Puck of Pook's Hill

Puck #1

by Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Rackham (Illustrations)

Puck of Pook's Hill is a fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1906, containing a series of short stories set in different periods of English history.

Genres: Fantasy, Classics, Fiction, Short Stories, Childrens, Historical Fiction, Young Adult

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1906

About the author

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was a journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist.

Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King (1888). His poems include Mandalay (1890), Gunga Din (1890), The Gods of the Copybook Headings (1919), The White Man's Burden (1899), and If— (1910). He is regarded as a major innovator in the art of the short story; his children's books are classics of children's literature; and one critic described his work as exhibiting "a versatile and luminous narrative gift".

Kipling was one of the most popular writers in the United Kingdom, in both prose and verse, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Henry James said: "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius (as distinct from fine intelligence) that I have ever known." In 1907, at the age of 41, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and on several occasions for a knighthood, both of which he declined.

Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1907 "in consideration of the power of observation, originality of imagination, virility of ideas and remarkable talent for narration which characterize the creations of this world-famous author."

Kipling kept writing until the early 1930s, but at a slower pace and with much less success than before. On the night of 12 January 1936, Kipling suffered a haemorrhage in his small intestine. He underwent surgery, but died less than a week later on 18 January 1936 at the age of 70 of a perforated duodenal ulcer. Kipling's death had in fact previously been incorrectly announced in a magazine, to which he wrote, "I've just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of subscribers."

Reviews

[J.G. Keely · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 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 before that he has written works which lay out whole subgenres--blueprints 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, black-haired, sullen-eyed, 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 Howard and Leiber.

They both learned well the lesson that both magic and realism are dependent on a constant rush of strange yet naturalistic details. Any long-winded 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, &c.

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 five-hundred 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 Picts--but 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 imagination--the many periods, peoples, and stories he covered--and it's easy to see his influence among the best writers of fantasy and adventure.

My List of Suggested Fantasy Books

[Nandakishore Mridula · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because it was available free on Kindle (now I am on a "Kindle"-ing spree).

This book carries with it a childhood memory for me. I used to buy comics from the Higginbothams' bookstall in the railway station (they still have stalls all over railway stations in South India, but carry mostly magazines) - Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Bugs Bunny... freely available in those days and costing the lordly sum of one rupee. My father on this occasion, however, decided to "improve" my reading and picked up a few children's books from the shelf. This book was one of them.

It was a beautiful edition with a glossy cover and enthralling pictures, but my dad was not impressed. He told me there were much better books by Kipling (true!) and put it back on the shelf, and I went for my comic. But the book remained in memory.

However, I am glad I did not get it then - I would have been totally lost! Because in this series of connected stories, Kipling does a masterly job of weaving together England's mythology, legend and history. Compered by the fairy "Puck" from The Midsummer Night's Dream, the narrators range from Puck himself, a knight, a roman soldier and a Jew. The timeline shifts between the mythic, sylvan past of the Island through the Roman occupation and medieval intrigues up to the signing of the Magna Carta.

It is typical Kipling - each story is sandwiched between a couple of poems (which are sometimes much better than the tales). The mundane and the magical seamlessly weave together to create a brilliant tapestry, familiar to all Kipling fans. But the tales were, I felt, rather mediocre. From the creator of The Jungle Book one expected a bit more.

