Children Into Swans: Fairy Tales and the Pagan Imagination (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780773543942)

Fairy tales are alive with the supernatural - elves, dwarfs, fairies, giants, and trolls, as well as witches with magic wands and sorcerers who cast spells and enchantments. Children into Swans examines these motifs in a range of ancient stories. Moving from the rich period of nineteenth-century fairy tales back as far as the earliest folk literature of northern Europe, Jan Beveridge shows how long these supernatural features have been a part of storytelling, with ancient tales, many from Celtic and Norse mythology, that offer glimpses into a remote era and a pre-Christian sensibility. The earliest stories often show significant differences from what we might expect. Elves mingle with Norse gods, dwarfs belong to a proud clan of magician-smiths, and fairies are shape-shifters emerging from the hills and the sea mist. In story traditions with roots in a pre-Christian imagination, an invisible other world exists alongside our own. From the lost cultures of a thousand years ago, Children into Swans opens the door on some of the most extraordinary worlds ever portrayed in literature - worlds that are both starkly beautiful and full of horrors.

Author: Jan Beveridge
ISBN-10: 0773543945
ISBN-13: 9780773543942
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/31/2014
Pages: 300
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.54h x 6.34w x 0.94d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 11/15/2014 pg. 84
Choice 05/01/2015 pg. 1486