Nordic Sagas as Children's Literature

Nordic Sagas as Children's Literature
Author: Velma Bourgeois Richmond
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2023-08-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1476649782

This book examines translations of Icelandic sagas and the Victorian and Edwardian children's literature they inspired, some of which are canonical while others are forgotten. It covers authors like William Morris, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Thomas Gray, Walter Scott, H. Rider Haggard, W.H. Auden, John Greenleef Whittier and more. In lavish volumes and modest schoolbooks, British and American writers claimed Nordic heritage and explored Nordic traditions. The sagas offered a rich and wide-ranging source for these authors: Volsunga saga's Sigurd the dragon slayer; King Olaf's saga of opposing Nordic Gods and Christianity; Frithiof's model of headstrong youth beset with unfair opposition and lost love. Grettir and Njal tell of men who accepted fate and met conflict and enemies unflinchingly; Aslaug, Gudrida, Hallberga and Hervar exerted remarkable influence; and Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky provided Americans with a Nordic heritage of discovery.

The Monstrous Child

The Monstrous Child
Author: Francesca Simon
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2016-05-03
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0571330282

A stunning, operatic, epic drama, like no other. Meet Hel, an ordinary teenager - and goddess of the Underworld. Why is life so unfair? Hel tries to make the bets of it, creating gleaming halls in her dark kingdom and welcoming the dead who she is forced to host for eternity. Until eternity itself is threatened. Francesca's first and wonderful foray into teen.

Treasury of Norse Mythology

Treasury of Norse Mythology
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2015
Genre: Gods, Norse
ISBN: 1426320981

Illustrated stories of gods, goddesses, heroes and monsters come to life in this collection of Norse myths, including those of the thunder god Thor, the one-eyed god and Allfather Odin, and the trickster god Loki.

The Dragon's Hoard

The Dragon's Hoard
Author: Lari Don
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2017-08-23
Genre: Magic
ISBN: 9781847806826

Meet the Vikings and enter their enchanting world full of warriors and battles, heroes and heroines, Berserkers, monsters and zombies, and of course, lots of magic. Illustrated throughout, these eleven amazing stories bring the Viking Sagas, tales they themselves told, to vivid life. A fantastic introduction to Viking mythology, these illustrated tales will have children captivated.

The Children of Odin

The Children of Odin
Author: Padraic Colum
Publisher:
Total Pages: 304
Release: 1920
Genre: Mythology, Germanic
ISBN:

A retelling of the Norse sagas about Odin, Freya, Thor, Loki, and the other gods and goddesses who lived in Asgard before the dawn of history.

The Snow White Trilogy

The Snow White Trilogy
Author: Salla Simukka
Publisher: Bonnier Publishing Fiction Ltd.
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2016-05-06
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1471406121

The complete thrilling Nordic crime series The Snow White Trilogy, an international success published in 46 countries worldwide. 'Fans of Nesbø and Larsson won't be disappointed' Publishers Weekly The complete Snow White trilogy in one ebook collection: As Red as Blood, As White as Snow, As Black as Ebony Seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson is hardly your average teenager. She lives by herself in the city of Tampere, Finland, and has a firm rule to mind nobody's business but her own. But that rule is put to the test when finds herself caught in an increasingly tangled web of deception, corruption and danger, and navigating Tampere's dark underbelly in her quest to expose its shocking connection to the international drugs trade. Lumikki is smart, but is she smarter than a master criminal? Can she bring down the infamous 'PolarBear' - or will she become another one of his victims? She must go on the run through Finland and Prague and stop her murderous stalker.

Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany

Children’s Literature in Hitler’s Germany
Author: Christa Kamenetsky
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2019-06-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 082144672X

Between 1933 and 1945, National Socialists enacted a focused effort to propagandize children’s literature by distorting existing German values and traditions with the aim of creating a homogenous “folk community.” A vast censorship committee in Berlin oversaw the publication, revision, and distribution of books and textbooks for young readers, exercising its control over library and bookstore content as well as over new manuscripts, so as to redirect the cultural consumption of the nation’s children. In particular, the Nazis emphasized Nordic myths and legends with a focus on the fighting spirit of the saga heroes, their community loyalty, and a fierce spirit of revenge—elements that were then applied to the concepts of loyalty to and sacrifice for the Führer and the fatherland. They also tolerated select popular series, even though these were meant to be replaced by modern Hitler Youth camping stories. In this important book, first published in 1984 and now back in print, Christa Kamenetsky demonstrates how Nazis used children’s literature to selectively shape a “Nordic Germanic” worldview that was intended to strengthen the German folk community, the Führer, and the fatherland by imposing a racial perspective on mankind. Their efforts corroded the last remnants of the Weimar Republic’s liberal education, while promoting an enthusiastic following for Hitler.

The Sea of Trolls

The Sea of Trolls
Author: Nancy Farmer
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2008-12-09
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 184739731X

Jack is an apprentice bard and just beginning to learn the secrets of his mysterious master, when he and his little sister are captured by Viking chief, Olaf One-Brow, and taken to the court of Ivar the Boneless. Ivar is married to a half-troll named Frith, an evil and unpredictable queen with a strange power over her husband's court. Jack is sent on to the kingdom of the trolls, where he has to find the magical well and undo the charm he has cast on Frith. He is accompanied by Thorgill, a shield maiden, aged 12, who wants to be a berserker when she grows up. Together, they are set for a magical and exciting adventure.

Bracelet of Bones

Bracelet of Bones
Author: Kevin Crossley-Holland
Publisher: Quercus
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2014-03-11
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1623651131

Crossley-Holland, a winner of the Carnegie Medal, the Guardian Children's Fiction Award, the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal, and the Tir Nan-Og Award, and numerous other distinctions, has written an absorbing fantasy novel for young adults with a formidable heroine. The Guardian praised Bracelet of Bones as "superb" Crossley-Holland writes "with a poet's eye and love of words, painting a vivid picture of the world his characters move through, whether it's the morning mist on the river or the smoke from a funeral pyre." One morning Solveig wakes to find her father, Viking mercenary Halfdan, has broken his promise to her by leaving to join the Viking Guard in Constantinople, without her. Deciding to follow him, Solveig sets off in a tiny boat and into an epic adventure, encountering Swedish traders, a ghost-ship and a Russian king, braving arrow-storms and witnessing a living sacrifice. Through it all, Solveig's belief in her father is unwavering. Will she ever reach Constantinople? And will her father be there? An imaginative and poignant novel that explores friendship and betrayal, the father-daughter relationship, the clash of religions and the journey from childhood to adulthood, Bracelet of Bones is a vivid adventure not to be missed.