,” a supposed Cherokee legend about pale-skinned, nocturnal humanoids who lived in the Appalachian Mountains until the Cherokee drove them out. It is unclear based on the fragments of tales we have—mostly recorded by American settlers in the late 1700s—if “moon-eyed” refers to these people’s appearances or their inability to see properly during the day. While these folkloric nocturnal people do share some similarity to the Faeran, they also were coopted by early anthropologists for a more sinister cultural role: Claiming that early white people were the actual Indigenous group that settled in America, and attributing early constructions and artifacts to a mythological people rather than to the actual pre-contact Indigenous groups. Although it is likely that these myths are Cherokee in origin, they were largely coopted by white colonists to mythologize their own presence in the land, rather than inform Indigenous viewpoints and culture.

Other myths, however, are much more obviously lifted from real mythology and folklore. Willa’s encounter with the White Bear at Ataga’hi is directly taken from a Cherokee myth recorded by James Mooney in 1900 (around the time the novel takes place). The myth states that the water is primarily to heal wounded bears, an idea reflected in the novel. Additionally, Mooney wrote that the Cherokee believed the bears, like the humans, had meeting houses, and Ataga’hi was the home of the White Bear, their leader. Additionally, Willa experiences the blue ghost fireflies, a real phenomenon only found in the Appalachian Mountains and now often a tourist attraction. Willa only acknowledges them as a rare, shy creature, and does not mythologize them, but some American legends state that they are the lost souls of Confederate soldiers, once again showing the coopting and blending of stories, cultures, and nature in the Appalachian region.