THROUGH THE TREES Introduction

By James Attwood

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”

- G. K. Chesterton

As the winter draws in the Elderkin family find themselves called back to their childhood home, back to North Wales. Brought together by the death of a cherished mother, it’s a difficult time, most of all for Maeve, a teenage girl who has lost her most beloved storyteller in her grandmother. The family are barely given chance to grieve however before they’re visited by a stranger who steals Maeve away into the depths of an old oak tree, into another realm. The family are left to give chase through the tree, into a fantastical world steeped in Welsh mythology and folklore.

            This land is Maeve’s childhood stories of the Mabinogi come to life. A realm where knights and maidens live amidst giants and dragons. Yet it’s not as she imagined it, monsters roam free in the abandoned landscape and what heroes remain seem all too concerned with her capture. What could the Elderkin family have to do with this place, and will they ever survive to tell the tale?