The Mythago Cycle, Volume 1 by Robert Holdstock

Ryhope Wood is an ancient woodland that has been undisturbed since the Last Glacial Period and appears no more than three square miles in area from the outside. The novels and novellas in the cycle all take place around and within Ryhope Wood, with the exception of Merlin's Wood, which takes place in the similarly magical 'sister wood' of Brocéliande in Brittany. It served as the first in a series of novels known as the Mythago Wood or Ryhope Wood cycle. It has received critical acclaim for the quality of its prose, its forest setting, and its exploration of philosophical, spiritual and psychological themes. It belongs to a type of fantasy literature known as mythic fiction.

It won the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 1985. The conception began as a short story written for the 1979 Milford Writer's Workshop a novella of the same name appeared in the September 1981 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. The story involves the internally estranged members of the Huxley family, particularly Stephen Huxley, and his experiences with the enigmatic forest and its magical inhabitants. Mythago Wood is set in Herefordshire, England, in and around a stand of ancient woodland, known as Ryhope Wood. There his dreams continue to populate the wood with “mythagos”, warped, dangerous hero figures, threatening all those who come in search of the boy.Mythago Wood is a fantasy novel by British writer Robert Holdstock, published in the United Kingdom in 1984. Richard must quest repeatedly through Ryhope’s hollowings in an attempt to bring his son to safety and quiet the monsters Alex has created. In the end, it will threaten the very existence of the wood itself and of its natural mythagos. The havoc they wreck threatens those who search for Alex, including his father, Richard.

Savage and lost, they are compelled to seek their creator.

But like Alex, they too are damaged: the great heroes he conjures are warped, incomplete and dangerous. There his dreams will continue to populate the wood with its mythagos. The wood shields a heart of primeval forest wherein live phantoms and strange creatures – mythagos – those shades generated over time by our dreams and nightmares.Īlex has in fact been absorbed by the wood, drawn into its green heart – through a ‘hollowing’. Months later a body is found on the edge of Ryhope Wood. Simon Bradley, a highly imaginative child, brain-damaged after a bizarre attack, vanishes one day from his home.

The Mythago Cycle, Volume 1 by Robert Holdstock