Carolyne Larrington

In our modern age fairies are diminutive, winged spirits associated with the innocence of childhood, or else the brooding heroes of popular romantasy books. But the fairies of the British Isles have taken many guises. To the early Britons they were fallen angels or relegated pagan gods, denizens of a strange world parallel to our own. In whispered tales, they can be found orchestrating shipwrecks, blinding queens, kidnapping musicians for their secret revels, and luring human lovers into the greenwood with their seductive beauty and beguiling promises. Their changeability has made them mainstays of the fantasy genre: at once capricious and ethereal, wielding arcane laws to reward and exploit human nature, and dolling out blessings and curses in equal measure. From protective fairy godmothers to uncanny fairy changelings, and from Tam Lin to Tinkerbell, Carolyne Larrington unravels a plethora of fairy tales in this shimmering guide to the fae, accompanied with beautiful illustrations from the British Library collections.

Trolls have escaped from the black lava wastes of Iceland and the dense pine forests of Scandinavia to take on a new life in the collective global imagination. They may not steal goats and eat people quite so much, but they remain disruptive and dangerous, even if their limited imaginations sometimes make them comic and even quite likeable. Emerging from the earliest annals of Scandinavian mythology, trolls are contradictory creatures. They can be monstrous and large as mountains, or humble and humanoid in appearance. The accounts written in Scandinavia and Iceland in the 19th century paint trolls as creatures who kidnap, overrun farms, lurk in the dark corners of landscapes, demand human marriages, eat unsuspecting travelers, and occasionally help the people who encounter them. Carolyne Larrington collects these stories into a delightful directory of trolls, from the medieval to the modern, and encountering kindly trolls, dangerous trolls, and stupid trolls along the way. Thoroughly researched and entertainingly written, The Little Book of Trolls is essential reading for the fantasy fan and a perfect introduction to the charmingly charmless world of trolls.

Fascinujúci úvod do legiend Vikingov a celej starej Škandinávie Detailný prehľad severskej mytológie od jej jednotlivých postáv (bohov, bohýň, nadprirodzených zvierat, ale aj ľudských hrdinov) až po najpoužívanejšie motívy. Severské mýty oslovujú dnešných ľudí s rovnakou nástojčivosťou, ako keď sa pred stáročiami rozprávali v hodovných sieňach Vikingov. Príbehy zo starej Škandinávie a z Islandu boli zaznamenané v podobe ság a epických básní, ale aj v dielach stredovekých kresťanských autorov. Vďaka archeológom zároveň vieme, ako vyzerali vikinské lode, ako si Vikingovia predstavovali osemnohé kone a titanské bitky – to všetko sa našlo zobrazené na runových kameňoch, v scénach vytepaných do kovu či na drevorezbách. Autorka pútavo rozoberá pôvod týchto bohov vo svete ľudí, ich veľmi ľudské a nie vždy príjemné charakterové vlastnosti, cnosti i necnosti. Vysvetľuje, ako sú božstvá zrkadlovým a často hyperbolizovaným obrazom diania medzi ľuďmi. Oboznamuje čitateľov s tým, ako severské národy opisovali stvorenie nášho prostredia a boj o nadvládu v ňom, približuje vikinské chápanie univerza, ktoré raz nevyhnutne dospeje k zániku. Jej jazyk je svieži a zrozumiteľný, aj keď obsahuje odborné fakty. Plusom je bohatý sprievodný obrazový materiál. Kniha je plná živo prerozprávaných, často vtipných a takmer vždy krutých príbehov severských bohov. Dozviete sa, čo znamenali a dodnes znamenajú mená a príbehy, ktoré sa opäť objavujú v kultúrne významných dielach Richarda Wagnera, Williama Morrisa a J. R. R. Tolkiena, ba dokonca aj v Hre o tróny. Z anglického originálu preložila Marína Gálisová.

'All men must die': or 'Valar Morghulis', as the traditional Essos greeting is rendered in High Valyrian. And die they do - in prodigious numbers; in imaginatively varied and gruesome ways; and often in terror within the viciously unpredictable world that is HBO's sensational evocation of Game of Thrones. Epic in scope and in imaginative breadth, the stories that are brought to life tell of the dramatic rise and fall of nations, the brutal sweeping away of old orders and the advent of new autarchs in the eternal quest for dominion. Yet, as this book reveals, many potent and intimate narratives of love and passion can be found within these grand landscapes of heroism, honour and death. They focus on strong relationships between women and family, as well as among the anti-heroes, the 'cripples, bastards and broken things'. In this vital follow-up to Winter Is Coming (2015), acclaimed medievalist Carolyne Larrington explores themes of power, blood-kin, lust and sex in order to draw entirely fresh meanings out of the show of the century.

Who were the Norse gods - the mighty Aesyr, led by Odinn, and the mysterious Vanir? In The Norse Myths we meet this passionate and squabbling pantheon, and learn of the mythological cosmos they inhabit. Passages translated from the Old Norse bring this legendary world to life, from the myths of creation to ragnarok, the prophesied end of the world at the hands of Loki's army of monsters and giants, and everything that comes in between: the problematic relationship between the gods and the giants, in which enmity and trickery are punctuated by marriages and seductions; the (mis) adventures of human heroes and heroines, with their family feuds, revenges, marriages and murders; and the interaction between the gods and mortals, as Odinn, the Allfather, betrays his human proteges in order to recruit (dead) heroes for his army. Carolyne Larrington describes the myths' origins in pre-Christian Scandinavia and Iceland, and their survival in artefacts and written sources, from Old Norse sagas and poems to the less approving accounts of medieval Christian writers. She traces their influences into the work of Wagner, William Morris and J.R.R.Tolkien, and even the recent Game of Thrones in the resurrection of the Fimbulvetr, or 'Mighty Winter'.