First published in 1851 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls” is a captivating and classic retelling for children of some of the most famous stories from Greek mythology. Hawthorne followed this first collection of Greek tales with a sequel, “The Tanglewood Tales” in 1853. The book is set as a story-within-a-story with a fictional college student retelling these timeless myths to a group of school children. Hawthorne modifie ...
First published in 1921, “The Golden Fleece and The Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles” by the acclaimed and award-winning children’s author Padraic Colum is a classic retelling of the ancient mythological tales of Jason and the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece. Woven into this volume of Greek mythology are also the stories of the creation of the heavens and the earth, Zeus's battle with the Titans, Pandora's box, Persepho ...
First published in 1920, «The Children of Odin» is the retelling of famous North myths for children by the acclaimed Irish poet, novelist, playwright, and children’s author Padraic Colum. With illustrations by Willy Pogany this volume brings classic Norse literature and mythology to a wider audience and makes it accessible to children of all ages. Born in 1881 in Ireland, Colum first rose to fame as a playwright and poet in Dublin and became a l ...
First published in 1889, “The Blue Fairy Book” is the first in a series of collections of fairy tales from around the world edited by Andrew Lang, the Scottish novelist, poet and literary critic, with translations and retellings by his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne, and others. Lang and Alleyne would go on to publish popular collections of fairy tales and poetry for over twenty years. As the first in the series of collections, each named after a ...
One of the most legendary of the Icelandic sagas, «The Saga of the Volsungs» is the 13th century work of unknown authorship which relates the origin and decline of the Volsung clan. The story unfolds over five parts as it passes in time through the various generations of the clan. In the first part, the preliminary generations are described, beginning with Sigi, a man banished from his homeland who through his adventuring arises to create a grea ...
The history of the fable likely does not originate with Aesop; however it is with him that we associate the fable’s most ancient of known origins. Little is actually known of the life of Aesop. According to the historical accounts of Herodotus, Aristotle, and Plutarch, he was a slave from the Greek island of Samos who lived between 620 and 564 BC. Described as a strikingly ugly man he is said to have secured his freedom through his cleverness. K ...
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. The bulk of the text was preserved for hundreds of years in the Codex Regius of Iceland, a 13th century manuscript which was largely unknown until its rediscovery in the 17th century. Upon this rediscove ...
“The Prose Edda”, or “Younger Edda”, is a classic collection of Norse myths of the Icelandic people believed to have been written or compiled by Icelandic scholar and historian Snorri Sturluson around the year 1220. Preserved through a handful of medieval manuscripts and another dating to the 17th century, “The Prose Edda” is composed of a prologue and three additional books. In the prologue Sturluson describes the Norse gods as historical desce ...
First published in 1485, Thomas Malory’s “Le Morte d’Arthur” or “The Death of Arthur” collects together many of the known legends of King Arthur into one creative text. Beginning with his birth, “Le Morte d’Arthur” relates Arthur’s rise to become the King of England and leader of the Knights of the Round Table. Drawing upon numerous historical accounts of King Arthur, Malory’s work details the exploits of King Arthur against Lucius of Rome, of S ...
