Within this encompassing tale, there are many others. Sylvania tells some - one of her ancestors delivered the message of his elevation to the King of the Cats, for example, and Naomi was a Yorkshire woman who went over the sea to Moab, returning with Ruth - but the Green Knight from the Arthurian legends is the one to whom the women go looking for a cure for Bernardo, and the jewels cast upon the heath are those of the nasty-tempered dwarf whom the daughters help when his beard gets caught in various difficult or dangerous places. Each situation is, therefore, met with a pleasant jolt as the familiar mingles with the new.

The illustrations deserve comment. They are, I think, woodcuts, although I am not knowledgeable enough about such things to be certain. They occur as small insets in the text, as partial pages, as full-page spreads, and the dust jacket which is the only one in colour. The small pictures are very effective, whether they are simple line drawings such as that of the corn dolly (p.40), or dark silhouettes with highlights such as the wonderful one of Mr. Boaz and the reapers (p.33). As the pictures get bigger, they increase in complexity, becoming more convoluted and somewhat menacing even in what are intended to be happy scenes, such as the one of the two children playing with the bear in front of the fire. The real disaster, however, is the dust jacket, where the somewhat garish colours do nothing to enhance the heavy darkness of what is meant to be a picture of joyful family togetherness, but isn't. It would be a pity if the cover were to stop people from buying or reading what is otherwise a very worthwhile book, but it may.

Recommended.