What do you think?
Rate this book
Magical Tales: Myth, Legend, and Enchantment in Children's Books
A faun carrying an umbrella. A hobbit who makes his home in a hole in the ground. An ill-treated schoolboy with a secret and a scar. Fantasy is among the most beloved genres in children’s literature— and its offerings are often just as eagerly anticipated by adults. But how is it that writers like J. K. Rowling and Philip Pullman are able to create such remarkable images?
Magical Tales traces the origin of the genre back through Norse mythology, Arthurian legend, and medieval literature. Drawing on manuscripts and rare books in the renowned collection of the Bodleian Library, the essays turn the spotlight on spell books; grimoires, or magical textbooks; and books of legend and myth whose themes writers like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis incorporated into their work, inspiring generations of writers that extend to the present day. In serving as a source of inspiration for later literary works, the contributors show, myths and legends have themselves been altered in interesting ways.
Richly illustrated, Magical Tales offers an enchanting take on the development of this wildly popular genre.
Magical Tales traces the origin of the genre back through Norse mythology, Arthurian legend, and medieval literature. Drawing on manuscripts and rare books in the renowned collection of the Bodleian Library, the essays turn the spotlight on spell books; grimoires, or magical textbooks; and books of legend and myth whose themes writers like J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis incorporated into their work, inspiring generations of writers that extend to the present day. In serving as a source of inspiration for later literary works, the contributors show, myths and legends have themselves been altered in interesting ways.
Richly illustrated, Magical Tales offers an enchanting take on the development of this wildly popular genre.
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2013
1 person is currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Carolyne Larrington
51 books109 followersCarolyne Larrington is a Tutorial Fellow in English at St. John's College, Oxford.
Dr. Carolyne Larrington teaches medieval English literature in the college, ranging from the earliest Old English to the beginning of the Renaissance period.
Dr Larrington's research interests are in Old Icelandic literature, medieval women's writing, European Arthurian literature, and, most recently, medieval emotion. She has published on Old English and Old Icelandic wisdom poetry, compiled Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook and edited two collections of essays on the Old Norse Poetic Edda. Her revised and expanded translation of the Poetic Edda, just published, is the standard. Her most recent monograph is King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition which appeared from IB Tauris in June 2006. Her book on sibling relations in European medieval literature, and a new popular book on British folklore, The Land of the Green Man will be published in 2015; a BBC Radio 4 series based on the folklore book has also been commissioned. She is currently editing a collection of essays on emotion in Arthurian literature, and a Handbook to Eddic Poetry. She has been until recently editor-in-chief of the journal Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, and the President of the Viking Society for Northern Research, the British scholarly society for Old Norse study.
(from https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/945-714/Dr-C...)
Dr. Carolyne Larrington teaches medieval English literature in the college, ranging from the earliest Old English to the beginning of the Renaissance period.
Dr Larrington's research interests are in Old Icelandic literature, medieval women's writing, European Arthurian literature, and, most recently, medieval emotion. She has published on Old English and Old Icelandic wisdom poetry, compiled Women and Writing in Medieval Europe: A Sourcebook and edited two collections of essays on the Old Norse Poetic Edda. Her revised and expanded translation of the Poetic Edda, just published, is the standard. Her most recent monograph is King Arthur's Enchantresses: Morgan and Her Sisters in Arthurian Tradition which appeared from IB Tauris in June 2006. Her book on sibling relations in European medieval literature, and a new popular book on British folklore, The Land of the Green Man will be published in 2015; a BBC Radio 4 series based on the folklore book has also been commissioned. She is currently editing a collection of essays on emotion in Arthurian literature, and a Handbook to Eddic Poetry. She has been until recently editor-in-chief of the journal Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, and the President of the Viking Society for Northern Research, the British scholarly society for Old Norse study.
(from https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/945-714/Dr-C...)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 6, 2020
A celebration of all things Oxford, but also a clever blend of scholarship and visual imagery, 'Magical Tales' examines the ways in which myth and folklore become springboards for the imagination in children's fantasy literature. Of course Tolkien, Lewis and Pullman are here, but the research interests of the five contributors offer enough signposts to set the reader off on their own personal quest.
My favourite things? Alan Garner's handwriting (closely followed by Tolkien's); a 1947 postcard written in runic to the latter; the 1857 edition of 'The Heroes of Asgard' with an illustration reminiscent of John Tenniel; the links between chivalry and World War I explored by Anna Caughey in her essay on the the reinvention of the Arthurian legend; the same essay's suggestion that the Malory theme of the 'bel inconnu' is echoed in Harry Potter; the magical moving books from the eighteenth-century harlequinade to the Victorian sentiments of Ernest Nister......there is just so much joy here in the discovery of new pathways to follow and enjoy that I could go on forever.
