Hilda and the Faratok Tree

**Hilda and the Faratok Tree** is the eighth book in the Hilda Tie-In Series of children's novels, based on the Hilda animated series. The book was released on November 7, 2023.

### Synopsis

Based on the hit Netflix series, join Hilda as she faces her past when she spots her father at Trolberg harbour…

Join our beloved heroine as her father, Anders, returns to Trolberg, and Hilda finds herself in the Time of Giants. Fantastic creatures and daring adventures are all just part of another average day for Hilda… but what will she do if her reunion with Anders isn’t all she hoped for?

## Summary

Hilda and friends are in the harbor to practice for their knot tying badge when Hilda’s long absent father, Anders, arrives on a ship. Hilda is thrilled to see him back. As they go to The Salty Maiden to have lunch, Anders states he plans to stick around for a while if he can find a job. When a shady man known only as The Polecat enters the tavern and asks for someone to job for him, Hilda volunteers Anders. The job involves picking up a package with undisclosed content from his crew at the castle ruins. Since Anders has no car, the Polecat reluctantly lends him his truck. Anders takes Hilda and Twig along for the ride so they can get some time together.

Outside the city, the truck gets a flat tire. As Anders tries to replace the tire, Hilda and Twig find a petrified troll, sprawled on the grass as if it has fallen. After the tire is replaced, they continue their way to the Forest of Nott  and the castle ruins. There they find the Polecat’s crew; a man named Garth and a woman named Gunther. The package is a large wooden chest that is in a hole, and Gunther and Garth don’t have a rope to haul it out. It is clear the two don’t like each other.. Hilda volunteers to make a rope as she was thought by Raven Leader, and asks her father to stay with Gunther and Garth to keep them from fighting.

As Hilda walks off to find the plants she needs for her rope, she runs into Wood Man, who claims he is looking after a huge, ancient tree called the Faratok Tree. He is trying to keep Giant squirrels from ruining the tree’s bark and stealing all the acorns, leaving none for regular sized squirrels. Hilda and Twig try to help, but as they, along with Wood Man, chase a giant squirrel deep into a hollow in the Faratok Tree, they suddenly find themselves emerging 3000 years in the past, when the ancient Giants still lived on Earth.

Due to her previous time travel experience, Hilda is afraid she might attract another Time Worm, but Wood Man assures her there’s no danger of that; the roots of the Faratok Tree branch across different timelines, so anything Hilda does here in the past won’t affect her own reality; it will just create a new timeline. Hilda sees how a giant named Kald accidentally crushes a farm house. When Kald reaches the cliff that Hilda and Wood Man are on, Hilda strikes up a conversation with the giant. Kald reveals her brother Dib has been taken captive by humans. They cannot free him as it is likely a trap the humans set for the other giants.

Hilda decides to help free Drib. She makes her way to the campsite of the humans that captured Drib, where she is introduced to a boy named Halvor, nicknamed The Giant Slayer. He tries to impress Hilda by showing her his battle plan; once the other giants come to free Drib, Halvor and his army will ambush them with dozens of supersized catapults. Since he can obviously not be reasoned with, Hilda decides to go free Drib herself that night. Wood Man reluctantly goes with her. They sneak back into the camp, where Hilda steals the sword from a sleeping sentry and cuts Drib free. As Drib gets up however, he wakes up the soldiers and Halvor. They reveals their catapults and attack Drib, which in turns alerts the other giants. A fight between the soldiers and giants begins, with Hilda desperately trying to stop things from escalating further.

Although the giants eventually emerge victorious and leave with Drib, it is clear they are feeling unwelcome and plan to leave the world. Hilda is mortified and follows the giants as they assemble for their Grand Council meeting. Through Kald, Hilda tries to convince the giants to make peace with Halvor and his village, but she is reminded that this problem runs much deeper as there are giant-hating humans everywhere. Then Halvor and his soldiers attack again, this time with burning arrows. A stray arrow starts a forest fire. The giants finally have enough and begin to leap into space one by one.

