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Courtney Johnston

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The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity

by David Graeber

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Jan 20, 2023 02:22AM

Courtney Johnston is currently reading

Puck of Pook's Hill

by Rudyard Kipling

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in February, 2012

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Courtney Johnston said: " 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 th 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. ...more "

Feb 25, 2012 05:11PM · see review