more familiar I become with Kipling's many short, fantastical works, the clearer it becomes that almost every fantasy author of the past century owes him a great debt.
I have pointed out sitelinkbefore that he has written works which lay out whole subgenresblueprints which later authors like C, S. Lewis, H. P Lovecraft, Neal Gaiman, and Susanna Clarke have expanded upon,
And in this collection, we can see yet another branch of influence, In several stories spanning centuries of English history, Kipling writes of war, politics, and adventure amongst the clash of conquerors and settlers of that island, Each story is full of unusual historical details and characters, woven closely together into a rich and varied tapestry where beauty, comedy, and tragedy are depicted side by side.
It is this vividity of myriad emotions that I have come to see as the mark of a great and exciting tale of adventure, As Howard said of his greatest creation, Conan the Barbarian:
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, blackhaired, sulleneyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet.
. . "
Of the many authors who have followed after Howard, the great majority are lackluster, for though they all remember the 'gigantic melancholies', none recall the 'gigantic mirth'.
And indeed, these tales of Kipling's are immediately reminiscent of the wild, strange adventures penned by sitelinkHoward and sitelinkLeiber,
They both learned well the lesson that both magic and realism are dependent on a constant rush of strange yet naturalistic details, Any longwinded explanation is the death of a story, while innumerable implications of the greater world are its life, More than that, they resemble Kipling in form, The sorts of characters, places, events, and twists we see are immediately familiar to the connoisseur of Sword and Sorcery: piracy, doomed battles, monstrous apes, lost treasures, inscrutable foreign allies, mystery cults, ruthless generals, seers, ampc.
Tying all these tales together was a frame story taken from the English fairy tale tradition, with the familiar theme of modern children accidentally coming across ancient myths though in this case, they are only listeners, not participants.
Yet what fascinated me was how fantastical the stories themselves felt, despite the fact that they were not overtly magical, Even so, Kipling maintains a consistent tone of wonderment and strangeness, often by representing the world through the eyes of the characters, themselves,
So many authors seem to think that including some elves and dragons will make a story wondrous, but for the most part, they are known quantities, not mysterious entities.
We all know what dragons are, so their appearance in fantasy could hardly surprise us, No story will be fantastical if it is fundamentally familiar and predictable, It is not the color of a creature's skin that makes it otherworldly, it is how the creature is personified, It is simply impossible to make something fantastical without a strong sense of tone,
So perhaps I should have been less surprised that I found in the thirty pages of one of these stories more complex characters, emotional depth, and sense of the mystical than I have in most fivehundred page books about yet another dragon war.
Unfortunately, I found the last few stories dragged on a bit, lacking the conciseness and immediacy of the earlier ones, Kipling's attempt to tie all the stories together into a meaningful narrative about English identity was stretched a bit thin, Likewise, there is an uncomfortable implication of 'White Man's Burden' in the way the Romans treat the Pictsbut if anything, the fact that he turns the same argument on his own people suggests that it is a comment about international power relations, and not race.
Once more, Kipling shows the breadth of his imaginationthe many periods, peoples, and stories he coveredand it's easy to see his influence among the best writers of fantasy and adventure.
sitelinkMy List of Suggested Fantasy Books A pair of children happen across an ancient shrine, where they conjure up an impish sprite named Puck, who treats them to a series of tales about Old England.
Expect the unexpected with Puck from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as your guide, Characters from various periods of history make appearances, and tell their wondrous tales, Be wary not to be magicked by Puck's "Oak, and Ash, and Thorn", lest you forget the story, A magical tale which starts when the two children, Dan and Una, are rehearsing scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream in a field near their house on the South Downs.
They enjoy it so much they rehearse three times in a circular clearing, This conjures up the last of the old hill people, Puck, who, through a series of narrated tableaux over several months, shows them the spirit of England, from Roman, Saxon, and Norman times, through Magna Carta to the Middle Ages.
The first chapter in simple marvellous, and Kipling cannot for me maintain the frisson/goose pimple level throughout as he did when I read this as a boy.
But, really good.
The GR blurb says:
Rudyard Kipling, the storyteller behind Puck's fables, lived in the East Sussex region of Pook's Hill, To amuse his children, Kipling created these quasihistorical stories about the people who lived in their neighborhood centuries ago,
Readers of all ages will treasure Puck's ten magical tales of adventure and intrigue, Kipling's imaginative blend of fact and fancy transports readers back to the days of William the Conqueror, to the camps of the Roman legions who guarded Hadrian's Wall against the Picts, and to the thirteenthcentury court of King John.
All of the stories abound in the freshness of invention and narrative vigor that have kept the author's books popular for generations, Each enchanting myth is followed by a selection of Kipling's spirited poetry, This book is one of my absolute favourites! I've reread it multiple times over the years and each time I am as fascinated as the first,
Puck of Pook's Hill is a series of short stories that are set in different periods of English history, They are narrated to two siblings, Dan and Una, by either Puck, an elf, or a guest that he magically plucks out of history,
So this book literally combines two things that I love: history and fantasy, and does it in a very beautiful way,
If you are interested in the history of England and love fantasy, I highly recommend Puck of Pook's Hill,
There is also a sequel called Rewards and Fairies that is
also amazing,
Note: I read this book in Russian that particular edition was translated by Grigory Kruzhkov, Puck of Pook's Hill is a fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling, published in, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history If you like Harry Potter, this book is for you!
The British have a wonderful tradition of excellent adult authors writing fantasy childrens books that are also fun reads for adults.
