Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairy Tales
    Unavailable
    From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairy Tales
    Unavailable
    From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairy Tales
    Ebook436 pages8 hours

    From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairy Tales

    By Sara Maitland and Adam Lee

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A look at folk tales and their origins in the natural world: “Lovely, inventive . . . thought-provoking” (Publishers Weekly).
     
    Fairy tales are one of our earliest cultural forms, and forests one of our most ancient landscapes. Both evoke similar sensations: At times they are beautiful and magical, at others spooky and sometimes horrifying. Maitland argues that the terrain of fairy tales is intimately connected to the mysterious secrets and silences, gifts and perils.
     
    With each chapter focusing on a different story and a different forest visit, Maitland offers a complex history of woodlands and how they shape the themes of the fairy tales we know best. She offers a unique analysis of famous stories including Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, and Sleeping Beauty. Maitland uses fairy tales to explore how nature itself informs our imagination, and she guides the reader on a series of walks through northern Europe’s best forests to explore both ecological history and the roots of fairy tales.
     
    In addition to twelve modern retellings of these traditional fairy tales, she includes beautiful landscape photographs taken by her son as he joined her on these long walks. Beautifully written and impeccably researched, this unique book puts a news spin on our oldest stories.
     
    “Her observations of places, plants, trees, and animals are subtly embedded in her stories that lend a new vitality to the Grimms’ 19th-century tales.” —Jack Zipes, author of The Brothers Grimm
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateNov 1, 2012
    ISBN9781619021365
    Unavailable
    From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots of our Fairy Tales
    Author

    Sara Maitland

    Sara Maitland is the British author of numerous works of fiction, including the Somerset Maugham Award-winning Daughter of Jerusalem, and several non-fiction books, including A Book of Silence. Born in 1950, she studied at Oxford University and lives in Galloway, Scotland.

    Read more from Sara Maitland

    Related to From the Forest

    Related ebooks

    Social Science For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Hug From Nature

      Dec 1, 2023

      A Hug From Nature
      11 min read

    • Article

      In Search Of Canada’s big 5

      May 7, 2020

      In Search Of Canada’s big 5
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Best Tonic There Is

      Oct 7, 2020

      The Best Tonic There Is
      4 min read

    • Article

      Africa’s FOOTHOLD OVER ME

      Oct 7, 2022

      Africa’s FOOTHOLD OVER ME
      7 min read

    • Article

      Lonesome Pine

      Oct 8, 2021

      Lonesome Pine
      5 min read

    • Article

      Holly Nil, Ivy One

      Dec 15, 2021

      Holly Nil, Ivy One
      3 min read

    • Article

      No Good Thing Ever Dies

      Jan 28, 2021

      During the Christmas break, I decided it was time to sort through the organised chaos that I call my study. Despite its haphazard appearance, I pride myself on my ability to find things in an instant. However, hidden away in one corner draw I discove

      3 min read

    • Article

      Away With Sackcloth And Ashes

      Jan 5, 2023

      TRADITIONALLY, this is the sackcloth and ashes time of year, the lull after Christmas’s storm, when minds turn to sobriety, abstinence and being a better person. At least that’s what they say in the papers. I would prefer to push on with the excess u

      2 min read

    • Article

      In the Ghost Wood

      Mar 4, 2021

      THE DAY IS COLD and bright as I walk up the quiet road through small wet fields edged with hawthorn and gorse bushes. The sky is ice blue; behind me, the road slopes down to the bay, whose green water moves with the quality of mercury, slow and heavy

      3 min read

    • Article

      Reaching For The Future

      Nov 5, 2021

      Reaching For The Future
      8 min read

    • Article

      Scarlet Ribbons

      Oct 20, 2022

      I was two when I came to love the tiny, red flowers that spilled over the worn doorstep of my first home and splattered the cracked pathway to the beck with vibrant colour. Like Hansel’s breadcrumbs, the scarlet pimpernel ribbon was my security on th

      3 min read

    • Article

      Where Hares Shine Gold

      Oct 21, 2021

      Where Hares Shine Gold
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Forest’s Depth

      Oct 8, 2021

      The Forest’s Depth
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Magna Carta yew

