''Duncton Wood'' is the first

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

by English author William Horwood. It is the first of a six-volume fantasy series of the same name.

Series overview

''Duncton Wood'' and its sequels have as its

protagonists A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

moles living in Moledom, a community in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

. Moledom has its own social organization, history, and written language. The moles do not otherwise make use of technology or clothing. The other focus of the ''Duncton'' series is the Stone, a religion based on the

standing stone A menhir (; from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright rock (geology), stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the Eur ...

s and

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...

s of Britain. The novels are mainly set in and around

megalith A megalith is a large stone that has been used to construct a prehistoric structure or monument, either alone or together with other stones. More than 35,000 megalithic structures have been identified across Europe, ranging geographically f ...

sites such as

Avebury Avebury () is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in ...

and

Rollright Rollright is a civil parish in West Oxfordshire, England. It contains the villages of Great Rollright and Little Rollright and some of the prehistoric Rollright Stones. The parish is on West Oxfordshire's boundary with Cherwell District and Oxfo ...

. The eponymous wood itself is fictional, inspired by

Wittenham Clumps Wittenham Clumps are a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham, in the historic county of Berkshire, although since 1974 administered as part of South Oxfordshire district. The higher of the two ...

and

Wytham Woods Wytham Woods is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Oxford in Oxfordshire. It is a Nature Conservation Review site. Habitats in this site, which formerly belonged to Abingdon Abbey, include ancient woodland and limest ...

(both near Oxford, where the author was living when he wrote the first book), and borrows its name from a village in West Sussex. In the course of the books, individual moles travel great distances quite quickly (Duncton Wood in Oxfordshire to Siabod in Wales and back again, for example).

''The Duncton Chronicles''

The first volume, originally written as a standalone novel, tells the story of the romance between the Duncton moles Bracken and Rebecca as the long-held traditions surrounding the Duncton Stone recede under the rule of Rebecca's tyrannical father Mandrake and the evil and manipulative Rune. Almost a decade later, Horwood completed two directly related sequels that follow the events of the first book, in which the central character is Bracken and Rebecca's son Tryfan. ''Duncton Quest'' (1988) and ''Duncton Found'' (1989) depict a religious conflict between The Stone and an opposing crusading order known as The Word. In the midst of these events is the birth and martyrdom of the Stone Mole, a focal messianic

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

figure named Beechen.

''The Book of Silence''

''Duncton Tales'' takes place generations later, following ''Duncton Found''. The inhabitants of the now-flourishing Duncton system look upon the events of the past with reverence. Prior to its completion, ''Duncton Tales'', originally conceived as a stand-alone sequel, had evolved into the first volume of a second trilogy. The story tells of the archival librarian mole Privet and her adopted son Whillan as they face the rise of an inquisitorial cult that calls itself The Newborns. The series continues with ''Duncton Rising'' (1992) and ''Duncton Stone'' (1993)

Editions

*1980

Country Life Books A country is a distinct part of the Earth, world, such as a state (polity), state, nation, or other polity, political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, List of states with limited r ...

*1980

Book Club Associates Book Club Associates (BCA) was a mail-order and online book selling company in the United Kingdom. It came to dominate the mail-order book-club business in the U.K. in the 1970s and 1980s through extensive advertising in Sunday newspaper colour s ...

(London) *1980

McGraw-Hill McGraw Hill is an American education science company that provides educational content, software, and services for students and educators across various levels—from K-12 to higher education and professional settings. They produce textbooks, ...

*1981 (September) Hamlyn *1981 (January)

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major American book publisher that is a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Ballantine was founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. Ballantine was acquired by Random House in ...

*1983 (December)

*1985 (July)

Arrow Books Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the follow ...

*1986 (July)

*1989 (July)

*1990 (June)

References

{{reflist

External links

''Duncton Wood'' - WilliamHorwood.net
1980 British novels Fantasy novel series Fictional moles English novels Novels about animals McGraw-Hill books