The author's intention here - made explicit in the last poem - is to inculcate pride and love for the motherland in the heart of youngsters and maybe get them to study the culture of their country in detail. Very laudable, but it has not aged well like The Jungle Book or Just So Stories.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75 stars
“What avail is honour or a sword against a pen?”
I have been skirting around Kipling for some time now, mainly by reading some of his children’s stuff. This is a combination of short pieces of prose and poetry. It is set in Sussex and is a look at English history from an Edwardian perspective (published in 1906). It is an interesting look at Kipling’s imperialism. The stories are told to Dan and his sister Una. They have been practising the play within a play in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Puck appears to them and in a series of visits he shows them different aspects of English history by introducing characters to them. Each different story begins and ends with poetry. There is an element of fantasy, the world of faerie is taken as given. There are also Danes, Saxons, Normans, Picts and Romans. There is also a tale set around the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Interestingly the last tale looks at the history and treatment of the Jews in England and their influence on Magna Carta. Puck represents the spirit of England and describes himself as “the oldest thing in England”.
I am writing this in the shadow of the right doing very well in local elections, with their anti-immigration agenda and the ramping up of racist rhetoric. Interestingly Kipling makes the point that there is no such thing as racial purity. The English are made up of Saxons, Danes, Picts, Romans, not to mention the original Britons. Kipling is making a broader point and elsewhere has argued that the variety of races that have combined to make the English very suited to managing an Empire!!
Kipling is also interesting in his approach to religion. One of the poems is a hymn to Mithras and Weland makes an appearance. Kipling is very negative about the later Protestant/Catholic conflicts and says that the world of faerie left the country at that time.
The whole is somewhat disjointed and Kipling is still the arch-imperialist, but his approach is interesting.

[Rosemary Atwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ is a hymn to heritage and empire in its exploration of English landscape and history. Kipling’s imaginative and lovingly detailed work is essentially a loosely-connected series of stories which pays tribute to his Sussex home and surrounding countryside, in which two children, Dan and Una (who live in his house at the the turn of the last century), evoke the magical figure of Puck whilst re-enacting ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’

This whimsical scenario enables Kipling to explore the idea of Englishness and the roots of history embedded in the landscape around them, as the children encounter figures from bygone ages whose stories bring the past alive. Published less than a decade (1906) before the Great War, ‘Puck of Pook’s Hill’ effortlessly captures an age which would shortly be enshrined as a period characterised by intense nostalgia for its lost beauty and childlike innocence.

[Carol Bakker · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[John Frankham · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 quasi-historical 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 thirteenth-century 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.

[James Lyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like Harry Potter, this book is for you!

The British have a wonderful tradition of excellent adult authors writing fantasy children’s books that are also fun reads for adults. J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter”, C.S. Lewis’ "Alice in Wonderland" and "Chronicles of Narnia", and J. M. Barrie’s "Peter Pan" all spring to mind. Even J.R.R. Tolkien’s "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 Pook’s Hill follows two children, Dan and his sister Una, as they spend an enchanted summer in the English countryside. When they perform Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” under the oldest hill in England three times in a row on Midsummer’s Eve, who should appear, but the magical faun Puck.

In a series of short episodes, Puck introduces Dan and Una to various characters from England’s history, including a Roman legionnaire, a Nobleman, a money-lender, a blacksmith, and one of the old pre-Christian pagan Gods -- Weyland. The story-telling 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 won’t 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 non-British readers may not understand, for which I would recommend the reference list at http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_puck.htm.

Puck of Pook's Hill was first published in 1906, and is available for free on Amazon and other on-line sites.

[Judyta Szacillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

For such a short book, there's an awful lot to say about it and I don't think I can do it justice.

This is the first time I've read Kipling in original. I read the Jungle Books as a child, in Polish translation of course, and I loved them, but childhood reading experience is never enough to really know the writer.

I was drawn to this book by the Puck, that magical creature known in European folklore under many names - púca, boggart, buka, bebok - its Irish version being a shapeshifter, after whom I nicknamed my dear husband because he can pretend to be just any animal you can think of :-)

But the book turned out not to be about the Puck after all. He is just a facilitator of the journeys through the tales and history of Old England taken by a pair of young children living in the English countryside.

The tales are captivating, but for me the main charm of this book lies elsewhere: in its dynamic and evocative language, the manifest love of the landscape, and the thorough research that Kipling must have done in preparation for writing. Mind you, his scholarship is quite dated - the book was published in 1906! - and some of his attitudes even more so, but for his time he was certainly a very well-read and open-minded person. Overall a lovely read and a perfect treat for the 'dear dark nights of winter-time'!

[Monica Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Lola D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 • Quelle belle écriture ! Quelle exigence dans le style et dans l'intrigue pour un conte destiné aux enfants ! C'est beau, c'est entraînant, on en apprends un peu sur les mœurs de la Vieille Angleterre, ses croyances et ses traditions... J'y ai pris beaucoup de plaisir !

"O Patrie, à toi sans retour
Tous nos efforts, tout notre amour :
Puissions-nous plus tard dans la race
Dignement tenir notre place.

Tendre Père qui es au Ciel,
Entends de Tes enfants l'appel ;
Que nous accroissions d'âge en âge,
Sans le ternir, notre héritage.

Jeunes, fais-nous Ton joug porter
Avec ferveur et loyauté,
Puis de Tes leçons nous inspire,
Qui font la force des Empires.

Que jour et nuit maîtres de nous
Et purs nous nous gardions, jaloux
De Te servir avec justice,
Pleinement, jusqu'au sacrifice.

Qu'à Toi, non pas à nos amis,
Soient toujours nos desseins soumis;
Qu'avec Toi nous allions sans crainte
De la foule et de ses contraintes.

Fais que notre vigueur toujours
Soit pour les faibles un secours ;
Emplis-nous de force sans haine,
Virile en même temps qu'humaine.

Enchantés par d'humbles objets,
A rire sans aigreur sujets.
Donne-nous l'oubli des injures
Et l'amour de Ta créature !

Pays natal, orgueil chéri
Pour qui nos pères ont péri,
A toi nos esprits, ô Patrie,
Nos cœurs et nos bras pour la vie !"

[diary.of.a.hobbit · Rating 5 out of 5]

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)].

[Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me heart-sore for England, but lovely none the less.

[Glas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently listened to the Librivox audio of Puck of Pook's Hill, which reminded me again how much I love Rudyard Kipling.

[Nicoletta Furnari · Rating 3 out of 5]

È incredibile quali libri si riescano a scovare cercando di far coincidere più task di diverse reading challenge…
In questo caso, ad esempio, ho scoperto un romanzo davvero interessante scritto da Rudyard Kipling, che io conoscevo solo per “Kim” e “Il libro della giungla” (grazie al quale ottenne il Premio Nobel per la Letteratura nel 1907).
“PUCK IL FOLLETTO” è proprio quel dispettosissimo Puck che William Shakespeare ci ha presentato nel Sogno di una notte di mezz’estate ma, trascorsi più di trecento anni, oserei dire che non pare nemmeno più lo stesso personaggio.
Oberon, Titania e l’intero Popolo delle Colline se ne sono andati: è rimasto solo Puck intrappolato in un sortilegio che, per caso, viene rotto da Dan e Una, due fratellini che vivono nella campagna inglese, proprio sotto una delle sue colline.
Il folletto manifesta la più grande gratitudine per essere stato liberato e, grazie alla magia del frassino e dello spino, decide di rievocare gli antichi fasti con i due bambini, presentando loro, di volta in volta e in senso letterale, personaggi emblematici per la storia della Vecchia Inghilterra, che intrattengono piacevolmente anche il lettore con la narrazione in prima persona delle loro avventure.

[Courtney Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Puck of Pook’s Hill and Rewards and Fairies are two collections of children’s stories, based on English folktale and history. As stories, none are nearly as funny or moving as anything from the Jungle Book or the Just So Stories, but on re-reading them I was really struck by how the collections are structured.

There is the basic structure - two collections of about a dozen stories each, in which each story is bookended by two connecting poems. But then there’s a series of layers across the stories, that turn them into something deeper.

The first layer consists of a setting based on Kipling’s own home in Sussex, and Dan and Una, two characters based on his own children. Dan and Una have an enviable existence in an idyllic Edwardian country setting; there’s a touch of feudalism to the way they somewhat imperiously claim ownership of the surrounding farmland and the attention of the (slightly mysterious) woodsman Hobden, who poaches rabbits and shows them a dormouse in its woven nest. Dan and Una biggest problems are remembering that the nursery is now the ‘schoolroom’ and getting out of Latin lessons with their governess; they are leading a sunlit Swallows and Amazons kind of life filled with rowboats and playacting.

