The Oak King and the Ash Queen

by Ann Phillips

When Dan and his sister Daisy are chosen by the Oak King and the Ash Queen to witness the Rites of the Trees, they find themselves caught up in a struggle against the Winter Trees, who seek to engulf the world in perpetual darkness.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 25, 1987

About the author

Ramsgate, Kent 1930. Clarendon House Grammar Sch for Girls, Ramsgate, and St Hilda’s Coll Oxford. She worked in publishing and became chief sub-editor for Cambridge Univ Press until her appointment as Librarian and Tutor at Newnham Coll Cambridge. She has edited school text-books on Milton, written books for children (The Multiplying Glass and The Oak King and the Ash Queen), and served as an elder of Emmanuel URC in Cambridge. She was a member of the texts (sub-) committees for the mainly Methodist book Hymns and Psalms (1983) and for the URC’s Rejoice and Sing (1991). Her best-known hymn appears in several current books including the 2005 edition of A Panorama of Christian Hymnody.

Reviews

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this when I was a kid. Must have got it from the library at least a dozen times before it disappeared. I loved tree climbing back then, and this book brought trees alive for me. In addition, but I only realized this much later, it symbolizes the cycle of nature, the traditional fight between the oak and holly kings during midsummer and midwinter and the book even incorporates the 4 elements and male-female opposites... Yes, definitely one of the books I've enjoyed most as a child. Consequently, I'm trying to find it now to add to my collection of books, but that is proving a challenge... :(

[Jay Pittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my absolute favorite books!

[Capn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Straight to the all-time favourites list, this one was an easy 5 stars.

'I don't believe in the dominion of earth. It sounds like Tolkien and that sort of stuff.'
His voice expressed contempt for fairy-tales, folklore, Enid Blyton and all associated gnomery.

Summary, taken from the front flap:

When Dan fell asleep under an oak tree in the forest, he did not expect to wake up to a different world. But this is precisely what happened: for Dan and his sister Daisy had been chosen by the Oak King and the Ash Queen to be witnesses to the rites of the Trees.
In the world of the Trees, the balance is all important, and for its sake Daisy and Dan are compelled to fight with spear and bow on different sides all through the summer.
When winter comes, the two children find themselves involved in a new struggle with the Winter Trees. If the Winter Trees have their way, the earth will be covered in darkness for months on end, and the balance will be destroyed for ever."

And this is how it begins:

There was Aidan Sturgess, commonly called Dan, asleep under an oak tree in the middle of the Forest in the hottest part of the day. He appeared quite an ordinary boy - not a graceful sleeper, being a sprawling bundle of arms and legs; and damply pink with the heat. The person who was standing over him appeared anything but ordinary. For a start, he was about 200 centimetres high; then, he was extremely brown-skinned and was wearing a belted, sleeveless tunic which ended just above his knees. His short hair was reddish and curly and he looked about thirty-five.
The tall man only looked at Dan for a moment. Then he stood astride Dan's body and, leaning his left hand flat against the trunk of the oak, laid his right hand on Dan's head.
Dan woke up with a start and jerked into a sitting position. The man stepped back and nodded to him. Dan stared.
'What is it?' he said. 'What do you want?'
'Your service,' said the man.
Dan didn't like the sound of that and changed the subject quickly.
'Who are you, then?' he asked.
'You have three questions, starting from now,' said the stranger. 'You are allowed three questions each time we meet. But not, of course, that one. And nothing to do with names.'

No foreplay, straight into the action. How refreshing. Aidan and Diana are twins (points to you if you saw the anagram before it was pointed out), and they've gotten in a tiff over a picnic they had planned and split up. Diana (Daisy) wanted to go down to the river, and Aidan (Dan) wanted to go up to an outcropping with a view from on high. Daisy has a bit of a dust-up with the formidable Ash Queen, and both are soon conscripted into battle. But on opposing sides.

Despite being written in 1984, this story holds up very well indeed in 2022. The characters, I thought, were rather well fleshed out, in spite of no prodromal phase, and they evolve.

