In the eighteenth-century ballad “Thomas Rymer” the hero is abducted (without much of a struggle) by the Queen of Elfland, and their route to Faërie is the third road. As she says to him,

Let us explore (cautiously, as befits a wild and “perilous” place) what is variously called Elfland, Faërie or enchantment – which is also, I shall suggest, an animist world. I have ventured there before in print, but this time I will be guided by the metaphor of the three roads, and its significance. My main purpose is to better understand animist enchantment through its continuing presence in a field of British literature and literary culture, one where J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and, more recently, Philip Pullman have left their mark. But the literary and cultural particularities of its presence also compel attention in their right.