Long shot at getting a book title

[Lukraak_Sisser]

As the title says, it's a long shot.

When I was 9-10 or so our teacher read us a book, probably about half a chapter a day, if our lessons had gone well.
Although he read it in Dutch, I suspect it was a translation from an English book, as it had a fantasy theme and Dutch fantasy is non-existent.

While I remember it as very exiting, at the time I never thought to ask the title and given this was in the late 70's my memory about it is hazy.

It had a nature vs technology theme, where the (evil king? Wizard?) cut down forests and made huge piles of charcoal to use in making weapons and the like.
The hero had to get some MacGuffin and had help from some nature themed allies. In some way giants played a role too.
That's about all I can remember, which I realize is not all that much. Maybe it is something someone here knows though, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

[Chanakya]

Tolkien had been translated into Dutch as early as the fifties, so it could be the Ents portion. The plot points match.

On the other hand, Tolkien is no longer obscure, and you'd have made that association yourself had that been what your teacher were reading out. Made the association later on, I mean. Which you clearly haven't, so maybe not.


eta : No fairy tales in Dutch, at all? No long-long-ago stories? Really? Didn't know that!

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

There are fairy tales, though the usual ones, but the fantasy genre is pretty non - existent, bar some children's books and translations.

And I know enough Tolkien to know that was not it unfortunately.

 

[Nova Land]

And I know enough Tolkien to know that was not it unfortunately.

Even though you feel sure it wasn't Tolkien, I think it might be worth checking into that possibility a little more.

If fantasy stories weren't particularly popular where you lived, and the book your teacher was reading to you was a translation of a book from a different country, then it seems likely it was a translation of a very popular book. Tolkien's books fit that category well, so that makes them worth considering in the first place.

And not only was there a translation of Lord of the Rings done in the 1950s, there was another translation done in the 1970s. So it likely came out right about the time your teacher chose to read you a translation of a popular fantasy novel -- making that new translation a very likely candidate for the book which was read to you.

But, you say, the book which was read to me doesn't match Lord of the Rings. Well, by an interesting coincidence, that's essentially what J.R.R. Tolkien said about the 1970s translation as well. (He was not pleased with the 1950s translation but he was even less pleased with the 1970s translation.)

What is it about the book which was read to you which doesn't match with Lord of the Rings? If it's a key plot point, what plot point is it? If you can identify the differences between what you remember of the book which was read to you and what you remember of LotR, that could be helpful in confirming that the book read to you wasn't LotR if there really are significant differences, as well as helpful to us in figuring out what the book actually was.

One key difference between the 1970s Dutch translation of LotR and Tolkien's version is that the translator, E.J. Mensink-van Warmelo, significantly changed the names of the characters. Could that, or other changes she made, have been enough to make the story you remember hearing seem different from LotR even if that's actually what it was? I think that's a possibility worth exploring, which is why I think it would be good if you can specify what differences you recall between the story you heard and Tolkien's Lord of the Rings stories.

(It might also be good if someone could find a copy of the unauthorized 1970s translation so you could read that and compare it with what you remember. Unfortunately I can't find a listing for it in the WorldCat library catalog so it appears to be a hard book to locate.)

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

The masses burning charcoal played an extremely important role. The hero was either the son of a charcoal burner or someone forced to work there.

Destroying those was also important and the narration pretty much started there. The whole Isengard scene is maybe a page or two, also in the 70's translation, which I happen to have, so I'm sure that was not it.
Also, the Lord of the Rings is too long to read during a year.

 

[Nova Land]

The masses burning charcoal played an extremely important role. The hero was either the son of a charcoal burner or someone forced to work there...

Ah! Charcoal burners are an important part of Norse legendry. So we might be looking for a Norwegian book, or (more likely) a book drawing on Norse legendry. And it needs to be from the 1970s or earlier...

I don't have time to do a good search at the moment, but here's a list which probably doesn't have the book we're looking for on it but might be useful in leading to other things which might eventually lead us to it. This is a list of what some folks over on GoodReads considered to be the Best Dutch fantasy/magical realism books.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Do you remember any names or quotes from the book?

 

[Wudang]

You could try asking here:
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/story-identification