Fablehaven Memory and the Past Quotes

Kendra feels close to her grandparents on the Larsen side, which is one of the reasons she doesn't remember their funeral with joy (that and because she's not a bad person). This also serves to highlight the fact that she doesn't know the Sorenson grandparents very well (hence not looking forward to the visit).

Thanks, Grandpa, for this history lesson about Muriel turning into an evil witch and being imprisoned for a long shmooping time. It has such a nice moral about how you're not supposed to mess with magical stuff you don't understand, or else there could be serious consequences (though it's not like Seth is gonna listen anyway).

Lena can compare and contrast the mortal and the naiad perspectives on time, since she's lived on both sides. Humans are apparently really aware of the passage of time and their relationship to the past, while naiads don't have a clue—but then they don't really need to, since they're more or less immortal. It's kind of like comparing apples and oranges when we think about it this way.

Brief history lesson: There's this secret society; they're probably up to no good; they've been around for a while. Now we're one step closer to understanding the past, but how much good will it do us? Especially with the whole emphasis on it being a secret society?

Here Lena's reminiscing about the past, when magic critters used to be kinda all over the place. With humans taking over the globe these days though, there isn't much space for magic creatures to thrive, so they're mostly hanging out in hidden corners of the world, or on preserves. Lena clearly feels sad about this, but she also thinks she's more aware of the contrast between the past and the present because she's more or less mortal right now.

Lena's thoughts here are maybe a tad morbid. She's saying that part of the problem with aging is not just your body getting old and starting to lose its functionality, but also that you remember how you used to be, and you can't be that awesome anymore. Maybe this is a caution against living in the past too much. Or maybe getting old just stinks no matter how you slice it.

Apparently being a chicken really messed with Grandma's perception of time and her memories—she couldn't really keep track of when time was passing, or how much of it. She didn't precisely seem to lose her human memories, though, and instead it was like she couldn't access them as readily.

Kendra goes to the naiad pond after the stuff with Bahumat goes down because she wants to see if Lena's okay there. But she doesn't really get a straight answer. Lena's a naiad again, which means her human memories are gone and she likely doesn't remember Kendra. Is it bad to lose all your memories? Perhaps. But at least Lena doesn't end up as demon-food, right?

Kendra wants to know how Lena is doing now that she's a naiad again, but Grandpa, who's usually a wellspring of information, doesn't have anything to offer here. It seems like naiads turning into people and back again might not be that common an occurrence. The Lena they knew and liked as a human is effectively gone, and her memories probably are gone too.

Sometimes objects can bring up memories, reminding us of experiences associated with them. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing, depending on whether those memories are happy or sad (or maybe both)—and in the end, Kendra chooses to bring along the painting Lena designed for her. She'd rather remember Fablehaven, both the good and the bad, which makes sense since we have a feeling she'll be back.