The Woodman
Welcome to another adventure from the Thousand Acre Woods deep within Trollheim of the NJ Pine Belt! Tales Chronicled by Jonathan Hulton... That' me! Today's tale, Helgi is dumbfounded when a tall man just walks past her, into her house, with a bundle of firewood?
Helgi was stitching up a storm when—a tall man just walked past her with a faggot on his back.
He loosened his bundle before the fire and took a seat.
Helgi shook her head with her mouth agape. It's not every day a stranger walks through your home—with free firewood…Was she to be appalled or grateful?
Angrboda just pulled up a stool next to him and gave him a stick with a sausage.
They sat there quietly cooking together. Now Helgi just sat back down, shaking her head and letting out a ghast that seemed to slump her shoulders as she deflated.
This was the Woodman. Somebody not familiar with the people of Finnmark. Gramps and Bjorn must have taught Angrboda about him. It would have been nice if they could have cued her in…At this point, she still had no clue who the guy was cooking with her daughter. He seems amiable if not freaking jolly.
Then Gramps just joined the two and shared a horn of mead with him.
They just sat there silently, staring at the flames. The stranger, from time to time, added logs to the fire as they were called for, and Angrboda would nod in appreciation.
Helgi tried to continue her knitting, though the distraction forced her to pull the last row to start again. Two stitches in, she just dropped her needles.
Bjorn walked in and put his hand on her shoulder.
"Wa—hugh, um," Helgi attempted to talk, but she was flummoxed. "Who—at!"
"Woodman," he said.
"Uhgh?"
"The Woodman," Bjorn pointed. "If you share your fire with him, he cuts firewood for you all winter."
"So you met him before?"
"When I was little. He cycles through all the forests of the world and appears to those who know of him. Few are lucky to meet him twice, even with the extended longevity of Trolls. "
"He didn't surprise Grams?"
"She was taught about him by her family. Plus, I think the first time I saw him, Gramps was an old friend of his—I think Gramps sought him out in taverns while he was traveling."
"How does he get the wood?"
"He talks to the trees, and their roots rise and fall to roll discarded branches and broken trunks to the homes he suggests. When they get stuck, he has pleas for the squirrels and beavers to nudge them along."
It was then Helgi sliced some cheese and bread and presented it to him. Bjorn then took a seat next to her as they sat in peace before the fire.
Fiction/ Illustrated Fantasy/ Mythology / Scandinavian Myth/ Norse Sagas / Scandinavian Folk Lore / Coffee Table Book
Paperback: $45 | Hardcover: $65 | PDF eBook $5
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Following the Harry N. Abrams, Inc. tradition of the series that created Brian Froud's and Alan Lee's Faeries and Gnomes by Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet, we present you with what would have been the next book in the series: Trolls: A Compendium. Trolls—do you think you know what they are? Could you be wrong?
Trolls within Scandinavian lore, myth, saga, fantasy, and folktales are actually anything magical within our northern neighbor's culture. Richly illustrated in this volume are the tales of faeries, dwarves, nissen, huldras, gods, Jotuns, draugar, ghosts, and more. Also, this book introduces our readers to the world of Trollheim, populated by Nattrolls that escaped the 17th-century Swedish colony within the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Narrated by Christopher Jonathan Hulton, who lives in the Thousand Acre Woods just after the Civil War, their tales are filled with Native American lore and tales of their neighbor, the Jersey Devil.
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Hardcover: $65.00
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