This playacting opens up the second layer. On Midsummer Eve Dan and Una ‘break open the hills’, by acting out the ‘fairy’ scenes from Midsummer’s Night Dream three times in a row in a fairy ring under Pook’s Hill. This brings forth Puck - ‘the Oldest Old Thing in England’ - who makes them an offer:

'You see, I can't let you into the Hills because the People of the Hills have gone; but if you care to take seizin from me, I may be able to show you something out of the common here on Human Earth. You certainly deserve it.'

'What's taking seizin?' said Dan, cautiously.

'It's an old custom the people had when they bought and sold land. They used to cut out a clod and hand it over to the buyer, and you weren't lawfully seized of your land - it didn't really belong to you - till the other fellow had actually given you a piece of it -'like this.' He
held out the turves.

'But it's our own meadow,' said Dan, drawing back. 'Are you going to magic it away?'

Puck laughed. 'I know it's your meadow, but there's a great deal more in it than you or your father ever guessed. Try!'

He turned his eyes on Una.

'I'll do it,' she said. Dan followed her example at once.

'Now are you two lawfully seized and possessed of all Old England,' began Puck, in a sing-song voice. 'By right of Oak, Ash, and Thorn are you free to come and go and look and know where I shall show or best you please. You shall see What you shall see and you shall hear What you shall hear, though It shall have happened three thousand year; and you shall know neither Doubt nor Fear. Fast! Hold fast all I give you.'

Puck’s magic is the second layer of the story. From this point forth he brings magic and history into the children’s everyday world - he is the gate between the past and the present. He is a self-effacing but powerful and knowledgeable character, melancholy and jovial in turn, who guides Dan and Una through their encounters. The mythical characters of the stories seem in particular to belong to him: the smith Weland, ‘the only Old Thing … who worked honestly for his living after he came down in the world. … I think he claimed kin with Thor of the Scandinavians’, the prehistoric flintworker who traded his human life to bring iron back to his people.

Puck and the children form the framing device for each of the stories. In each story, Puck appears with a companion while the children are going about their normal daily adventures, the story is told, and then the scene is closed when Puck skilfully introduces ‘the leaves of Oak and Ash and Thorn’ to wipe the children’s memories. (I remember the satisfaction I felt as a kid each time this closing device was used - the pleasure in Puck’s ingenuity, and the power of being able to retain the story myself when Dan and Una could not.)

The third layer are the stories of these legendary and historical characters. This is history - the thrills and spills of England, from life on the Roman wall to the Normans and the Saxons to Elizabethan intrigue; smugglers and astrologers and medicine-men; royalty and mastercraftsmen and Jewish moneylenders. Sometimes the stories are complex (the ones set in America in particular, featuring Talleyrand in disguise, still do my head in even at this venerable age) whilst others are more like rollicking adventure tales (such as ‘The Knights of the Joyous Venture’).

And the bottom layer is the allegory of England that is built up through all these actions. Not just an allegory, but a personality: a place where honour is more important than pride, loyalty more important than gain, good craftsmanship, bravery and and an adventurous spirit are valued. A land that has seen wave after wave after wave of occupying peoples, and slowly forged this into a single great nation - an Empire that was in its bloom when Kipling was writing at the beginning of the 20th century. It’s an allegory that we’ve been taught to distrust now, but it’s nonetheless a powerful and moving picture.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very strange book.

We've had a copy on our shelves for years, and I've sometimes tried to read it, but never got beyond the first chapter because it was a hardback copy in poor condition, with the binding coming apart, and I didn't want to damage it further. Then last week I found a cheap paperback copy in a second-hand bookshop and read that.

On one level it is a kind of Edwardian history lesson. Two children, Dan and Una, perform the play within a play from A Midsummer Nights Dream, and Puck himself appears to them and promises to show them things more real than any dream. They are then introduced to characters from various periods of English history who bring that history to life by giving a personal view of it. Perhaps school history in those days must have seemed to many children just a boring catalogue of dates and battles and kings. The stories show that they involved real people, with sometimes real conflicts of loyalties.

