Sounds Crazy, But It Works

Fairies, elves, dwarves, water maidens, monsters, and more. Soldiers and heroes of the American Revolution. Founding Fathers of our country like Washington and Jefferson. Cherokee and Shawnee women and warriors. A minister turned soldier and politician who is unembarrassed to quote Scripture. 

Throw all these ingredients into a stew pot of fiction, turn up the burner, and you soon have bubbling on the stove John Hood’s Mountain Folk.

Covering American history from 1751 to 1791, Hood accurately recounts a score or more of historical events such as the battles as Monmouth Courthouse and Yorktown, and brings to life a number of the leading figures of the American Revolution. Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, John Sevier, and at least a dozen others make an appearance in these pages.

Daniel Boone and Peter Muhlenberg in particular receive strong in-depth coverage in Mountain Folk. Hood portrays Boone as a fearless hunter and frontiersman with an eye for natural beauty, a great sense of humor, and a zest for life. We accompany this trailblazer as he crosses the mountains and helps open Kentucky to the settlers following behind him. His various scrapes and battles with tribes like the Shawnee are accurately depicted, and I was surprised to learn that Boone personally knew George Washington. 

Of Peter Muhlenberg I was completely ignorant. Fascinated by the story Hood tells of him, I investigated online and found that Hood’s facts about this American leader were accurate in every way, even down to the nickname Muhlenberg had earned while briefly serving in a unit of German dragoons, Teufel Piet, or “Devil Pete.” By his presence in the story, Muhlenberg also reminds readers of how many of Germans and their descendants served in the Revolution or settled in places like Pennsylvania and Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. 

Hood’s portrayal of the Native Americans involved in the events of these tumultuous years is also spot-on. Particularly fascinating to me was the Cherokee leader and “Beloved Woman” Nanyehi (‘She who walks among the spirits’), also known as Nancy Ward. Just as she did in real life, Hood’s Nanyehi argues in various tribal councils and in other meetings for peace between the settlers and the Cherokee. In her later years, she would fight to little avail against the purchase of Cherokee lands by individuals and by the federal government. 

Some historical novels—and even histories and biographies—of this era ignore or forget the importance of religion in the lives of these people. Not John Hood. Through Peter Muhlenberg’s recourse to scripture we are reminded of the immense role faith played in the lives of many people in those days of war and upheaval. 

Which brings us next to the novel’s elves, dwarves, and other fabulous beings featured in Mountain Folk.

Having followed settlers to the New World from such places as the forests of Germany and the hills of Wales, these “Folk” establish their own realms, take sides during the Revolutionary War, and engage, just as did the British and American troops, in bloody battles to influence the outcome of that conflict.

Some men and women possess the power to see these Folk and speak with them. Muhlenberg, Boone, George Washington, Nancy Ward, and others take them into their counsels, defend them and are defended by them, and respect and love them. The fairy Goran, for example, is a member of the Rangers Guild who spends most of his time in the Blur, the name given by the fairies to the human world because time there passes so much more quickly than in the realm of the fairies. 

In addition to scouting out game and carrying messages, one of Goran’s most important tasks as a ranger is to track monsters that escape and prowl beyond the borders of fairyland. The novel opens with Goran chasing down a Wampus Cat, a six-legged monster straight out of Cherokee folklore. He meets Daniel Boone, and together the two of them capture this beast. Eventually, Goran becomes so enamored of the American cause for revolution that he refuses to follow the orders of his own commanders and throws his supernatural support to Washington’s army. 

Here, too, Hood seems to have done meticulous research regarding these non-humans. He not only uses mythological Cherokee monsters like Wampus Cat and Stoneclad, a rock-covered giant, but the fairies, dwarves, and other creatures he describes derive either from Native American or old European folktales. 

This blend of historical fiction and fantasy may puzzle some readers. Why not either write a novel about the Revolution, or one about struggles among mythological creatures? Was the author just out to have some fun and share that entertainment with the rest of us? Fantasy is a popular genre these days—the New Book shelves at my public library are awash in such books: Was he perhaps hoping by his use of fantasy to attract readers who might otherwise avoid historical stories? Or, as is most likely, did Hood want to marry his knowledge of history and folklore, and amuse readers in the bargain?

Whatever the case, I found Mountain Folk both entertaining and educational. Teenagers might use it as a vehicle for learning American history and folklore, and because the story appeals to people of all ages, Mountain Folk might also be an excellent choice for a family read-aloud book. 

And since this novel is billed as “Book One of the Folklore Cycle,” we may guess that John Hood will continue to explore American history through the eyes of the Folk.