'When your school is done, you come to me,' said the queen to Daisy. 'As a witness, and to fight.'
'But I don't - I've never -' began Daisy. 'Girls don't fight.'
The king and his men laughed heartily; Ash glittered with anger, her eyes bright as ice in the moonbeams.
'You speak an outrage,' she said to Daisy. 'What world is it where females don't fight! It must be a world devised by males, where they can triumph unopposed.'
'-and foully dull it must be,' finished the king. 'Who wants an unarmed victory?'
'You have until your school-time ends,' said Ash to Daisy. 'And then you will return, proficient - note this - proficient in the spear and the bow. Or it will go badly for you. Return incompetent, and you will in all likelihood die in the battle.'
Dan rushed to the defence of Daisy - of both of them, in fact. 'We don't use spears and bows,' he said. 'Not since the sixteenth century or so. People have fought with guns since then. Only archery-nuts use bows.'
'Then become one!' exclaimed Oak, now as angry as Ash was. 'You have a month, or near it. Return an archery-nut or return to your death. And return you will: you will be called, and this time you can expect a different calling.'

I love everything about this book. But then, I'm a nature lover, and I know my flora and fauna. I already knew whose sides Rowan and Maple would be on in the war between Oak and Ash. And I knew why Mistletoe and Larch weren't involved...yet. It's probably obvious to everyone why Holly, Ivy, Juniper and Yew stick together. But in spite of the obvious allegiances, there were still plenty of pleasant (and, if you accept it, moderately educational) surprises along the way. Don't get me wrong - this is fantasy, and you don't have to learn anything if you aren't interested. But I loved that there was so much depth to the plot here: British folklore; Druidic and Pagan beliefs spilling over and being worked into modern Christian ones; magic and the four elements (earth, air, water, fire); superstition; conservation; environmental aspects, etc.

Daisy (who later reclaims her formal name, Diana) is a great female character, and lives up, in time, to her namesake. Dan learns that his name, Aidan, is not just a convenient anagram, but is in fact a Saint's name from Lindisfarne. He also learns what the origin of the name 'Aidan' is, sparking his own call to action.

Although this is a middle-grade read (12-13 year old characters), there's quite a lot of menacing action and danger. It reminds me of The Dark Is Rising (one of my favourite books, if not THE favourite!) in all the best ways - there's even midwinter creepiness and excessive snowfall. In fact, the action takes place over "a year and a day":

'Why the odd day?' said Dan, forgetting he was wasting a question.
'To allow for sidereal time,' said the king. 'Which makes the extra day in a Leap Year, for us as for you.'

I'm not sure what else to say about this one. I think it should be resurrected as a graphic novel and made more widely available. The cover image (artist is Clare Hatcher) is nice but a bit misleading (is it supposed to represent Aidan and Diana, or the Oak King and Ash Queen? None of them are described this way), and while I think it's eye-catching, I don't think it reflects the story well (they look so sad or dopey, when there is vivacity and liveliness throughout!).

There's quite a few references to familiar British carols (like "The Holly and the Ivy"), and other British children's games, some of which I'm not familiar with, i.e. Tiggy Touchwood, Feet off Ground (is that "The Floor is Lava"?), Oranges and Lemons (which ends in a tug-of-war?). At the end, there's an author's note:

A Note on Books and Songs
Besides The Oxford Book of Trees, the book Daisy and Dan used most for their project was Oliver Rackham's Tress and Woodland in the British Landscape.
The human versions of two of the important songs of the tree-people, 'Here we bring new water' and 'Nay, Ivy nay', are in Walter de la Mare's Come Hither - the best anthology I know for young people; so is Ben Jonson's 'Hymn to Diana'. 'The Holly and the Ivy', and the May carol, in their human versions, are in The Oxford Book of Carols"

The Oxford Book Of Trees, Trees & Woodland in the British Landscape: The Complete History of Britain's Trees, Woods & Hedgerows, Come Hither: A Family Treasury of Best-Loved Rhymes and Poems for Children, and The Oxford Book of Carols for those links. :)

While there was mention of sapwood and heartwood, there wasn't any mention of xylem, phloem or vesicles - a fellow reader remembers a book where the protagonists shrink and are transported through root systems in vesicles. I'd also like to know which book this is - if it sounds familiar, please share your insight in the "What's the Name of That Book?!" group: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

There's another magic forest-y forgotten book I'd love to find as much for myself as the poster, so if you know of a fairy land where it's always autumn unless you are trying to escape (accessed by a rural British setting over Christmastime), here's that post: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... - SOLVED! Moonwise by Greer Gilman. Available free on OpenLibrary, and also readily available secondhand in hard copy. :)

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely LOVED this book when i was a kid and must have read it a dozen times at least. A lovely original idea of two children that get involved in the war and intrigue of the trees in the forest next to their home.

Its one that really catches your imagination and makes any walk in a forest just that little more exciting remembering that story.