Tales from the Forest
Forests play a role in legends and spirituality all over the world. Mark Tully explores their importance and tells woodland tales inspired variously by awe, affection and divinity.
Why do forests inspire such strong emotions? To many, they are dark, dangerous and wild, to some they are places of refuge and to others they are a source of life. Mark Tully considers these conflicting responses to the forest in a range of musical and literary tales from all over the world.
From the forests of Scandinavia to the jungles of India, and from British woodlands to South American rain forests, Mark collects tales of trees that talk to each other, forest gods and places of ultimate meditation in an investigation of our ancient relationship with the woods.
The readers are Claire Vousden, Francis Cadder and Vincent Ebrahim.
Presenter: Mark Tully
Producer: Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 4.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Music Played
![]()
Arnold Bax
The Happy Forest (feat. Royal Scottish National Orchestra)
- Naxos.
![]()
Jean Sibelius
Tapiola (feat. Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan)
- Deutsche Grammophon.
![]()
Duke Ellington
Up and Down, Up and Down (feat. EMI Classics)
![]()
Shira Kammen
The Birks of Aberfeldy (feat. Lismor)
![]()
Caetano Veloso
I'm Alive
- Content-OS.
![]()
Benjamin Britten
A Midsummer Night's Dream (feat. Alfred Deller, Peter Pears, Etc.; Benjamin Britten: London Symphony Orchestra, Wandsworth School Boys' Choir)
- London.
Readings
Title: Introduction to The Hidden Life of Trees
Author: Pradip Krishen
Published by Penguin Random House
Title: The Wind in the Willows
Author: Kenneth Grahame
Published by Penguin Classics
Title: Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Author: Robert Frost
Published by Henry Holt
Title: Poem XXXI in A Shropshire Lad (On Wenlock Edge)
Author: A.E. Housman
Published by Dover Thrift Editions
Title: Letter from Bava Mahalia of Jalsindhi village in Jhabua district to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh in 1994
Author: Bava Mahalia
Published in Frontline Magazine, Volume 16 - Issue 11, May. 22 - June 04, 1999
Title: The Hidden Life of Trees
Author: Peter Wohlleben
Published by Greystone
Broadcasts
- Sun 29 Jan 201706:05BBC Radio 4
- Sun 29 Jan 201723:30BBC Radio 4
