SOLVED. Fantasy: Short story: Fairy gold, only good for one night, makes its way through a village economy [s]

[Justanotherbiblophile]

SOLVED: "Fairy Gold" (info) by Poul Anderson (RIO)

Mostly in the title. Fairy turns leaves into gold for payment, tells recipient that the gold will only remain good for the night and get rid of it as quickly as possible. Protagonist A buys things from B, B buys things from C, C buys things from D, and I think it ends up with the paramour of A selling something for the gold and bringing it back to A - but like "The Gift of the Magi" which is about the guy who sold his watch to buy his lady ivory hairpins, when she shaved her head to sell her hair to buy him a lovely watch-case - things, while reciprocal, are all different at the end.

Also, tell me your favorite stories that illustrate economic principles. :)

[Kris]

Justanotherbiblophile, is this short story in a collection? (What's the common theme? One or multiple authors?)

What kind of leaves does the fairy turn into gold?

Is this book for children, teens (young adults), or older adults?

Can you describe the world - fantasy, medieval, realistic Earth (location), etc.?

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Kris wrote: "Justanotherbiblophile, is this short story in a collection? (theme, authors)"

No idea on any of those.

What kind of leaves does the fairy turn into gold?

I want to say Oak - but I'm really, really unsure if the type of leaf was even mentioned, much less if that is the correct species. (Might be Maple, too). I think the ending line was something like: the gold (coin? bar?) turned into brown leaves in his hand and blew away in the morning sunlight. (I think he was holding his love interest, and I think they were going to move away? Maybe).

Starting point of the story was negotiation/discussion for whatever the fairy wanted done, or about how fairy was going to pay, or that the fairy needed to pay and couldn't take whatever was done for a gift. And stirred some leaves from the forest-floor where they were meeting, and turned it into gold.

There was knocking on doors or windows and waking people up in the middle of the night to pay-off debts, buy/negotiate for things. I want to say a second-story room/housing over an inn or blacksmith shop was one of the locations? Might be mis-remembering that.

I think there was a scene where someone tested the gold, hitting with a hammer? Not sure about that either.

I think the things negotiated for decreased in value as the night wore on, as if people were willing to settle for less in order to not get caught holding the hot potato - but I don't think anyone besides the first guy knew that the gold was fake, so that seems strange.

Is this book for children, teens...

As the title says, it's a short story. I don't think it was specifically written for a particular age group (YA, teens, or mature themes), but it wasn't particularly child friendly.

Can you describe the world

Not really. It had a village? I don't recall any super-modern elements in it. I don't recall any mention of electronics - I don't recall anyone driving a car. Fairy was real, but I don't know if it was a unique occurrence, unusual, or commonplace. I don't recall mention of any other type of magic.

But, as this was a short story - it was all about essential parts of the story, and not any extraneous details. Could easily have been 1940s, and nobody drove their car around the village (everything was close together). Could have been high fantasy.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Justanotherbiblophile]

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[Summer]

Aw man, still no luck? Don't lose hope. Have you tried anthologies? There are a lot of fairy tale anthologies out there, ranging from Datlow and Windling's grim ones to the YA ones Jane Yolen shows up in.

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Yeah, about a million of them. All with no descriptions of the individual stories. If you're lucky, occasionally people will review a few of the best stories. Worldcat has been the best luck for finding out which stories are actually in the anthologies, as GR and other places won't even tell you which stories are where. Sometimes ISFDB works, but that's pretty much only for SF/F; and doesn't work on the horror, and other types of short stories.

[Summer]

Yeah, that's really frustrating. I'll definitely let you know if I stumble across it!

[Ayshe]

"Fairy Gold" by Poul Anderson? It has been reviewed here: http://poulandersonappreciation.blogs...

Isfdb lists three anthologies it's been collected into: The Unicorn Trade, Armies of Elfland and The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 5: Door to Anywhere

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cg...

[Justanotherbiblophile]

That's almost certainly it.

From the review:

[F]or killing a troll, Arvel Tarabine receives a large coin of fairy gold from the elf Irrendal who advises him to spend it that very night;

Zulio Pandric the banker, who recognizes fairy gold and knows its properties, gives Arvel not the 400 aureats that the coin is worth but 350 which is enough for what Arvel wants, to buy his passage on an expedition to the New Lands;

Natan Sandana the jeweler gives Zulio 400 aureats' worth of gems for the coin;

Natan buys pearls from a Norrener merchant with the coin;

the merchant gives the coin to a courtesan in return for her services in future;

the courtesan buys a large house from a scholar;

the scholar, who wants to marry, buys Lona Grancy's pottery business and cottage;

Lona had broken off her engagement to Arvel because of his unrealistic attitude but now takes the coin to him to buy their passage on the, previously unrealistic, expedition;

Arvel already has enough for their passage which is fortunate because the sun rises on the coin...

The story is set in an unspecified other world or realm with unfamiliar place names and temples instead of churches so I think that it counts as a parallel universe narrative.

edit:
(From the story):
"In her left hand, behind his shoulder, she gripped the fairy gold. The sun came over a rooftop, and smote. Suddenly she held nothing. A few dead leaves blew away upon the dawn breeze, with a sound like dry laughter."

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Justanotherbiblophile. Can we shelf one of the anthologies found by Ayshe?

- The Unicorn Trade by Poul Anderson
- Armies of Elfland by Poul Anderson
- The Collected Short Works of Poul Anderson, Volume 5: Door to Anywhere by Poul Anderson

[Summer]

Congrats!

[Justanotherbiblophile]

Kris wrote: "Can we shelf one of the anthologies found by Ayshe?"

Sure. I'm not sure how the shelving works. I read the story in one of the first two collections (since I've never seen the third collection).