The Dream Time

by Henry Treece

At the dawn of human existence a young boy named Crookleg has mastery over a new kind of magic. His people, deeply superstitious, curse him for they fear his magic will harm the barley crop and the community. But Crookleg finds himself not agreeing with their opinions. His magic, the ability to make pictures of animals eventually finds him cast out. When he ventures into the dangerous lands beyond his home he finds danger, a new name, starvation and eventually family.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Childrens

96 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1967

About the author

Henry Treece (1911-1966) was a British poet and writer, who also worked as a teacher and editor. He wrote a range of works but is mostly remembered as a writer of children's historical novels.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

This was Henry Treece's last book - I believe he died before completing it.

It's not really historical fiction - it's more mythic fiction, or just like the title says a dream time. The characters move between various stone age cultures and are on the verge of the birth of metal working.

The range of language used is deliberately restricted and restrained. Characters struggle to express new concepts for which they have no words. This adds strongly to the feeling that you are reading about a world on the cusp of change, or indeed on the cusp of waking up into history.

Both the use of language and of history contrast with Treece's other children's books like Legions of the Eagle or Viking's Dawn. It reads as a result as the writer's final dream, slightly indistinct and hazy, deliberately unrealistic and provocative.

I suppose it's the old quest story that's being told here - man's search for meaning. A weak and sickly child comes to be a strong man through his creative ability, to be an artist is to be fully human, to be open to art is to be open to the world, anything else condemns you to boundless hostility and aggression. In turn there is the promise that this quest isn't an individual one but one shared by the whole of society, the ending is optimistic promising a less violent future through a creativity that transcends the need to be possessive.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Dream Time tells a story set not long after humans first began walking the Earth, and its main character, Crookleg, is an artist whose capabilities are not fully understood by others. He wanders between different primitive civilizations to escape possible punishment for creating forbidden pictures.
The writing in this book is deliberately unusual as it tries to portray a consciousness that is not yet fully human, but is just waking up to its potential. Everything is new in these early days of civilization and the characters often have thoughts they can't yet express verbally or ideas that have never occurred to anyone in their tribes before. Attempting to capture how it would have felt to be a person during this time period results in a very poetic text from which the reader feels a bit disconnected.

There is a lot to philosophize about in this book, and for that reason, it seems best suited to middle school readers and older. Treece raises questions about what it means to be human, and reflects on how it might have truly felt to live in a time before most tools and techniques we use today hadn't even been imagined. I think it is hard for even adult readers to fully grasp this concept, so a book to help young readers begin to comprehend this idea is a true gift.

This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.

[Ben Kane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since becoming a published author, I'm often asked about the reasons that I chose to become a writer, and the books or authors that have influenced me. Henry Treece is one of the names that always springs to mind, mainly because of his Viking trilogy, The Viking Saga, which is magnificent. It's been fascinating to read the comments of people who've read my articles, also mentioning Treece as an influence on them. Recently, someone mentioned to me that The Dream Time was Treece's best book. I hadn't heard of it, let alone read it, so I decided to remedy that at once. Sadly, it's out of print, but a secondhand copy costs only a few pence.

It's a very slim volume - a mere 96 pages - that in itself had me wondering how good it could be. I wasn't disappointed, however. It's set in prehistoric times, and the main character is a likeable boy with a bad leg, aptly named Crookleg. An outcast from his own tribe because of his ability to draw wonderful (but taboo) pictures, Crookleg embarks on a journey that will see him meet peoples of many different types, including the last of the Neanderthals. It's a brightly woven tale, written in a very simple (but clever) style, with the speech patterns clearly designed to represent how people might have spoken so many thousand years ago. Like the best children's fiction (Sutcliff et al) it's a really enjoyable read, even for an adult.

I thoroughly recommend it; a solid four star. If you're looking for a book for your children, I'd rate it 8-9 year old in style.

[Matilda Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fantasy set in the time of cavemen about a boy called Crookleg from the Dog Folk tribe. He had magical abilities to draw and mould animals. The Dog Folk saw this as a bad omen and they decided to sacrifice his drawing finger to the gods. Horrified by this, Crookleg ran away and joined the Fish Folk tribe. On the way, he met Blackbird, a girl who realised how wonderful his drawings were. Together they met the Red Folk, a tribe that prided itself on its marvellous drawings. There, Crookleg was in heaven - until the jealous daughter of the Fish Folk chief shot one of the Red Folk...

I thought it was clever how Henry Treece managed to use such simple sentences and create a book this meaningful! I was immediately attached to all the characters and didn't struggle at all go get into it. Once I'd picked it up, I couldn't put it down.

[Roger Burk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Treece's last book, and it has some of the ashy pessimism of age. It is a tale of late Neolithic young folks, but they're not in any Rousseauian natural paradise. They see plenty of superstition, violence, and small-scale oppression. The grownups mix hardiness and occasional kindness with casual murderousness and sometimes outbreaks of childish emotionality (as 19th-century explorers reported among simple tribesmen). Our hero want people to stop killing each other. They humor him and do the killing when he's not around.

I found the early part unengaging--all flat, simple sentences. But an afterward by Rosemary Sutcliffe (a contemporary who wrote similar YA historical fiction) explains that Treece was trying to convey the experience of primitive people who supposedly lacked subtler ways to express themselves. I doubt that--primitive people lacked technology, not words.

[Taff Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry Treece’s final book before his death- short and mysterious and full of original ideas - it would make a great stimulus for discussion in a primary Iron Age project - themes of war and peace, gender, religion and the place of art in society all bubble to the surface of this strange brew.

[Michelle Mosley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, but so good. And the illustrations perfectly complement the dream-like atmosphere of the story.

[Garry Nixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was the last Treece for me. It's left a lasting impression of the way things might have been at the end of the neolithic, both harsh and trippy.

[Hirosasazaki Sasazaki · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's nice to imagine the primitive age from this book. I enjoyed it very much, and I wanna read more about Treece's works.