Verlyn Flieger is an author, editor, and professor in the Department of English at the University of Maryland at College Park. She teaches courses in comparative mythology, medieval literature and the works of J. R. R. Tolkien.
Flieger holds an M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1977) from The Catholic University of America, and has been associated with the University of Maryland since 1976. In 2012, Flieger began teaching Arthurian studies at Signum University.
Lovely, sad little poem about a how a very earthly despair over his and his lady's inability to have children led an ancient lord to turn to a fairy in a perilous wood for help, with terrible consequences.