Where It All Goes Down
A Tale of Wall and Faerie
Stardust takes place in two worlds: the mundane world, as seen in the English village of Wall, and the supernatural world, which lies beyond the wall dividing the two realms. While Faerie is notoriously hard to map, we'll give you the info you need to navigate the story's setting.
Welcome to Wall
Gaiman's the wordsmith—we're just the nerdsmiths—so we're going to start our discussion of Wall with his initial description of this little village:
The town of Wall stands today as it has stood for six hundred years, on a high jut of granite amidst a small forest woodland. The houses of Wall are square and old, built of grey stone, with dark slate roofs and high chimneys; taking advantage of every inch of space on the rock, the houses lean into each other, are built one upon the next, with here and there a bush growing out of the side of a building. (1.4)
So it's a little town, without a lot of space to build in, which means that everyone is up in each other's business. This proves true when Dunstan and Daisy's moms practically arrange their marriage.
Wall is "a whole night's drive from London" (1.5) in modern days with cars, so it'd take even longer to reach London back in the 19th century, when this story is set. We know the "when" of the story since we're told:
Mr. Dickens was serializing his novel Oliver Twist; Mr. Draper had just taken the first photograph of the moon, freezing her pale face on cold paper; Mr. Morse had recently announced a way of transmitting messages down metal wires. (1.19)
Based on what stages all these projects were in, we're guessing this was happening in the late 1830s or early 1840s for Dunstan's part of the story, which puts Tristran's part of the story seventeen years later, in the middle of the 19th century.
But there's more to Wall than its rural location and hills and fields which make for good sheep-grazing land:
Immediately to the east of Wall is a high grey rock wall, from which the town takes its name. This wall is old, built of rough, square lumps of hewn granite, and it comes from the woods and goes back to the woods once more. (1.8)
There is a gap in the wall, but villagers always guard it in groups of two. No one gets to go through except on May Day, and then only every nine years when there's a market held across the wall in a field. Wall folk tend to be ordinary and responsible, and they take their guard duties seriously. And once we see what's beyond the wall, we're thinking it's a good thing they do.
The Faerie Market
Most of Wall's inhabitants only get as far as the market when they cross the wall every nine years. In an era before tabloids, they probably get enough weirdness to last them until the next market. Take, for instance, the vendors' calls as Dunstan walks through:
"Try your luck! Step right up! Answer a simple riddle and win a wind-flower!"
"Everlasting lavender! Bluebell cloth!"
"Bottled dreams, a shilling a bottle!"
"Coats of night! Coats of twilight! Coats of dusk!"
"Swords of fortune! Wands of power! Rings of eternity! Cards of grace! Roll-up, roll-up, step this way!" (1.106-110)
Yes, this is a bizarre bazaar, if you will, where people sell all sorts of strange things. Heck, some of them aren't even people:
He passed a stall in which five huge men were dancing to the music of a lugubrious hurdy-gurdy being played by a mournful-looking black bear; he passed a stall where a balding man in a brightly colored kimono was smashing china plates and tossing them into a burning bowl from which colored smoke was pouring, all the while calling out to the passersby. (1.118)
This place isn't just strange, though—it also seems like it might be a bit dangerous. It is beyond the wall, after all, plus Dunstan's gentlemanly lodger cautions him to be polite and not accept any gifts. Most humans don't eat fairy food based on lore passed down to them, and the price of the glass flower Dunstan is looking at is the color of his hair, or some of his memories. It might seem like a deal at first—no money needed—but the stakes are pretty personal once you think about it.
Faerie Ahoy
Faerie is a big place, and apparently hard to map. It's bigger than our world, and the borders are constantly changing. We're told that:
Since the dawn of time, each land that has been forced off the map by explorers and the brave going out and proving it wasn't there has taken refuge in Faerie; so it is now, by the time we come to write of it, a most huge place indeed, containing every manner of landscape and terrain. (3.49)
We accompany the characters through forests (some of them predatory), mountain ranges, skies, valleys, and mountain passes. They stay in hovels, airships, and caravans, and they meet unicorns, talking badgers, winged men, and tree nymphs. Faerie is confusingly diverse and difficult to generalize, so we'll just say this: If you ever find yourself there, keep your wits about you, and hope that you make some friends pronto. It worked for Tristran, after all.