[Rumil]

I thought fay with an 'a' described the 'spiritual' (faerie?) beings including the Maiar and Valar (and probably others). Though I doubt this was so developed at the early stage we're discussing here. Am I remembering this right?

Hi Pitchwife, can't remember anything to do with Merlin living in/on/under a lake (though the Lady of the Lake comes to mind). The sleepers are the knights of the round table who sleep beneath Glastonbury Tor, so they say, until Britain's hour of greatest peril when they will rise to defeat the enemy!

Fey with an 'e' has the usual meaning of other-worldly, fated or doomed and wilful which I guess means the two words are somewhat related.