And I haven't even mentioned one of my favourite academics, Carolyne Larrington (one of the book's editors), who contributes a chapter on Norse myth and Germanic heroic legend, which inspired Wagner's operatic Ring cycle and arguably, George Martin's Game of Thrones.
I just wish that I'd seen the 2013 exhibition at the Bodleian Library that accompanied the book.
My favourite things? Alan Garner's handwriting (closely followed by Tolkien's); a 1947 postcard written in runic to the latter; the 1857 edition of 'The Heroes of Asgard' with an illustration reminiscent of John Tenniel; the links between chivalry and World War I explored by Anna Caughey in her essay on the the reinvention of the Arthurian legend; the same essay's suggestion that the Malory theme of the 'bel inconnu' is echoed in Harry Potter; the magical moving books from the eighteenth-century harlequinade to the Victorian sentiments of Ernest Nister......there is just so much joy here in the discovery of new pathways to follow and enjoy that I could go on forever.
And I haven't even mentioned one of my favourite academics, Carolyne Larrington (one of the book's editors), who contributes a chapter on Norse myth and Germanic heroic legend, which inspired Wagner's operatic Ring cycle and arguably, George Martin's Game of Thrones.
I just wish that I'd seen the 2013 exhibition at the Bodleian Library that accompanied the book.
October 29, 2013
This was the accompanying catalogue to the brilliant Magical Books exhibition that has been running this year at Oxford's Bodleian Library and has been every bit as enjoyable and interesting. It's a book that celebrates all that I love about my favourite stories, but it also details so many other stories that I am aware of but have not read, but worse, it also reveals a whole host of stories that I have been shamefully been unaware of.
This book should come with a health warning though. I defy you to read a single chapter - or essay - without asking already half a dozen books to your To Read Pile.
This book should come with a health warning though. I defy you to read a single chapter - or essay - without asking already half a dozen books to your To Read Pile.
December 28, 2015
Magical Tales is a book for the scholar of children's literature of fantastic, especially if one is interested in exploring its roots in myth and legend and in medieval literature. But, given that this book accompanied an exhibit of manuscripts and drawings of Tolkien, Lewis, and Pullman at the Bodleian Library at Oxford, it is also accessible to the museum-goer who may or may not be a scholar. However, given the references to so many works of children's fantasy, the editors, Diane Purkiss and Carolyne Larrington, and the authors of the individual chapters, are assuming these museum-goers are well read and fans of the fantastic, if not scholars.
I enjoyed it very much. The topics range from a discussion of books of magic (and books as magic), to a discussion of the influence of Northern or Norse mythology, the magical Middle Ages, once and future Arthurs, to early movable books for children.
Would I have enjoyed it as much if I had not read so many of the children's fantasies examined and referenced? Probably not, but this is not meant to be an introduction to such literature for those who haven't read it. There are other books for that purpose--or rather, go to the sources, the books themselves, and the myths and the legends, of the Norse gods, of Merlin and Arthur. True, this is an introduction, a survey as it were, but the Notes at the end, and the texts referenced and discussed give the interested reader direction as what to read next, or where to begin reading.
Books are indeed magical. These fantasies are, as "Lytton would have it, [be] 'Beloved as Fable' yet also in some important symbolic ways, 'believed as Truth' "(151).
Recommended.
I enjoyed it very much. The topics range from a discussion of books of magic (and books as magic), to a discussion of the influence of Northern or Norse mythology, the magical Middle Ages, once and future Arthurs, to early movable books for children.
Would I have enjoyed it as much if I had not read so many of the children's fantasies examined and referenced? Probably not, but this is not meant to be an introduction to such literature for those who haven't read it. There are other books for that purpose--or rather, go to the sources, the books themselves, and the myths and the legends, of the Norse gods, of Merlin and Arthur. True, this is an introduction, a survey as it were, but the Notes at the end, and the texts referenced and discussed give the interested reader direction as what to read next, or where to begin reading.
Books are indeed magical. These fantasies are, as "Lytton would have it, [be] 'Beloved as Fable' yet also in some important symbolic ways, 'believed as Truth' "(151).
Recommended.
July 7, 2016
For a non-fictional book this was a very pleasant read. I liked some chapters more than others (I liked chapters 1-3. Chapters 4 and 5 I skimmed) because they were about topics that I like and am familiar with. It has to do with how medieval tales and norse mythology comes back in new writing and how some of the great writers of fantasy have been inspired by the old stories and used them in their own writing. This is something they have done to an extent that is greater than I previously known and it makes it increasingly clear that fanfiction is something that is as old as story telling itself.
February 10, 2014
Excellent. Published as an accompaniment to the 2013 exhibition "Magical Books" at Oxford's Bodleian Library, it contains essays that connect five of the authors whose association with Oxford's libraries is best known--C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, and Philip Pullman--with the materials that inspired them. Makes me really sad to have missed said exhibition, being all the way over here on the wrong side of the pond.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews