Where the Wildwood Fades: Prehistoric Fiction Series (Idyllea Master Index)

Welcome to the master index for the Idyllea series, a collection of prehistoric fiction exploring the raw, visceral transition between the nomadic hunter-gatherers of the British wildwood and early farming communities. © Paul Brooker.

The master index for the Idyllea series, a collection of prehistoric fiction exploring the raw, visceral transition between the nomadic hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic wildwood and the early Neolithic farming communities. Set against the shifting landscape of ancient Britain, these chapters chronicle a deep-time collision of life-ways, beliefs, and human survival. From the muddy, transactional world of the early cattle herders to the deep, silent animism of the untamed forest, Idyllea captures a pivotal moment in our ancestral history where, 6,000 years ago, the ancient canopy begins to break apart under the stone axes of a new age.

What drives this creative writing project—and what makes this specific era so vital—is a profound underlying cultural shift: a massive transformation from a time when humans saw themselves as an intrinsic part of Nature, to the moment they began to view themselves as masters over it. Author Paul Brooker draws inspiration from landscape archaeology, British prehistory, and deep genetic threads to explore this psychological fracture—the very roots of our modern-day ecological crises. This master directory provides an ordered pathway through the complete series, allowing readers to navigate the intersecting journeys of the farmer-born frog-witch Egella, the broken scavenger Sugea, and the wild-born siblings of the deep woods.

Index

Idyllea: Where the Wildwood Fades by Paul Brooker

Chapter One: Peace - I make myself comfortable by the fire and shell hazelnuts for roasting. The scent of the cooking will soon lure them home. It works. My brother returns with a guilty-looking boomerang in his hand and a small pig slung over his shoulders. The poor thing had barely grown out of its stripes when struck by the throwing stick. Xagu accompanies him, grinning with victory.
Chapter Two: War - The bark shield-wall shatters in a spray of dry splinters. The Sheonni pour through the gaps, their faces smeared with ochre, wielding lethal flint. Sugea feels the soil tremble under his feet—the hard, wet thud of birch-bark boots packing down earth that just this morning was consecrated for growth.
Chapter Three: Bearded Bull - She rises from the grass, waves a javelin at the old bull, and taunts him. ‘Bull, your ugly calves are scrawny, but they’ll fit our spit just fine!’ She pretends to throw at a nearby calf and laughs. ‘Come dance with Xagu, bull, or I shall stitch new breeches from your calf skins!’
Chapter Four: Witches - As the bear fur swishes apart, he spots that beneath a necklace of dried amphibian skins, her painted breasts are small, her belly plump. A leather belt around her naked flesh suspends the prickly pelt of a hedgehog over her pubic region, and a cup fashioned from a human cranium lined with clay hangs by her side.
Chapter Five: Intrusion - A she-wolf stands over the red gore, her coat as dark as a cave. Her eyes are flat, reflecting nothing, yet I feel no instinct to reach for a blade. There is no snarl, no scent of musk or heat. She is a shadow given shape, a spirit keeping watch over what we left behind.
Chapter Six: Awakening. - She reaches down to the earth with her right hand. Dead leaves and particles of rot lift from the forest floor, building into a swirl as slowly she lowers her hand. A hum of static fills the air. Her fingertips lock with Mother Earth.
Chapter Seven: Meeting - He pulls his wolfskin wrapping tight as though it will protect him from our anger. He utters no more of his insulting sounds. Does he not understand how offended we are to see this grown baby desecrating wolf-kind this way?
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Chapter Fourteen:

The Author

Paul Brooker is an East Anglian writer and researcher with a lifelong connection to the landscapes and hidden histories of the British wildwood. His work on the Idyllea series is deeply informed by decades of engagement with landscape archaeology, surface-collection lithic studies, and the deep genetic threads that bind us to our ancestors. Fascinated by the profound psychological and ecological fractures that occurred when humanity transitioned from being an intrinsic part of Nature to attempting to master it, Paul uses fiction to explore the visceral, unwritten realities of our shared past. He documents his ongoing research and deep-time writing projects on his blog, Journals of a Time Traveller.