The stories seem to have a common theme too, and perhaps one that is worth noting in these days of the UK Independence Party and Brexit, and the preaching of a new version of British exceptionalism. Kipling seems concerned to show that the British are not a unique "pure" race. They are a mixture of Saxons and Normans, Romans and Picts, and many of the stories show people crossing these barriers of ethnicity and race.

Even religion is varied. The book begins with the story of a pagan god Weland, and ends with a Jew. And in between comes the story of the fairies fleeing as refugees to France because they didn't like the conflict between Catholics and Protestants, and the last straw was the iconoclasm of the Puritans.

But for all its good points, the story wasn't very well told. The children are made to forget each incident and story after they have heard it, by the invocation of "oak, ash and thorn", and so one wonders what the point was. A few years ago I read Kipling's Kim for the fifth time (my review here: Kim revisited: imperialism, Russophobia & asceticism | Notes from underground), but I don't think I'll really want to read this one again. It's a fantasy story, but the fantasy doesn't seem to blend very well with the history, and the Puck of the title does little more than introduce the other characters, like a master of ceremonies at a wedding or a funeral.

[Chris Purser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was first published in 1906, and a modern child, 10+ years, could still enjoy it, if they are a good reader, and are into historical adventure told in an old-fashioned and very masculine style, with a touch of fantasy softening the edges.

Two Edwardian children, Dan and Una, live out in the country in a place called Pevensey, and receive lessons in the morning from a governess. In the afternoon, they can run loose in the countryside. They accidentally summon up the fairy Puck one midsummer eve, who is a very butch and masculine fairy, and he starts bringing over men who lived at different times in the local area, or who otherwise had a connection with Pevensey, to tell the children anecdotes from their own lives. This means the stories are told in first person, and Kipling does adjust the narrative voice of each one - I quite liked the young Roman centurion's take on the world!

I'm not sure why other reviewers are commenting on a feeling of peace - this book is full of war! Half the stories are told from the point of view of conquerors of Britain ie. a Norman knight and the Roman centurion, and I got the feeling that Kipling (a very famous writer on the experiences of people in the British Empire) was bringing over his own first-hand observations of conquering and colonising people who don't really want that to happen. The story about the old gods mentioned human sacrifices. The story of the medieval Jewish moneylender referenced regular torture, and that King John used to pull out the teeth of Jews to force them to lend money to him. There are also Vikings, pirates, killer apes, a very cheeky tale about smugglers, and a much more fey-like one about the fairies getting on a boat and leaving Britain because they were unhappy with the burnings and killings of the Reformation.

I enjoyed it very much, but it's a lot more full-on about the harsh side of past life than today's historical fiction for children.

Last point: - C.S. Lewis must have read this as a child. It's the only book outside of the "Narnia Chronicles" where I've seen "Son of Adam/Daughter of Eve" used, and it also mentions wicked apes, fauns, and the repeated use of the place name Pevensey.
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[Lady Clementina ffinch-ffarowmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of adventure, fantasy and other tales gives readers a glimpse into different periods of English history including the period around the battle of Hastings, the roman period and the signing of the Magna Carta, through stories narrated by characters conjured out of the past by the mischievous Puck. I enjoyed the book, the accompanying songs and poems (some favourites were Puck 19s Song, The Tree Song, Cities and Thrones and Powers, A Pict Song, and A Smugglers Song) and H.R. Millar 19s lovely illustrations.

[Hazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a delight. I can't wait 'til my niece is old enough for this. I've revisited a number of childhood reads in recent weeks, and this is the one that has worn best. I imagine that says something about my penchant for whimsy and nostalgia. There's nothing sophisticated about Kipling's take on what made Britain great, but for some reason I can overlook all his failings as he uses fairy tales as illustration for a history lesson. I can even tolerate the AntiSemitism. Go figure.

[Sergio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Piacevoli racconti che hanno per protagonisti due fratellini inglesi, Dan e Una che, grazie alle magie di Puck il folletto che da sempre dimora in quei luoghi, potranno saperne di più dell'Inghilterra romana ai tempi del Vallo di Adriano, delle scorrerie vichinghe sulle coste inglesi medievali, della difficile convivenza tra i Sassoni sconfitti e i baroni di Guglielmo il Conquistatore, direttamente dai protagonisti di quelle epoche lontane in un'atmosfera magica e fiabesca.

