English Literature - the wee free men

 The first section of this chapter is about grief. Tiffany never cried for Granny Aching but when she smells the tobacco that she smoked, that's when she gets upset. The smell brings the memory of Granny back to Tiffany. 

The nac mac feegle don't really have a clue about how to get to fairy land and their plan is simply to attack anything that comes near them - this turns out to be quite a good plan as fairy land appears to come to them. The grass turns to snow and three grimhounds with flaming eyes and teeth like razorblades attack the feegle and Tiffany. Rob Anybody has described fairy land previously and Tiffany is aware that it's a land of nightmares and monsters. 

The feegle and Tiffany win their battle with the grimhounds but a couple of the feegle die. The feegle think that the dead feegle aren't dead though, they believe that they have passed on to the land of the living. They believe that they are already dead and are living in heaven and there is some evidence that they believe in reincarnation because Rob Anybody suggested they would return soon enough. The feegle believe that with cheepy birds, blue skies, stealing, fighting - they must be in heaven. Tiffany is rather bemused but goes along with it. 

This chapter highlights the differences between the pictsies and the humans. The humans can be caught up by their emotions, grieving for lost loved ones, but the feegle have no issues like this. Their ignorance probably leads to much greater happiness overall. This is quite reflective of Buddhism and some of the practices that they teach. Being present minded, not concerning yourself with issues of the past or future, has been shown to lead to happier living. Maybe the wee free men are little incarnations of Buddha?