Artemis Fowl’s World Explained: Fairies, The Aculos & More

Disney’s Artemis Fowl movie is based on the books by Eoin Colfer, which blended traditional Irish fairy mythology with sci-fi concepts to imagine what the ancient fae folk might be like after developing their own advanced magical technology. The film stars Ferdia Shaw as the eponymous Artemis Fowl, a 12 year-old genius who discovers the world of fairies after his father is kidnapped by one of them.

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, Artemis Fowl makes a number of significant changes from the books, including the introduction of a powerful magical artifact called the Aculos. Whereas in the books Artemis ransoms L.E.P.Recon officer Holly Short (Lara McDonnell) for gold, in the movie he demands the Aculos so that he can exchange it for his captive father, who is being held prisoner by the evil pixie Opal Koboi.

Between trolls, time freeze devices, and a kleptomaniac dwarf with a very unusual method of tunneling, there’s a lot going on in Artemis Fowl. Following reshoots and story changes, the movie was ultimately cut down to a brisk 95 minutes, most of which is spent in the Fowl mansion. This means that there’s not much time dedicated to the fairy folk’s home, the Lower Elements, or explaining the nature of fairy magic. Here’s our guide to the world of Artemis Fowl.

The Lower Elements, Fairies and L.E.P.Recon

According to the lore in Colfer’s books, fairies lived on the surface until a great battle with humans thousands of years ago, which drove them underground. “The People,” as they’re called, now live in two great underground cities: Atlantis (not seen in the Artemis Fowl movie) and Haven City. “Fairies” is the term broadly applied to these magical creatures, but they’re actually comprised of various species. There are pixies like Holly, dwarfs like Mulch Diggums (Josh Gad), and centaurs like Foaly (Nikesh Patel), to name just a few. Almost all of the People have magic of some kind, but they can be stripped of it if they break the laws laid out in the Book, an ancient holy text that all fairies have to abide by. In a scene that was cut from the movie, Artemis forces a fairy to let him look at her copy of the Book, which is how he learns to read Gnommish.

One such important rule is the Rule of Dwelling, which means that no fairy can enter a human dwelling without being invited in. This is why, after Artemis kidnaps Holly, the L.E.P.Recon officers can’t simply storm Fowl Manor in order to rescue her. Mulch Diggums, however, made the decision to sacrifice his magic when he took up a career as a robber, which involves breaking into plenty of homes uninvited. It’s because his magic is already lost that Commander Root (Judi Dench) reluctantly recruits him to tunnel into Fowl Manor, rather than simply using any dwarf with his same abilities, but without the criminal record.

L.E.P. stands for “Lower Elements Police,” and L.E.P.Recon is the reconnaissance division of the L.E.P., which deals with above-ground affairs like the escaped troll. In the Artemis Fowl books, Holly is the first female officer ever recruited to L.E.P.Recon, as despite their advanced technology the People are still somewhat backward in their views on gender. A detail that may be missed in the movie is that Holly doesn’t actually have wings of her own. The fairies lost their wings to evolution, since there wasn’t much use for them below ground, and so L.E.P. officers have special suits with synthetic wings in order to fly.

The Gross Details Of Dwarf Tunnelling (And Lock-Picking)

Strangely, one of the elements that’s most faithful to the Artemis Fowl books is the nature of how Mulch Diggums tunnels, as well as his unusual methods for safe-cracking. There’s no polite way to put it: Mulch unhinges his jaw and then eats dirt at a superhuman pace, shooting the dirt out of his rectum as he tunnels. Gross as this may be, it’s actually based on the physiology of earthworms, which create tunnels using a similar method. There is an extra dimension to this ability in the books: dwarf gas. Like other dwarfs, Mulch can release the build-up of gas inside his body in one big blast in order to propel himself through the air. The dwarf gas is expelled from the same place the dirt is.

That’s not all that Mulch’s strange body can do, though. As seen when he goes to work on the safe containing the Aculos, dwarf beard hairs are prehensile and can grow, form different shapes, and stiffen when necessary in order to act as lockpicking tools. Between their tunnelling skills and their strange body hair, dwarfs are natural robbers and have a magpie-like lust for gold and other treasures. Mulch’s particular love for stealing has put him at odds with the L.E.P. many times, but his skills also make him a useful ally for both Holly and Artemis.

What The Aculos Is & What It Does

The Aculos does not appear in the Artemis Fowl books, and in the movie appears to serve as an amalgamation of both the Book and the fairy gold that Artemis demands. The spell that Holly uses to activate the Aculos – “Carry me always, carry me well/I am thy teacher of herb and spell/I am thy link to power arcane/Forget me and thy magick shall wane” – is taken from the Book. In the longer version found in the novels, this verse is followed by an instruction for the fairies to follow the ten commandments, and a warning never to let “those in mud that crawl” (a.k.a. humans) get their hands on the Book, on pain of being “forever doomed.”

One power that the Aculos has is the ability to create portals to anywhere in the world. Opal Koboi plans to use it to create a portal through which her fairy army can march and destroy humanity, and Holly uses it to teleport Artemis Fowl Sr. (Colin Farrell) back home. However, given that it’s described as “the most precious artifact in [fairy] civiliation,” clearly there’s more to the Aculos than just convenient travel. Artemis Fowl Sr.’s journal explains that it gives the holder access to the “greatest spells in fairy lore,” of which the teleportation spell seems to be just one. Moreover, when the words from the Book are applied to the Aculos, it implies that the artifact may actually be the original source of all fairy magic.

This fits with another element of the book lore that was left out of the movie. In Colfer’s novels, fairies periodically have to perform a ritual to refuel their magic, in which they pluck an acorn from an ancient oak tree and bury it in the earth. Since the Aculos is shaped like an acorn, it may well be that it may be involved in a similar ritual that replenishes fairy magic.

About The Author

Hannah Shaw-Williams
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Hannah has been with Screen Rant since 2013, covering news, features, movie premieres, Comic-Con and more! You can follow her on Twitter @HSW3K

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