Between the Woods and the Water is the magnificent second volume in Patrick Leigh Fermor’s acclaimed trilogy of travel writing, continuing the account of his journey on foot across Europe begun in A Time of Gifts. This volume picks up where the first left off in 1934, following the young Fermor as he traverses the vast plains of Hungary, delves into the heart of Transylvania in Romania, and concludes at the Iron Gates on the Danube, on the cusp of entering Bulgaria.
If the first book was a journey through the ordered landscapes of Western and Central Europe, this installment plunges the reader into the more remote and mysterious landscapes of Eastern Europe, a world of ancient kingdoms, overlapping cultures, and deep, mythic history. Fermor travels through a region where the legacies of the Hungarian aristocracy, the Saxons, the Székelys, and the Roma people are intricately woven together.
The book is again celebrated for its breathtaking prose, which is both erudite and sensuous. Fermor describes the wilderness, the crumbling castles, and the lively inns with a poet’s eye, all while displaying his profound knowledge of history, language, and architecture. The narrative is filled with fascinating encounters with shepherds, scholars, and counts, often leading to generous hospitality and long discussions about the complex past of these borderlands.
Like its predecessor, the book is elegiac, capturing a way of life that would be utterly obliterated by the coming war and the Cold War. The title itself evokes a sense of being suspended in a magical, transitional space—a feeling that permeates the entire journey. Between the Woods and the Water is more than a travelogue; it is a work of high literature and a poignant memorial to a lost world, written with an energy and a depth of learning that remain unsurpassed in the genre.
