The Sleep of Trees

"The Sleep of Trees" first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September 1980. One of the most distinguished of modern fantasists, Jane Yolen has been compared to writers such as Oscar Wilde and Charles Perrault, and has been called “the Hans Christian Andersen of the Twentieth Century.” Primarily known for her work for children and young adults, Yolen has produced more than a hundred books, including novels, collections of short stories, poetry collections, picture books, biographies, and a book of essays on folklore and fairy tales. She has received the Golden Kite Award and the World Fantasy Award, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award. In recent years, she has also been writing more adult-oriented fantasy, work that has appeared in collections such as Tales of Wonder, Neptune Rising: Songs and Tales of the Undersea Folk, Dragonfield and Other Stories, and Merlin's Booke, and in novels such as Cards of Grief, Sister Light, Sister Dark, and White Jenna. She lives with her family in Massachusetts. Dryads, tree-spirits, are hardly the most fearsome or formidable of mythological creatures, usually portrayed in sentimental paintings as beautiful young women in diaphanous gowns-still, as the wry story that follows suggests, if you do happen to encounter one, it might be wise to treat her with a certain measure of respect. .