      May 1, 2024

      The Magna Carta yew
      2 min read

    • Article

      BOOK EXCERPT Tending the Valley

      Nov 19, 2020

      BOOK EXCERPT Tending the Valley
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Way Back Home

      Jun 5, 2023

      If you look after this place, this place will look after you. The words of the Ma:Mu, whispering its Jujaba (creation) stories along the contour lines of rainforest country in Queensland’s Far North. Firefly studded understories, grumbling skies, lig

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Tale Of Two Christmases

      Dec 17, 2020

      A Tale Of Two Christmases
      7 min read

    • Article

      Where The Land Screams ‘Snipe’

      Oct 14, 2020

      Where The Land Screams ‘Snipe’
      5 min read

    • Article

      In The Teeth Of The Storm

      Mar 4, 2020

      In The Teeth Of The Storm
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Mountain King

      Jun 6, 2018

      The Mountain King
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Field From The Archives

      Feb 11, 2021

      THE snow has gone. How soon we tire of it. And now, when old men of the countryside talk to me of the hard winters of ’95 and ’77 and ’63, I will remind them of that remarkable fantastic frost of 1940. Not far from Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, seve

      4 min read

    Reviews for From the Forest

    3.5/5

    3 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This book is divided by month, beginning in March and ending in February, and each month is made up of an extended essay, followed by a fairy tale retelling. The author visited one forest in England or Scotland every month, and her essays meandered like hikers lost in a proverbial forest . . . topics went from sciency discussions on specific types of trees, to folk legends, to social history, to forest management practices, to discussion on the origins of fairy tales, to natural history, and a lot in between. Maitland focuses on the Teutonic roots of Britain and tied it into the stories recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Although she goes off on countess tangled tangents, her main these seems to concern the symbiotic relationship between people and forests and the symbiotic relationship between forests and fairy tales.The fairy tales were fun and interesting, and tended to tell the story from an unexpected viewpoint. For example, in "Hansel and Gretel," they are now in their 50s and look back on their childhood. "Sleeping Beauty" is told in 100 short dreams.Rating: I'm a lover of forests, and I find the idea of forests that people have lived with for thousands of years incredibly interesting. I also love fairy tales. So I liked this a lot. It's right up my tree.The book had more than a few problems though -- first, there where very few illustrations, and this just cried out to be heavily illustrated. There were a few photos, but they were all boring and extremely poor quality black and white. Full colour was needed for this. Also, the book desperately needed maps. I also think it needed a separate introduction to outline what all of thees details were supposed to add up to. This info was buried in the first month (March), but a crisper structure would have helped. There are lots of end notes, and they held all sorts of interesting detail, but it was cumbersome flipping back to it, so they should have been footnotes instead (or sidebar information if they had hired the book designer this material deserved.) Finally, Gossip from the Forest would have benefited tremendously from an index--so many little tidbits of information, I don't know how I'll ever find anything if I want to go back and look up what she had to say about "mushrooms," "William the Conquer and the beginning of royal forests," or "pollarding," for example.In conclusion, the material was great, but the presentation left everything to be desired.Recommended for: Definitely not for everyone--even for the reader who is interested in forests and fairy tales, there's just so much here and it's sort of a mash. I can see many readers losing patience with this one. But if you're anything like me, you'll love it.
    • 3/5
      Interesting look at the forests of Britain and the history of fairy tales with some original retellings.
    • 3/5
      In this book Maitland is looking at the role that woods and forests have played in our national identity, primarily through stories, by also as a source of employment, fuel and food.

      the book is split into 12 chapters, with 12 sub chapters. Each chapter describes a visit to a different wood or forest that she goes to. She visits these woods all around the country, one each month, as they are significant in some way, either for the variety of the species, or they historical or cultural significance. In these she explores the links that woods have with fairy stories, and the types of characters in these stories.

      The small sub chapters are modern interpretations of well known fairy stories that she herself has written.

      I really enjoyed the main part of the book about the forests and the history and cultural significance that trees have in our national psyche. Less enjoyable were the fairy tales. She speaks in the final chapter about children and new citizens being given a little book of classic fairy tales, and I feel that if she was going to include these she would have been better including the originals.