The Wolf and the Woodsman: Why Medieval History Lovers Must Read this Book

Inspired by Hungarian history and Jewish mythology, this novel reads like a mythical adventure that bleeds truth.

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid follows Évike, the only non-magical girl in a pagan village, as she’s given up to be a blood sacrifice for the far away King. The Woodsmen, a religious order in service to the king, who are escorting her are slaughtered on the journey back–all except for one. But he’s no ordinary Woodsman. Gáspár is the disgraced prince, and he’s on a mission to find pagan magic to help his father consolidate power away from Gáspár’s cruel and zealous brother.

Gáspár and Évike form a tenuous pact to find the pagan magic and stop Gáspár’s brother, but as they travel the length of the kingdom, animosity becomes friendship becomes something more. When they reach the capital, all they built between them on the road is put the test. Évike learns of her heritage and begins to question whether the kingdom is even worth trying to save when, all her life, everyone has told her she doesn’t belong.

What I Loved

The Hidden Pieces of True History

While Reid’s The Wolf and The Woodsman is set in an imagined world, it is deeply rooted in medieval Hungarian history and mythology. The world itself is richly imagined with detailed settings, a whole cast of peoples, religions, and beliefs, and tangled politics that reflect the complexities of the middle ages–such as the treatment of Jews, the intricacies of cultural identity, the acquiring and claiming of pagan stories/myths by Christianity, and the political power of the Catholic Church.

This novel is peppered with short myths and stories that lend the novel a depth that makes it feel as historical as it’s setting, while also providing lyrical breaks from the harshness and cruelty unfolding across the kingdom. The mythology is a vital and prominent part of the story and the author’s exploration of ethno-nationalism and religious history. This is a darker novel with instances of self-harm that manages to shine with moments of hope and love.

Through the author’s writing style and the plethora of amazing details, myths, and nods to actual history, I was gripped by this story from the first to the last page.

Final Thoughts

Any who loves medieval history needs to read this book. Even though it’s set in an imagined world, the exploration of our own history and our own world shines through in almost every chapter.

I read this book over several days, but each time I had to put it down, it lingered on my mind throughout the activities of the day. The intricacies…the complexities…the links to our own world. The Wolf and the Woodsman is world-building done right.

There is a slow-burn romance in this novel between Évike and Gáspár–the coming together of two broken and abandoned people. While the romantic relationship unfolded along the lines you’d expect, it was fine, though nothing extraordinary. The extraordinariness of this novel arises entirely from the world-building, the history, the mythology, and how those subjects and complexities tangle and unfold on the page. The real relationship that I found entrancing was the way the author handled those subjects in such a lyrical, truthful, and starkly real yet hopeful way.