Amongst all the best selling books of Christmas this last year was one called “Norwegian Wood: Chopping, Stacking and Drying Wood the Norwegian Way.” It’s not the first book you might anticipate hitting the bestseller charts though it does have a catchy title! I bought it for my husband for no better reason than he is interested in wood and we have two log burners in our home. He’s finding it engrossing: charmingly written, full of personal experience, showing how important timber is to different communities. Plus it is a beautifully presented book.
I don’t understand the appeal of the topic but I do know that there is something very appealing about an open
fire. Wench Anne Gracie has blogged about the romance of a fire before here. As a child growing up we never had a “proper” fire at home and I loved it when I visited my grandparents’ house where there was an open fire. In my first house after we married, a 17th century cottage, we had an enormous inglenook fireplace complete with original bread oven. It felt like the heart of the house. Now we have two modern wood burners, and one of the things I do enjoy is stacking the logs. It’s like a puzzle, getting it to stack neatly but it’s also a very mindful and relaxing activity. Here is our neighbours' cat sitting on top of the wood store!
In our village there are still certain medieval rights of common including that of gathering logs in the woods for cooking and heating, for making tools and repairing carts. This would have been an essential contribution towards the peasants’ livelihood along with the right of pannage, letting our pigs forage in the autumn woods to put on fat for the autumn. We know from the local records that as recently as 60 years ago the cottagers in the village still kept pigs in their back gardens and even now we collect good quality wood to take home to burn, an activity my grandfather used to call “progging,” a 17th century word originally meaning to prowl about looking for plunder!
I love trees, their beauty, their history and the folklore around them. So perhaps stacking wood is an extension of that. According to “Norwegian Wood” in the late 19th century in Maine in the US, women considering a potential husband were advised to check out his woodpile because it could tell them a lot about his character. This was also true of Scandinavia where a list was drawn up including the following:
A lot of wood: A man of foresight, loyal.
Upright and solid: As the woodpile, so is the man.
Tall pile: Big ambitions but watch out for sagging and collapse.
Unusual shape: Freethinking, open spirit, but check that the construction is sound.
Unfinished pile with some logs lying on the ground: Unstable, lazy and prone to drunkenness.
Old and new wood piled together: Be suspicious, may be a thief.
No woodpile: No husband
Once the woodpile is built and the fire made, the happy couple can settle down in front of it for a romantic evening!
If you click here you can see a short video of me reading an extract of my latest book, House of Shadows, in front of our roaring fire. To me there is little that is more comforting or enjoyable than curling up with a book on a winter night and listening to the rain falling or watching the snow pile up outside.
Is there a book or books that unexpectedly appealed to you? Do you enjoy open fires? How do you stack your wood? And would you judge a man – or woman – on the style of their woodpile?