In Enid Blyton's final book, The Folk of the Faraway Tree from a series of three stories the children once again meet at the edge of an enchanted forest to experience new worlds of imagination. The only difference being that this time Joe, Beth, and Frannie are also joined by their spoilt cousin Connie who comes to stay with them.
In this story, the three children share closer acquaintances with some enchanted tree dwelling people, with their mother being just as convinced as they are that the tree people are as real as anyone else they know. And although mother never leaves with the children to go on any exciting adventures, the tree people are treated as an every day part of their lives, like a group of friendly locals from a nearby neighbourhood.
Magical Eccentricities
The ideology instilled in the reader is one of escapism, which in this story exists at the very top of a mysterious tree. This is because at the top of the Magic Faraway Tree there are other Lands that may be travelled to by climbing up a ladder that reaches the sky, which on this occasion include the Land of Treats, the Land of Know-Alls, the Land of Nursery Rhyme, the Land of Giants, the 'Land of Secrets and the Land of Crime and Punishment.
Here, amid the clouds extraordinary goings on occur which could well be perceived by strangers as quite peculiar, but to ordinary 'other land' dwellers it is all actually very normal. These magic places involve people who sell food which changes from hot to cold as soon as you start to eat it in the Land of Marvels, and nursery rhyme characters such as Jack and Jill coming to life as they attempt to fetch a pail of water without spilling the contents whilst climbing up a very steep hill.
Magic Faraway Tree People
The lands at the top of the tree also change throughout the story as does the fruit which changes as people climb up it. The lands also move according to precedent, since each land shifts position every week and never stays in the same place for too long. This means that the people most closely connected to the lands are the people who live in the Magic Faraway Tree.
The tree dwellers include a frustrated scholar known as the Angry Pixie, who despises being watched whilst busily writing at his desk and to whom passers by are fore-warned not to disturb him when he is working, or risk being splashed in a moment of rage from the ink in his ink pot.
Another character who lives in the Magic Faraway Tree is Dame Washalot who, as the name suggests is a compulsive clothes washer who soaks those caught unawares beneath the branches when water is washed down the tree trunk from the water inside her wash tub.
Moonface is always the perfect host at meal times and sits right at the top of the tree-house where the 'slippery slip's' helter skelter slide provides a quick exit to the bottom of the tree through a hole that his furniture carefully accommodates.
Other Characters in The Folk of the Faraway Tree
Silky, who mends clothes is the resident tailor and Saucepan Man is a partially deaf cook who makes up silly songs to annoy others and carries his saucepans around with him everwhere, crashing and clanking as he walks and generally making quite a lot of noise.
Mr Watzisname cannot remember his name so he is called this name instead which everyone eventually reverts back to when he tries to find out his real name but when this proves too difficult for everyone to pronounce even for Watzisname, the name is soon forgotten.
Finally, the red squirrel acts as the official door-man to the tree house and provide his helpful assistance to visitors by collecting the cushions at the bottom of the tree when people slide down the 'slippery slip'. Owl sleeps throughout the story as is the custom of owl's in the day-time and there remains undisturbed by all that passes beneath him.
Connie's Lesson
Connie, the curious cousin learns some lessons in polite behaviour and good manners which help to underline values associated with the traditional British national character when the other children teach her to have an air of deference towards strangers. This is noticable when Connie is reminded by the children to think twice about eccentric people like the Angry Pixie, who don't always appreciate her curiosity and outspoken bursts of commentary about their dwelling habits.
Conclusion
Enid Blyton is an author, who despite having published this collection of stories in the 1940's doesn't rely too heavily on gender expectations of the day and therefore manages in these stories to create child characters which still ring true convincingly, even today. This, added to the polite and civic duties expected of children in society, which may remind readers a little of children being seen and not heard doesn't do any harm to today's generation of younger readers and remains a good addition to any children's book collection.
The Folk of the Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
Alicia Rudd - Alicia enjoys literature which explores the connections between the romantic and the realistic, the mythicised and the ordinary. In ...
