| Blog URL: | http://steelthistles.blogspot.com |
| Blog Tags: | myths, legends, folklore, YA fiction, fantasy, books, reading |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Location: | Oxford |
Posts on YA Fiction and fantasy, children's books, folklore and myths | |
on Oct 24, 2019
As we head towards Hallowe'en - are there any female leaders of the Wild Hunt? The answer is yes, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s ever heard of a Valkyrie. Njal’s Saga tells of a man in Caithness named Dorrud, who on Good Friday sees ‘...
on Sep 17, 2019
Originally published as 'Inevitable Tales' in 'Unsettling Wonder' Issue 6, September 2017 Nothing, they say, is sure but death and taxes. By creating a comic equivalence between two such different but universally unpopular processes, the maxim...
on Jun 18, 2019
This essay was originally published nearly two years ago in the 12th issue of Gramarye, Winter 2017(It will take you a while to read! 😊 ) Maid Maleen (Kinder- und Hausmärchen, tale 198) isn’t particularly popular as fairy tales go. It wa...
on Mar 12, 2019
On a brief trip to visit friends and relations in Yorkshire and Manchester last October, I began encountering an unsettling number of severed heads. Not real ones of course. Stone heads, with an archaic, Celtic vibe. The one pictured above I've...
on Feb 12, 2019
Talking with a group of Girl Guides a while ago, we fell (as you do) into a discussion about house spirits. The best known example, annoyingly enough, is Dobby the house-elf from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. I have a soft spot for hous...
on Dec 20, 2018
The village of Malham in the Yorkshire Dales is set in a landscape of remarkable natural beauty which includes the great curved cliff of Malham Cove and the dramatic narrow gorge of Gordale Scar. Turner painted Malham Cove (see above) and Wordsworth...