Wood Man meanwhile is taken captive by some villagers, who mistake him for a demon and attempt to burn him at the stakes. Hilda tries to save him, but Halvor interferes. He admits to Hilda that a giant crushed his house, and that is why he hates giants and other monsters. Hilda tells him how something similar happened to her, but that she forgave Jorgen. She also makes him realize the giants only cause damage by accident, but Halvor is causing chaos and destruction on purpose. Halvor finally comes around and orders his troops to help extinguish the fires. Their own attempts are futile as they soon run out of water, but by riding a Woff Halvor is able to catch up with Kald and Drib before they leave into space and convinces them to help after apologizing for everything he did. Wood Man is saved, but the Faratok Tree has been burned to a crisp. Fortunately, the tree’s insides are still intact. Hilda retrieves a coil of rope from Halvor after which she and Wood Man return to the present, emerging at the same time they originally left.

Hilda brings the rope to Anders, Gunther and Garth. As they try to pull the chest out of the hole, Hilda examines the hole itself and finds more chests. This, combined with the petrified troll she saw earlier and the fact that The Polecat’s truck has a dent in it’s door makes her realize the chest is part of a Troll’s treasure, and the troll must have dented the truck when it tried to keep the Polecat and his crew from stealing the chest. She immediately alerts Anders about what they’re doing and that they should leave the chest alone. Then the troll shows up and takes back the chest. This is too much for Gunther and Garth and they flee the scene in the truck, leaving Hilda and Anders behind, with Anders now stuck in the hole with the troll.

Hilda climbs down into the hole again, but Anders is gone. The troll does not regard Hilda as a threat and ignores her. Hilda spots a Vittra tunnel leading out of the hole and hopes her dad is in there, but Anders has vanished without a trace. Then Johanna arrives at the castle ruins, having been warned by Frida where Hilda was going. Johanna is not surprised Anders is gone as he has a habit of leaving suddenly, but Hilda fears this time her dad may be in serious trouble.

Some time later, at a Sparrow Scouts gathering, Hilda earns the Knot Tying Badge.

## Featured Characters

### Humans

* Hilda
* Anders
* Johanna (Called “Mum” in this story)
* David
* Frida
* the Polecat
* Gunther
* Garth
* Halvor
* Halvor’s army
* Raven Leader

### Creatures

* Woff
* Salt-Lion
* Wood Man
* Giant squirrel
* Halvor's boar

#### Giants

* Aldinn
* Sigmund
* Kald
* Drib
* Einarr
* Gertl
* Jaðarrokk
* Halldór
* Myrkr
* Heimskr
* Bliða

### Mentioned characters

The following characters/creatures are mentioned, but make no appearance:

* Astrid
* Alfur
* Draugen
* White Woff
* Time Worm
* Eugene
* Jorgen
* Emil Gammelplassen
* Vittra
* Tontu

## Goofs/Errors

* When Hilda and Wood Man arrive in the past and first see the giants, there's a 2-page images depicting these giants. The image however shows Drib among them, which should not be possible as he had been captured by Halvor and his troops at this point in the story.

## Analysis

The book combines the plots and characters of "Chapter 3: The Giantslayer" and "Chapter 5: The Job" into a single story.

* In the series, rather than meeting Hilda in the harbor, Anders visits her at her house and thus also meets Tontu and Alfur, and gets to speak with Johanna.
* The subplot of Hilda needing to find materials to make a rope is not in the animated series, since the book uses this subplot to tie the plot of "Chapter 5: The Job" to that of "Chapter 3: The Giantslayer", with Hilda stumbling on the Faratok Tree and have her adventure in the past before returning to the plot involving the troll treasure.
* In the series, Hilda was actually looking for the Faratok Tree to get wood to repair the charm aunt Astrid gave her, but which she accidentally broke. Here, she stumbles on the tree by accident since the adventures in Tofoten have yet to happen, and Hilda thus does not have her charm yet.
* In the series, stray shots from Halvor’s army when they attack the giants with flaming arrows are what cause the forest fire and the near-destruction of the village.
* In the series, Hilda fails to free Drib, and only Kald and Halldór attack Halfor’s village in an attempt to free him themselves. Drib is instead released by Halvor when he finally realizes his error.
* In the series, Johanna shows up much earlier at the castle ruins thans he does in this book, and thus gets to meet Gunther and Garth, and sees for herself how Anders suddenly vanishes.
* Rather than getting trapped in the hole with the Troll, in the series Anders actively distracts the troll by luring him deeper into the ruins, until the Troll corners him in the dungeon.
* The subplot of Hilda practicing for, and eventually earning, her knot tying badge is exclusive to this book and does not happen in any of the adapted episodes.

## Trivia

* It is mentioned that the book takes place three years after Jorgen crushed Hilda’s house.