Skord, an engaging and mischievous magical being, finds himself in a woodland with no memory, no past and no language. Alone and bemused, over five hundred years he studies the people of the forest and their language, copies their behaviour and embarks on a journey to learn the strange ways of men. With each century that passes, his understanding deepens and he educates himself in the ways of alchemist, surgeon and naturalist. But despite all his accumulated knowledge, Skord finds it difficult to resists the call of the forest . . .
With beautiful evocations of Northern Sweden, Kerstin Ekman takes us deep inside the magical consciousness of her culture, where the irrational lurks.
