Golden Apples of the Island of Immortality

In the olden times, before there were only two main courts of Faerie, and before mortals had discovered cold iron,  the various courts of fae were always at war with each other.  As you know from your history classes, the Fae used to spend far more time in the mortal realm then we do now.  Mortals were no threat to us, and many saw us as gods. But that is another story.  This is the legend of the Golden Apples of the Island of Immortality.

Once, there was an island on which grew a very special kind of apple tree.  The bark and branches of this tree were made of silver, and the apples that grew on it had skins of pure gold.  It is said that no other fruit in either the mortal realm or the fae realm tasted as wonderfully delicious as these apples, but that was not what made them so very special.  You see, eating these apples granted eternal youth to any who ate them.  For a mortal, a single apple eaten would grant an extra decade of life, for a sidhe, an extra century.  It is said that eating the apples strengthened one's magic as well.

The island was inhabited by a clan of powerful Dryads, who protected the trees and their fruit.  They would trade the apples from their trees to the royalty of the fae courts in return for protection and being allowed to rule themselves.  The Dryads warned others that these were not ordinary apple trees, and without the specialized care that only they could provide, the trees would die.  For many millennia, they were believed.

The courts of the various types of Fae began to organize themselves into larger courts, and eventually, the Seelie Court and Unseelie Court came to be.  Great Wars were fought between the two courts, but the Island of Immortality was seen as neutral territory, as being outside the struggles for power and control of the realms.  No one wanted to lose access to the life prolonging Golden Apples. 

The legends also say the Dryads had woven powerful magic that made it impossible to find the island from within Faerie, unless one was already there.  The Island of Immortality could only be reached through portals located in various places in the mortal realm. However, the mortals had been forming larger courts as well. Worse, they had started to learn to work iron, which is resistant to our magic, and which can therefore poison or even kill us. 

A mortal King came, who united all the islands of what is now called Britain into one human court for a time.  He was supposedly brought to the Island of Immortality when he was grievously wounded in battle, for one of his advisors was a mage who had been trained by the fae.  As the mortal realm devolved into war and chaos, so too did Faerie, for some among the mortals sought to have the King returned, and others wished to know for certain he was dead. Still others resented the fae for interfering in mortal affairs.

Some among the fae blamed the denizens of the Island of Immortality for the chaos and strife.  They made plans to attack the island, and find either the king or his body, and return him to the mortal realm.  There was a great battle, but these fae were eventually defeated.  However, the orchards were heavily damaged, as was the portal by which the attacking fae had reached the Island of Immortality. 

The Dryads were, perhaps understandably, irate, and told the High King of all Fae, both Seelie and Unseelie, that they would no longer allow any but their own people on the island.  They would allow him to know the location of the last remaining portal, and once every year, after the harvest, he would be allowed to come to the island himself, and trade for as much of the harvest as he could afford to purchase.

Legend has it that that High King was named Oberon.  You hopefully recognize the name from your history lessons, as the King of the Unseelie Court of the old world at the time when we began to move our portals in to the realms of Faerie near North America.  That is something of an over simplification; he and Queen Titania of the Seelie Court ruled together, and the two courts were not as divided as they are now.  Legend has it that they, and the leaders of each of the old great houses, still received the golden apples once a year for a millennium or so.

High King Oberon's journey to the portal through the mortal realm had become increasingly perilous.  The stories say that during one such yearly journey, he disappeared, and could not be found.  Queen Titania blamed the Dryads and sought to wage war on them, only to disappear herself. 

With the High King and High Queen's disappearance, no one living knew how to find the Island of Immortality.  Many claim it never existed, and that the apples were nothing more than a legend.  With all contact cut off with the old world, we will probably never know. The portals that led to it are most certainly lost to us, if it did exist.