Rewards and Fairies
Rewards and Fairies is a historical fantasy book by Rudyard Kipling, published in 1910 as a follow-up to Puck of Pook’s Hill. The stories are set one year after the events of Puck, though they appeared in print a few years later. The book blends history, legend, and a touch of the supernatural.
The frame story follows two children, Dan and Una, who live in the Weald of Sussex. They meet the mischievous sprite Puck, who can summon real and legendary people from the region’s past to tell them about the land’s history. A familiar figure in the tales is Old Hobden, who represents the land’s continuity and whose family appears in several episodes. Each tale is opened and closed with a poem, and one of the poems included is If—, often cited as Britain’s favorite poem. Other well-known poems in the collection include Cold Iron and The Way through the Woods.
The book is a mosaic of short tales spanning ancient to more recent times. The episodes are framed as stories told by Puck, sometimes involving famous people and moments from Sussex’s past, and they often mix history with myth or lightly supernatural elements. Recurring elements include the land and its memories, as well as crafts, ships, battles, and changes in life over the centuries.
Notable strands include appearances by historical figures like Queen Elizabeth I and stories about shipbuilding, smuggling, and coastal life. There are accounts of early saints, Vikings, and farmers, all connected by Puck’s storytelling and the landscape of Sussex. The poems that accompany the tales lend a lyrical sense of place and time, and they help express themes about skill, courage, and the bonds between people and their land.
Overall, Rewards and Fairies invites readers to travel through Sussex’s history with Dan and Una, guided by Puck, where history and legend mingle and the land itself seems to keep watch over its stories.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 11:43 (CET).