57 ordeal: an ironic reference to the inherent and un-human cruelty of Elfindom.

58 Morel and Amanita: both are names of poisonous mushrooms, which appear out of nowhere overnight.

59 Thomas of Ercildoune: True Thomas, Thomas the Rhymer, thirteenth-century Scottish laird from Berwickshire, reputed to have the gift of prophecy as well as poetry. He was famous for having been the lover of the Queen of Elfhame.

60 hawthorn brake: a stand of hawthorn trees, which produce white blossom after their green leaves have emerged.

61 composing draught: a drink to compose or soothe her disordered emotions, that is, a sedative.

62 IJmuiden: seaport in the northern Netherlands. ‘IJ’ is considered to be a single letter in Dutch, so both elements are capitalised in proper nouns.

63 quack: a medical practitioner with no skill or qualifications except persuasiveness.

64 mandora: an eighteenth-century form of lute.

65 alembic: two glass vessels connected by a tube, used for distilling cordials and other concentrated liquids.

66 henbane: also called stinking nightshade, a poisonous plant that produced hallucinations, among other properties.

67 clarify: to make into a clear liquid by removing suspended particles of fat by boiling and skimming, a hot and dirty process.

68 Mustela: the weasel’s Latin name for its genus is Mustela.

69 Golconda: area of southern India famous for its diamond mines.

70 board wages: reduced pay for live-in servants to compensate for their having a much reduced workload.

71 sans: French for ‘without’, used in elite speech to dignify terms of social etiquette.

72 portmanteau: Victorian suitcase consisting of two halves of equal capacity.

73 infra dig: from Latin infra dignitatem, beneath one’s dignity.

74 Almanach: Almanach de Gotha, a directory of European royalty and nobility, and an arbiter of court usage.

75 Wanderjahr: German, the tradition of a year of travel after one’s studies.

76 ding an sich: German, ‘thing in itself’, a philosophical concept discussed by Kant.

77 partisan: following a single particular cause or ideal.

78 Abendmusik: German term for an evening concert, normally held in a church.

79 specie: coins.

80 paunched: gutted, removing the offal for cooking and discarding the undesirable parts of the animal.

81 soutane: long black robe worn by a Catholic priest.

82 Aesculapius: Greek god of medicine, whose attribute was a snake coiled around a staff, thus snakes were sacred to him. Tinkel has had a Classical education.

83 tillage: ploughed agricultural land.

84 prisoner on the tower: the mullah is making the call for prayer from the tower of a mosque, which they have never seen before.

85 Walpurgisnacht: feast of St Walpurga, synonymous with a celebration of witchcraft, since her feast-day is 1 May, the pagan festival called Beltane in Scotland.

86 gimlet: a slender tool used to drill a hole in wood by turning.

87 inversion: Warner makes a pun on the English term from her youth used to describe homosexuality, and the relationship that Banian is to be asked to enter into.