|
Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 30 general entries.
Special Topics
|
 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Rutherfurd, Edward
Salisbury. Rutherfurd grew up in Salisbury, which undoubtedly provided the inspiration for his first book.
| In terms of the calendar year at the beginning of the first chapter, the action in which novel begins first? | Edward Rutherfurd
|
Sarum. Although all of Rutherfurd's books end in the present day, each begins with a distant ancestor living in the area featured in the plot. Sarum begins in around 8000 BC, Paris was never written (see Q1), Russka begins 180 AD and The Forest begins 1099 AD.
New York. The title for a future novel perhaps?
Cambridge. Cambridge it was...
| In Rutherfurd's first novel, which character's rise is a classic rags to riches story? | Edward Rutherfurd
|
William atte Brigge. The determination and spectacular success of the Brigge (later Wilson, then Forest) family is one of the pivotal storylines of 'Sarum'.
| Which novel contains the following at it's beginning: 'It was the year AD 180, and yet it was not... What year was it here then, in the tiny hamlet at the forest's edge?... The huge systems of numbering, familiar in the civilized world, and kept in written text, were unknown here. Even if they had been known, they would have been meaningless.' ? | Edward Rutherfurd
|
Russka . ... For this was the land that would one day be known as Russia.
| In which novel do Rutherfurd's characters inherit the traits of their ancestors, even dozens of generations later? | Edward Rutherfurd
|
Sarum . The men of the Mason family, for example, remain bald and stocky from the building of stonehenge right through until the 1980's!
| According to Amazon.com, which has been Rutherfurd's best selling novel? | Edward Rutherfurd
|
London . Although released 10 years earlier, 'Sarum' has been overhauled by the worldwide bestseller 'London'. Both 'Russka' and 'The Forest' have had modest sales in comparison.
Private Royal Hunting Ground. The word was French in 1066 and when William The Conqueror (who was Norman and French) took the English throne he brought that word with him. Sherwood Forest from the Robin Hood legend and of course The New Forest in this story are good examples.
A wooden Crucifix. Brother Adam's mother had given it to him, saying a crusader had brought it from the Holy Land. When poor Adam was blinded and later introduced to his old girlfriend's new son, she whispered she had named him Adam (after his father!). Since Adam Senior did not have anything else in the world he gave his secret son the cedarwood crucifix. The wooden device appeared quite regularly in later chapters, several centuries older each time.
Puckle. In the first chapter (about the mysterious killing of King William "Rufus" II) Adela, one of the protagonists, has a crush on a married man (people are only human, even in those days). Adela is a visiting Frenchwoman who hears rumours that Puckle's wife is a witch. So she visits their house deep in the woods and asks the witch to cast a spell to cause the death of the man's unfaithful wife (who is dying anyway). The witch (she never denies being a witch) casts the spell and tells Adela that soon she will be very happy. But it is actually the married man who dies shortly after - not his wife!
Adela marries someone else though, and seems happy enough with him.
Willie Seagull and Jonathan Totton. The two boys certainly had a lot of memorable times together, traveling across country to find a "dragon", participating in a sailing race, nearly being shipwrecked, all the while avoiding the class conflict between Willie's poor father and Jonathan's rich one.
A wild boar. According to Major General G H Mills (whom the author consulted) the legendary Bisterne Dragon had probably been an overgrown wild boar. It would prey on livestock at nighttime, and its blazing eyes, frothing mouth, tusks, and breath in the cold air helped fuel the dragon legend many years after a knight had slaughtered it.
Young Willie and Jonathan had sneaked away one morning to travel to Bisterne to see the famous dragon. Needless to say they did not, and when they returned to Lymington that night everyone who had been worrying about them was furious. When the boys told their fathers where they'd been, Alan Seagull whipped his son but ended up laughing so hard his wife had to finish for him.
Battle of the Spanish Armada. The Forest's inhabitants, descended from those in previous chapters, know a war between England and Spain is inevitable. Some want the Spanish to win and restore England's "proper" religion. One of these conspirators is aided by her less-than-willing grown-up son, who would rather stay out of the fight but cannot stand up to his mother.
Oak. These three curious trees grew new leaves a week during Christmas, which is why the locals called them "miraculous". But that wasn't the only reason they were special.
One of them was said to be the tree that Walter Tyrell's arrow bounced off and accidentally killed William II. But it turns out this tree is about 200 years too young. Not only that, it was planted by Brother Luke in chapter 2 as he was on the run for a murder he did not commit (a century after William II died!).
In addition, an acorn from one of the oaks would eventually grow into a tree. That tree would become Lord Nelson's flagship in another 200 years.
Don Deigo. When Don Deigo meets Clement Albion he introduces himself as David Albion. Clement knows straight away this man is actually the brother-in-law he's never met - he has no relative named David!
A few pages later Clement murders Don Deigo when it's clear the Spanish have lost the 1588 naval battle, and Don Deigo is the only one who knew Clement had been forced by his mother to spy for them.
Treason. The poor old woman had seen it all: the English Civil War, the trial of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell's reign. She had helped some people hide from the authorities at one point.
Charles II. In 1670 Charles II, his illegitimate son Mormouth and some female "friends" went hunting and saw the famous Rufus Tree. Readers know this site is not really where Charles' ancestor was killed, but then a man named Purkiss comes along and enforces the lie. This man tells the King a gripping story about his ancestor carting the body away. The King is impressed and pays him, even though it is not clear whether Purkiss told the truth. What IS true is that the Purkiss family to this day run a food emporium in nearby Brockenhurt - which the author says "Without a visit to which no trip to The Forest would be complete".
Mrs. Grockleton. Mrs. Grockleton was hilarious! She would forget things so often; e.g. she would tell people she had five children but her husband would cough politely and point at the youngest. "Why, little Johnny! Of course, I'd forgotten all about you." and she changed the total to six.
Customs officer. His job was to catch as many smugglers as possible. This made his standing in the community awkward as most people on the southern coast considering "free-trading" a harmless crime. He had a plan to make an enormous "bust" one night, but it all went wrong.
The Forest's survival. The New Forest Association includes a Lord, a Colonel and plenty of others. Not just landowners. They are trying to ensure parliament does not decide to get rid of The Forest.
Minimus Furzey. Minimus was an artist descended from Brother Adam (the monk in Chapter Two who became a father, just not in the priesthood sense!). Minimus was nothing like his well-behaved, disciplined ancestor: he never worked, lived off his sisters' charity, and took nothing seriously.
| In 2000 A.D. (at the end of the novel) which man and woman (descended from previous characters, of course!) meet, find they are distantly related, and fall in love? | "The Forest" - Edward Rutherfurd
|
Dottie Pride and Peter Pride. Dottie also comes across the wooden crucifix from Chapter Two. She is a news-caster doing a feature film on The Forest. Her boss is John Grockleton and the feature was his idea. His family is also from The Forest but he doesn't know it!
|
Fun Trivia | 
Quizzes | 
Games
| 
People | 
Services | 
Help | 
Me
