McMinn and CheeseMerlin’s Wood by Robert Holdstock (Mythago Wood #5)
After a suitable interval, I have returned to the Mythago Wood sequence for this fifth entry, which turns out to be a novella rather than a full-length novel, with a few short stories and another novella (The Bone Forest) thrown in to pad out the length. More on this later.
Unlike other fantasy series, these Mythago Wood prequels and sequels don’t necessarily pick up the story from where it was before, nor do they necessarily follow the same set of characters. In the case of Merlin’s Wood, you can’t even say that we are in the same setting (Ryhope Wood), because we are in fact in France. The series is unconventional, to say the least. Holdstock is a great writer, which is what keeps you going when the going gets tough.
The ‘correct’ order for the sequence is usually given as follows:
1 Mythago Wood (1984)
2 Lavondyss (1988)
3 The Bone Forest (1991)
4 The Hollowing (1993)
5 Merlin’s Wood (1994)
6 Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn (1997)
7 Avilion (2009)
The last of those was published just before the author’s untimely death.
Lavondyss was a kind of sidequel to the original novel, featuring the younger sister of a peripheral character. The Bone Forest novella (which I didn’t review when I read it, for some reason) is a prequel, featuring the father of the two brothers in the original. The Hollowing (which was a tough read) was yet another sidequel, featuring the father of a boy who was friends with the mask-making protagonist of Lavondyss.
With me so far? Well. Merlin’s Wood features none of those other people. As I said above, it’s in a completely different setting, and is really more of a retelling of the classic Merlin story: of the experienced older magician being destroyed by a young protegée: a story of stolen power. There is a wood, but it’s Brocéliande in Brittany rather than Ryhope in Herefordshire.
So why is it considered part of the sequence? In Mythago Wood, there’s a character called Harry Keeton, who is a pilot in WW2 and helps the main protagonist in his attempt to get a handle on the true size of Ryhope Wood. Harry has a younger sister, Tallis, who is the mask maker from Lavondyss. But Harry mentions, in Mythago W, flying over Brocéliande and having an odd experience. So that’s one link. The second link is that the story here is echoed by the French character Arnauld Lacan in The Hollowing.
What happens in Merlin’s W is that a man arrives home in Britanny to bury his mother. His long-lost adopted sister also arrives from Australia, where she has been studying the songlines of the aboriginal people. Both of them are warned not to stay and to definitely stay out of the woods.
So it goes. They stay, marry, and have a child, who is born like Tommy, deaf, dumb, and blind. But as he grows, the child gradually develops senses, in a spooky way. And as he gains them, his mother loses them.
And it’s all tied up with the two immortal souls of Merlin and Vivien. The latter has trapped Merlin in an old oak in the woods, but he is gradually escaping. Oh, and there’s a lake, which might be the same lake we get in The Hollowing.
The central story, of the couple and their uncanny child, is brilliant and disturbing.
The other story, the one about Merlin and Vivien, I didn’t find engaging at all. It reminded me, in terms of my response to it, of all the shit about Jason and the Argonauts from The Hollowing (and Celtika). I have never been that interested in Merlin. He seems to be everything and nothing. Too huge to get your head around, and at the same time of very little interest. I’m as bored of Merlin as I am of Sherlock Holmes.
Which brings me to the other stories in the collection. What’s strange about this package (coming at #5 in the sequence) is that it contains a lot of the same material as #3 in the sequence, including the title story The Bone Forest as well as “Scarrowfell” and “Earth and Stone”.
But I read them all again anyway, because you feel your understanding of the whole thing is deepening with every edition. The Bone Forest is especially interesting, because it is much more obviously ‘about’ Ryhope Wood, and fills in some of the back story of the original Mythago Wood and how damaged Stephen Huxley in particular was by the behaviour of his father.
Next up is Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn, which I’ll tackle in a couple of months.
My earlier reviews
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