[Alex Sarll]

A delightful hymn to the English countryside, and a child's primer on British history (though not half so jingoistic a one as Kipling's reputation might lead you to expect), but also an unacknowledged precursor to psychogeography, albeit in its less fashionable rural wing.

[Catherine Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is charming English history for kids and people who have been taught history is boring.

[Namrata · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really cute and all-around fun. I can't recommend this more to anybody! Pick it up ASAP if you can!

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated seeing some elements that contributed to Narnia and Middle Earth, but Kipling once again leaves me feeling unsure of what exactly it was that I just read.

[dragonhelmuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing book at the beginning, until it gets a bit strange and racist later on. All about two children who accidently summon Puck (Robin) the genius loci of the English countryside. Talk about creating a mythology for England – Tolkien would have loved this. Thanks to the children summoning him, he lets them meet people from England’s past, from Weland right the way down to some of the local heroes who helped shape the surrounding area.

(English barrow lore)
' Ah, but you are a fairy,' said Dan.
' Have you ever heard me use that word yet ' said Puck, quickly.
'No. You talk about "the People of the Hills," but you never say "fairies," ' said Una. 'I was wondering at that. Don't you like it?'
' How would you like to be called " mortal" or "human being" all the time?' said Puck; ' or " son of Adam " or " daughter of Eve " ?'
' I shouldn't like it at all,' said Dan. ' That's how the Djinns and Afrits talk in the Arabian Nights:
'And that's how I feel about saying—that word that I don't say. Besides, what you call them are made-up things the People of the Hills have never heard of—little buzzflies with butterfly wings and gauze petticoats, and shiny stars in their hair, and a wand like a schoolteacher's cane for punishing bad boys and rewarding good ones. I know 'em!'
' We don't mean that sort,' said Dan. ' We hate 'em too.'
'Exactly,' said Puck. 'Can you wonder that the People of the Hills don't care to be confused with that painty-winged, wand-waving, sugar-and-shake-your-head set of impostors? Butterfly wings, indeed! I've seen Sir Huon and a troop of his people setting off from Tintagel Castle for Hy-Brasil in the teeth of a sou'-westerly gale, with the spray flying all over the castle, and the Horses of the Hill wild with fright. Out they'd go in a lull, screaming like gulls, and back they'd be driven five good miles inland before they could come head to wind again. Butterfly-wings! It was Magic—Magic as black as Merlin could make it, and the whole sea was green fire and white foam with singing mermaids in it. And the Horses of the Hill picked their way from one wave to another by the lightning flashes! That was how it was in the old days!'


(Viking parrots)
I remember' — he laughed to himself—'when first we entered there a loud voice cried, "Out swords! Out swords! Kill, kill!' Seeing us start Witta laughed, and showed us it was but a great-beaked grey bird with a red tail. He sat her on his shoulder, and she called for bread and wine hoarsely, and prayed him to kiss her. Yet she was no more than a silly bird. But—ye knew this ?' He looked at their smiling faces.
'We weren't laughing at you/ said Una. ' That must have been a parrot. It's just what Pollies do.'
1 So we learned later. But here is another marvel. The Yellow Man, whose name was Kitai, had with him a brown box. In the box was a blue bowl with red marks upon the rim, and within the bowl, hanging from a fine thread, was a piece of iron no thicker than that grass stem, and as long, maybe, as my spur, but straight. In this iron, said Witta, abode an Evil Spirit which Kitai the Yellow Man, had brought by Art Magic out of his own country that lay three years' journey southward. The Evil Spirit strove day and night to return to his country, and therefore, look you, the iron needle pointed continually to the South.'

[Kirsty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rudyard Kipling has left a plethora of fantastic writing behind him, ranging from his moralistic Just-So Stories and his beautiful and far-reaching collection of poems, to his delightful work for children. Each story in Puck of Pook’s Hill – which was first published in 1906, and is possibly the most charming novel which Kipling turned his hand to writing – ‘mixes war and politics with adventure and intrigue’.

