Cecil Bødker

Silas and the Runaway Coach

(Originally published as Silas fanger et firspand, Branner og Korch, Copenhagen)

Delacorte Press, New York, 1978, trans Sheila La Farge, 245 pp.

Silas and his mare leave Ben-Godik’s home, off on their wanderings again.  This time they spend time with a
merchant after Silas stops the merchants’ runaway horses.

Silas and Ben-Godik

(originally published as: Silas Og Ben-Godik, Branner og Korch, Copenhagen)
Delacorte Press, New York, 1978, trans Sheila La Farge, 191 pp.

Silas manages to escape from the village who tried to take his mare.  He leaves with Ben-Godik, on his horse
Shags.  The two roam the countryside doing good, as well as getting into trouble.

Cecil Bødker is a Danish author, born in 1927 in Fredericia, Denmark, who won the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1976.  She trained as a silversmith, and wrote poetry, as well as several experimental works.  Amongst her children’s works is the lengthy Silas series, about a boy who runs away from his parents.  As far as I am aware, only three titles have been translated into English, though the series does number 14 works.  I have listed those titles I have been able to track down.

Finding the books:   those books translated into English and published in America are easy to find.  The OUP publication of Silas and the Black Mare is hard to find.  No other titles were published in the UK, as far as I am aware.

Links and sources:

An encyclopaedia entry on Cecil Bødker

Further information

Some memories of the television series (a German production)

A fuller bibliography

The Silas series:

Silas og den sorte hoppe (1967)

Silas og Ben-Godik (1969)

Silas fanger et firspand (1972)

Silas stifter familie (1976)

Silas på Sebastiensbjerget (1977)

Silas og Hestekragen mødes igen (1978)

Silas møder Matti (1979)

Silas - livet i bjergbyen (1984)

Silas - de blå heste (1985)

Silas - Sebastians arv (1986)

Silas - ulverejsen (1988)

Silas, testementet (1992)

Silas og flodrøverne (1998)

Silas — fortrøstningens tid (2001)

Bibliography - horse books only

Silas Series

Silas and the Black Mare
Silas and Ben-Godik
Silas and the Runaway Coach

(nb - only those works translated into English)

Silas and the Black Mare

(originally published as: Silas Og Den Sorte Hoppe, Branner og Korch, Copenhagen, 1967)

Delacorte Press, New York, 1967, trans Sheila La Farge, 153 pp.

Oxford University Press, 1978, illus Julek Heller, 1978

Silas has run away from his circus parents.  He then manages to win a black mare from a horse dealer in a bet,
and then has to try and get her back after the villagers take her away from him.