- Hardcover: 488 pages
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus; First Printing edition (12 Nov 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0701166142
- ISBN-13: 978-0701166144
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 15 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 677,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The central character of this novel is Skord, a magical being who is neither man nor animal. The tale begins in the Middle Ages when Skord finds himself in a forest with no memory, no past and no language. He then observes the humans he meets there, and gradually begins to understand civilization.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read Kerstin Ekman's brilliantly tense and sensual thriller Blackwater years ago and always meant to follow up and find out what else she'd written. Well now I have, and boy is it different to what I was expecting. The Forest of Hours is a superb fantasy novel, brimming with atmosphere and sinister events. The protagonist is Skold: a troll - who becomes fascinated by humans and gradually learns enough to pass as one. It helps that he has a bottomless memory for words and languages and a sharp intelligence. Although he never entirely loses his fear of humankind, he comes to love some of them, especially the female kind. Skold can sometimes leave his body asleep and soar aloft with the crows, or scamper through the fields with the voles and mice. He is entirely without defences, except for his quick mind, and is twice captured by outlaws. Skold grows older and taller, but much more slowly than the human lifespan. Some of his escapades are surprisingly erotic, some shocking, and at one time he is enlisted as a surgeon into the Thirty-years war. Along with Skold, the reader learns quite a lot about the origins of chemistry as a discipline and about the early use of medicine in Scandinavia. But life is often brutal, if not short for Skold and this is no fairy tale.
Think: Lord of the Rings, without the portentous grandiosity, nearer to the earth, under the thunderous skies; think: freezing rain, starvation, peasant superstitions, Latin declaimed through a latrine wall; think: grubs for breakfast, a disappeared girl, a village on fire, the creation of a new, shining metal; think: a forest that stretches to the sea, hiding under a wagon in warfare, then finding your horse with her belly cut open - and finishing her off with love. Stories of wonder, privation and delight, far too many to hint at, a richness of imagination deeply embroiled in Scandinavian history and folk tale.
Think: Lord of the Rings, without the portentous grandiosity, nearer to the earth, under the thunderous skies; think: freezing rain, starvation, peasant superstitions, Latin declaimed through a latrine wall; think: grubs for breakfast, a disappeared girl, a village on fire, the creation of a new, shining metal; think: a forest that stretches to the sea, hiding under a wagon in warfare, then finding your horse with her belly cut open - and finishing her off with love. Stories of wonder, privation and delight, far too many to hint at, a richness of imagination deeply embroiled in Scandinavian history and folk tale.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A wonderful picaresque novel following Skord, a virtually indestructible troll, down through the ages - from the darkest middle ages to the dawn of the 'Enlightenment'. Yet this is no tale of progress. While Skord finds merit in every way of life he moves through - outlaw, catamite, alchemist, doctor and Tarot reader - his heart in some way always remains with the forest. He is an extraordinary, oddly loveable character who acts as a twisted mirror in which 'humanity' appears somewhat less than loveable itself.
This is a massive and slightly unforgiving novel, which makes it far from an easy read. But for anyone whose heart is in tune with the world of nature (beautifully described throughout) or interested in the unfolding of European history (seen from the perspective of a 'minor character'), this is a treat.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this. I've read it three times, and will read it again. The story is mythic - forest troll is intrigued by, and moves closer to human beings while never forgetting his northern, boreal beginnings, but the magic of this tale is in the writing. The prose is simple, clear and hauntingly beautiful. There are phrases which don't leave me, and the description relationship of the troll Skord with the horse Quinnamon made me weep. One of the most beautifully written and unflinching books I've read, and it is a peculiar delight. Not easy, despite the clarity of prose, but utterly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
I'll never forget this beautiful,magical tale
This is one of the most absorbing books I have ever read. I would recommend it to anyone. The tale of Skord the troll/man's life, his immersion into human society throughout the... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2001 by "abilacey"
A delightful allegory of man and nature
This is a real treat. Ekman introduces the avatistic character of Skord, a sort of troll/forest character and his adventures as an allegory the struyggle between man and nature ain... Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2000
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