The foreword to Hesperus Minor’s beautiful new reprint of Kipling’s classic children’s novel has been written by Marcus Sedgwick. He explains, first and foremost, that a puck is ‘an ancient creature of British mythology, a catch-all name for the “little people”, the fairy-folk, or the People of the Hills’.

The novel is comprised of short stories which relate to one another in terms of the central thread running through them, and which are separated by rousing poems. Surely such a format deems them perfect for bedtime reading. In the novel, we are introduced to siblings Una and Dan, who live in rural Sussex. On Midsummer’s Eve, whilst they are reciting – rather fittingly, one feels – the beautiful A Midsummer Night’s Dream to one another, using a fairy ring ‘of darkened grass’ as their stage, they manage to summon an elf named Puck, and ‘are taken on a fantastic journey through Britain’s past’. Kipling describes the little creature in rather a charming and vivid manner: all of a sudden, ‘in the very spot where Dan had stood as Puck they saw a small, brown, broad-shouldered, pointy-eared person with a snub nose, slanting blue eyes, and a grin that ran right across his freckled face’. Pook’s Hill, upon which the children sit, belong to Puck: ‘it is just that’, Sedgwick writes, ‘as the years go by, words and names change’.

The entirety of Puck of Pook’s Hill is filled with history. Una and Dan meet, amongst other figures of yore, a Roman Centurion and the knight Sir Richard, who came to England with William the Conqueror. Both figures tell many tales of their pasts. In this way, the book is both entertaining and educative, telling the story of Britain’s important past by way of events which are sure to pique the interest of children. Throughout, Kipling balances the adventurous tales with beautiful descriptions – for example, ‘The trees closing overhead made long tunnels through which the sunshine worked in blobs and patches’, and ‘the little voices of the slipping water began again’.

Puck of Pook’s Hill is of the rare kind of children’s literature, presenting as it does a story which will equally appeal to both boys and girls. It is filled to the brim with magic, folklore, ancient beings, other-worldly creatures, and two very endearing children. The charming story which Kipling has woven is ready to be rediscovered by a whole new generation of readers, who are sure to treasure it.

[Yvonne Aburrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the first Pagan novel I ever read. This book introduced me to Wayland Smith, Mithras, and Puck. It also contains the song that begins, “oh do not tell the priest of our art, for he would call it a sin, but we shall be out in the woods all night, a conjuring summer in”.

Two of my favourite characters in the book are Parnesius and Pertinax, the two Roman soldiers who are sent to Hadrian’s Wall by Maximus (Macsen Wledig). I am convinced that their friendship was actually love.

Kipling’s view of British history is rather optimistic and deterministic, especially his somewhat romantic view of the Norman Conquest; and his portrayal of Kadmiel, the medieval Jewish gentleman, is somewhat problematic, though Kipling is clearly sympathetic to the medieval Jewish community, despite repeating the myth that they were somehow destined to be moneylenders (whereas it was because they were forced to be).

It’s necessary to read this book with a critical perspective. Even as a child, I found some of the poetry in it a bit too much. However, the excellent bits outweigh the flaws, in my opinion (and it was written in 1906).

One can definitely see how this book, by instilling a love of the countryside and of history, contributed to the Pagan revival. The prose is beautiful, the characters deftly drawn, and the tone elegiac and wistful (though not to the same extent as the sequel, Rewards and Faeries).

[Melinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

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!

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

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, anglo-saksońskich 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: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....

[Mary Findley · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a children's story intending to teach some English history in an entertaining fashion, and it does a really good job of that. Certainly his child audience was a lot better educated than our sis today for the most part. The language and imagery is rich, even when he's not writing actual poetry. I found his religious perspective very disturbing, however, as I always do with Kipling. He is a humanist, but he also claims that Protestantism was an evil bringer of destruction and hatred to England. Smugglers are funny and clever. Catholics and Jews can wise, clever and good, but only when they support humanist and pagan goals. The worship of the "old gods" and fairies is far better than modern church practices in Kipling's mind.