American Faerie: Medieval Fairy Lore in Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian

In Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy’s first Western novel, medieval fairy lore bears on both McCarthy’s description of the Mexico–U.S. borderlands and his creation of one of American literature’s most outstanding characters, “the judge.” The borderlands, or Southwest, are recast as another “perilous realm” charged with spiritual significance, and the judge’s Faerie-inflected inheritance gives another perspective on the nature of evil and American (and human) depravity.