Innisfree is a fictional historical character created by The Residents, who is referenced (but never seen) within their Mole Trilogy multimedia project.
Within the wider Mole Trilogy mythology, Innisfree was the first Chub explorer to venture out of Chubville, through a vast and inhospitable desert, into "the Pit", the home of the shadowy, hole-dwelling Moles. Innisfree is said to have disappeared several years later, with Chub legend claiming that he was horribly murdered by the very race he had discovered.[1]
The legend of Innisfree is apparently the focal point of a fictional Chub musical, also titled Innisfree; the song "Happy Home" from the 1982 album The Tunes of Two Cities is said to be an excerpt from Act II of this musical.
Fictional history[]
According to Chub legend, Innisfree was a young explorer who was the first Chub to enter the hitherto unexplored "Pit", bringing back word of a race of "mole" people who survived the harsh desert environment by living underground.[1]
Innisfree is said to have disappeared several years after returning and revealing the existence of the Moles to Chub society; Chub legend suggests that he was murdered (in a manner involving "hideous torture") by the very Moles he had discovered, while other Chubs believe that he lives on, "old beyond belief".[1]
Innisfree's travels were often romanticized by Chubs of later generations, who would make arduous journeys to "the pit edge" to glory in his achievements. When the Moles were forced to flee their homes and arrived in great numbers in Chubville, many Chubs expected the refugees to be "full of new stories about Innisfree".[1]
The legend of Innisfree and his discovery of the Moles inspired a popular musical, also titled Innisfree (which was later described as "roughly analogous" to George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess; a musical about black slaves by a white American). The musical's second act features the song "Happy Home", which received some airplay on Chub radio.[1]
See also[]
- Chubs
- "Happy Home"
- Mohelmot
- The Observer (character)
External links and references[]
- The Tunes of Two Cities at The Residents Historical
- The Tunes of Two Cities at RZWeb (archived via archive.org)
