Fae or Nymph???

​​​Fae or Nymph... that is the question...  My newest character, Efem, has revealed her name but she is still shy about telling me more about who she really is.  She really loved that last little twist I added to her ears when I was sculpting her.  The twist that created a tree-like branch look to her ears.  Is this the first clue she is ready to reveal?  I decided a good place to look might be into tree spirits for more information.

​​Wow!  What I thought would be an easy task soon turned into a volume of information to sort through.  So I decided I would start my own book as I collect information.  This is what I started with -

(more notes I need to add to the book)

​...There were even several distinct groups of nymphs as well, that were based on where they lived and what they protected.  I knew that Efem liked the association with trees, so I looked further into the hamadryads and dryads.  Hamadryads are one with their tree and cannot be separated without withering and dying away.  This was not Efem as I felt she could travel anywhere she wanted to go.  The dryads, on the other hand, were free to move about in a forest or any place trees lived.

​​This sounded more like Efem as she really doesn't like being rooted to one spot. ​So what type of tree familiar or spirit is she is connected to?  She did not seem to have the characteristics of the Pine, as she is not quick tempered and needling, nor was she as bendable in her nature as the Willow, flowing from happy to sad with the sun and the rain.  She was not like an old Oak, slow to move but very knowledgeable, nor motherly like the Maple.

​I went through the list of trees and then it hit me.  She is the Hawthorn/Haugh tree (I should have known this from the start – read March 5th's blog).  The Hawthorn tree is about the balance of power and it is a perfect depiction of the concept of Yin and Yang much like the way Efem got her name.