J. K. Rowlings “Harry Potter”, C. S. Lewis "Alice in Wonderland" and "Chronicles of Narnia", and J, M. Barries "Peter Pan" all spring to mind, Even J. R. R. Tolkiens "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" were YA accessible and appropriate, But who would have thought Rudyard Kipling falls into this category
The book Puck of Pooks Hill follows two children, Dan and his sister Una, as they spend an enchanted summer in the English countryside.
When they perform Shakespeares “Midsummer Nights Dream” under the oldest hill in England three times in a row on Midsummers Eve, who should appear, but the magical faun Puck.
In a series of short episodes, Puck introduces Dan and Una to various characters from Englands history, including a Roman legionnaire, a Nobleman, a moneylender, a blacksmith, and one of the old preChristian pagan Gods Weyland.
The storytelling is masterful, the writing lyrical, and the plot moves along quite quickly, The story is interspersed with lots of poems by Kipling, who was, after all, a master poet, Puck is the type of book you can read out loud to your children in the evening, and they wont get bored, Each chapter is just the right length for a bedtime story, Or, you can keep it all to yourself and savor every last word of it, The only problem with reading it to your children is that they will ask you millions of questions about it, There are some historical references that nonBritish readers may not understand, for which I would recommend the reference list at sitelink kipling. org. uk/rgpuck. htm.
Puck of Pook's Hill was first published in, and is available for free on Amazon and other online sites,
A series of short stories told by various characters a Roman Centurion, a Norman knight, a Pict, etc, all linked together by Puck, the faerie, the last of his kind in Britain.
The stories are told to two children, Dan and Una, brother and sister, as they wander around their estate in Burwash, Sussex, The stories tell of Britain and ultimately are linked together by a sword with runes and also a discovery of gold, This is the first Kipling story I've read and I enjoyed very much, They flowed nicely, were interesting, I liked the characters. Written by Rudyard Kipling to amuse his children, this book is a wonderfully entertaining little gem, A brother and sister stumble across Puck, the woodland sprite of English mythology also known as Robin Goodfellow, Those up on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream" will recognize Puck as the jester to the King of the Fairies, Oberon, Puck teaches them about Old England from the time of William the Conqueror, to the Roman's guarding Hadrian's Wall against the PIcts, and even into the court of King John.
Each story is told with a person from that time magically brought to the present to tell his tale, The children learn about the history of the area where they live, Pook's Hill, and what battles were fought there and why,
It is of interest to note that Kipling lived in East Sussex region of Pook's Hill, so his children would have known all the geographical references he makes, as do the two children in the book.
A delightful book, and well worth reading, I particularly enjoyed our copy with Arthur Rackham's illustrations, His Puck reminds me in some ways of Psamathos Psamathides, chief of all Psamathists, from J, R. R. Tolkien's "Roverandom". That novella was also written to entertain the author's children!
This book was really cute and allaround fun, I can't recommend this more to anybody! Pick it up ASAP if you can! Weland gave the Sword, the Sword gave the Treasure, and the Treasure gave the Law.
It's as natural as an oak growing,
I continue reading children's literature that I missed when I was a child, Actually, I read very few fairy tales, so this has a foreign flavor on my tongue, I enjoyed the poetry sprinkled between the fairy stories, It tickled me that when Dan and Una realize that Puck doesn't like to be called a 'Fairy' they substitute Pharisee! English children in literature of the early twentieth century are a pure delight.
Clearly many authors have built on Kipling's foundation, An interesting connection: Pevensey Castle and the four Penvensie children from Narnia, Fantastic! Has a little bit of everything fun, Anything by Kipling is bound for my alltime favorites pile, This series is a collection of stories lightly joined together by a common theme and a common place, In Puck of Pook's Hill, the theme is about what it means to be British: it shows the persistently noble and free character of the British people as it evolved from Roman times on.
The main characters are children of Kipling's era, and each story they hear is narrated by someone who is intimately connected with the history of their family's land, It's really a kind of loveletter to a specific place: as I understand it, the county where Kipling himself settled, I absolutely loved reading this book, It gives so much depth to the understanding of the history of both East Sussex and Britain as a whole, It also gives one an understanding of the expanse of knowledge which Kipling had in his education, Looking up characters of legend such as 'Weland' was interesting, Ten klasyk angielskiej literatury dziecięcej był mi zupełnie nieznany, moja wiedza na temat prozy Kiplinga kończy się bowiem na Księdze dżungli, Mimo że ta książka zaliczana jest do literatury dla dzieci, sądzę, że ówczesne dziecko miałoby poważne problemy z płynną lekturą i zrozumieniem treści, pod warunkiem, że w ogóle by po nią sięgnęło.
Kipling zasadza całą historię na spotkaniu dwójki dzieci Dana i Uny z Pukiem tak, tym ze Snu nocy letniej, Duszek wprowadza dzieci w świat angielskich mitów, legend i historii,
Każdy rozdział to inne spotkanie dzieci bawiąc się na polach w okolicach ich domu, każdego dnia doświadczają innej opowieści, Wysłuchają wspomnień rycerza, Puka, Żyda, Rzymianina, W tem sposób autor przedstawi historię Anglii z czasów Cesarstwa Rzymskiego, normańskich, anglosaksońskich itd, Dzieci żywo reagują na opowieści, przypominając sobie wiadomości z własnych lekcji historii, Znane im fakty nabierają barw i w ten sposób stają się dużo łatwiej przyswajalne, Każdy rozdział kończy i zaczyna się wierszami, których treść koresponduje z daną opowieścią,
Ciąg dalszy: sitelink blogspot . .
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Rudyard Kipling