Fairy Tales and Forests

If some one said 'forest' to you, what would your first thought be?

Ok, had your thought?

My other half's initial reaction is to shout back (please imagine appropriate accent), "Run Forest, run!" Which makes me giggle every time!

If you were in a forest or woodland area what direction would your mind wander in?

Slight tangential paragraph, hang in there it will make sense!

I love working in a library. Simply for the fact that librarians are amazing at finding books, how much more amazing is it when they get to know your quirks and when a random book crosses their path they know you will be interested in it! I'll tell you....totally amazing. A colleague has done this for me recently and I took a look at the book in question today, oh and I have fallen for the book within the first few pages!

Sara Maitland - Gossip from the Forest (The tangled roots of our forests and fairytales) 2012

It starts with the dedication; ".... the true princess (No green vegetables were hurt testing of this hypothesis)"

Then continues with the definition of 'gossip'  and goes on from there. See I told you that I was going somewhere with that ;-)

She talks about the earth before the last ice age and what was left behind after the melt. And this line caught my imagination.

"And so once upon a time it was all forest. Forest enough to be lost in it forever"
 

Ooooo, did you get a shiver?? I did. The next couple of pages (which is as far as I have read) she goes on to talk about how, whilst camping in a forest, the conversation she was having made it's way to fairytales. I have to say, with the way she describes the forest they were in I think that is where my mind would have wandered.

 

For more from this talented photographer visit Lee Johnson Photography

Here's a challenge; if you can go out into a forest great, if not your imagination is your greatest tool. Imagine you are in a forest or wooded area, now where does your mind go? If it is a particular fairytale, which one? Is it even fairytales at all? Let me know in the comments or turn it into a blog post if you like and link back. I will complete the challenge and report back next week, including any other gems from Maitland's book I discover.

Happy dreaming.