User:Dabbler/Rewards

Rewards and Fairies is a historical fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling published in 1910. The title comes from the poem Farewell, Rewards and Fairies by Richard Corbet. It is a sequel to Puck of Pook's Hill and set one year later chronologically. It consists of a series of short stories set in historical times with a linking contemporary narrative. Dan and Una are two children, living in the Weald of Sussex in the area of Kipling's own home Bateman's. They have encountered Puck and he magically conjures up real and fictional individuals from the area's past to tell the children some aspect of its history and prehistory, though the episodes are not always historically accurate. Some stories contain elements of the supernatural as well as history. Each story is preceded and followed by a poem, including If—, often described as Britain's favourite poem. Other well known poems included in the book are Cold Iron and The Way through the Woods.

Stories

 * 'Cold Iron' is the story of a young mortal taken by Fairies whose fate will be determined by the first piece of iron that he encounters.


 * 'Gloriana' is a story told by Queen Elizabeth I about a mission to prevent the Spanish settling in Virginia.


 * 'The Wrong Thing' is a tale told by Sir Harry Dawe (introduced in 'Hal o' the Draft' in Puck of Pook's Hill) about his design to decorate Henry VII's ship Sovereign and how he gets knighted for advising the King not to use it.


 * 'Marklake Witches' describes René Laennec's invention of the stethoscope while a prisoner of war in Sussex.


 * 'The Knife and the Naked Chalk' is set in prehistoric times and relates how a neolithic man obtains a metal knife from the metal working newcomers.


 * 'Brother Square-Toes' is the tale of a Sussex smuggler, Pharoah Lee known as Brother Square-Toes, in 1793 in Philadelphia and among the Seneca people and his meeting with George Washington.


 * 'A Priest in Spite of Himself' is another story by Brother Square-Toes about meeting Talleyrand while he was exiled in Philadelphia and how Talleyrand helped him recover his ship which had been seized as a prize by the French Navy.


 * 'The Conversion of St Wilfrid' tells how St Wilfrid converted a pagan Anglo-Saxon by showing tolerance for his old faith in Wotan while they were in danger.


 * 'A Doctor of Medicine' tells how Nicholas Culpeper stopped the plague in a Sussex village by getting the rats killed for astrological reasons.


 * 'Simple Simon' is a Rye shipbuilder who tells a story about Francis Drake and the Spanish Armada.

The full, un-copyrighted text is available through Project Gutenberg.
 * 'The Tree of Justice' brings back Sir Richard Dalyngridge from Puck of Pook's Hill who explains how King Harold survived the Battle of Hastings and ended up a blind beggar.