First passed down orally through innumerable generations of minstrels before the presence of Christianity in Scandinavia, and written down eventually by unknown poets, «The Poetic Edda» is a collection of mythological and heroic Old Norse poems. It was preserved for hundreds of years in the medieval Codex Regius of Iceland. This body of poetry contains narratives on creation, the Doom of the Gods, the adventures of Thor and hostile giants, and m ...
The 1892 collection «Celtic Fairy Tales» is a beautiful anthology which highlights Celtic children's literature. Folklorist Joseph Jacobs spent his entire career gathering a host of fairy tales known in the English language and compiling them into a number of anthologies. «Celtic Fairy Tales» includes popular stories such as «Conall Yellowclaw,» «The Sea-Maiden,» and «Battle of the Birds,» all of which were gathered straight from oral tradi ...
As in the case with many other Icelanders' sagas, the author of Laxdaela is unknown, but believed to have been composed in the middle of the thirteenth century. The tale has often been regarded as curiously feminine and speculated to have been written by a woman. The Laxdaela Saga, a story of the men and women of the Salmon River valley, is of an Icelandic family that relates the history of some five or six generations of prominent individu ...
Written in the style of traditional Arthurian legends, «Otto of the Silver Hand» is a scathing tale of the realities behind the chivalric ideal. During the course of his studies of medieval society, in preparation to write a magnificent series on King Arthur's Court, Howard Pyle shockingly discovered a mentality of cruelty and vengefulness among the legendary knights, which he brings to light in this work. However, these criticisms cannot o ...
Here is the tale of the search for the Holy Grail, the vessel that received the blood of Christ upon the day of his Crucifixion. This anonymous story is thought to be a continuation of the French trouvere Chretien de Troyes' unfinished «Perceval, The Story of the Grail.» Written sometime in the early 13th century, this Arthurian Romance remains unique for its high amount of allegorical mysticism and use of Celtic lore. Our hero Perceval her ...
"The Saga of the Volsungs" is one of the truly great Icelandic sagas. Composed sometime in the twelfth or thirteenth century by an unknown author, it is the story of Sigurd the dragon-slayer. Filled with elements of Norse mythology and great human drama, «The Saga of the Volsungs» has greatly influenced the fantasy genre of literature. Presented in this volume is the translation of Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris. ...
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was an appealing character who was a member of the Anglican clergy. As an English antiquarian, hagiographer, novelist, and diverse scholar, he is remembered particularly as a writer of hymns, the best-known being «Onward, Christian Soldiers.» Baring-Gould was also well-known for his works on folklore and myth. One of his most lastingly admired works is «Curious Myths of the Middle Ages», a collection of 24 of the ...
Literary scholar, professor, and poet J. Lesslie Hall is best known for his 1897 translation of the Old English epic poem «Beowulf.» The famous plot focuses on the titular character of Beowulf, a Scandinavian hero who comes to the aid of the Danes to save their land from a human-demon monster named Grendel. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf must then kill Grendel's mother. He returns to Scandinavia with more fame and accord and eventually be ...
An elaborate parody written in the 16th century, «Gargantua and Pantagruel» is a comic blend of energetic realism and carnival fantasy. The two main characters are giants, a father and his son, who have numerous adventures. Many different types of people are satirized during their chivalric exploits, from lawyers to theologians, generals to monarchs, with humor that is often grotesque or obscene. Intertwined with this crude comedy, however, is t ...
