Sea Magic and Other Stories of Enchantment

by Rosemary Harris

In Scotland, two lovers escape a wicked enchantment with the aid of creatures from the fabled kingdom of the sea. In India, a Rajah's son loses his human form but finds Enlightenment within the cramping smallness of a bird's plumage. In Germany, the haughty and beautiful Magdalena hovers between two worlds when she becomes Death's own bride. In North America, an Iroquois chieftain is restored to life through the magic of the forest animals. With the superb narrative skill that has made her an award-winning novelist, Rosemary Harris retells ten stories of the supernatural, interpreting old legends from around the world in a new and exciting way. The tales are funny and terrifying, tender and cruel, combining the flavor of the countries of their birth with the appeal of highly original dramatizations. Sea Magic will cast its spell on readers everywhere. The ten stories which are included in this collection Sea Magic (British Isles), The Graveyard Rose (Germany), The Castle of Ker Glass (France), Bata (Egypt), Irani and the Cuckoos (India), White Orchid, Red Mountain (China), Sankichi's Gift (Japan), The Cockleshell (New Zealand), The Search for Little Water (North America), and The Small Red Ox (Iceland).

178 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Harris attended school in Weymouth, and then studied at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the Chelsea School of Art and the Courtauld Institute. She served in the British Red Cross Nursing Auxiliary Westminster Division during World War II, and has worked as a picture restorer, a reader for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and a children's book reviewer for The Times from 1970 to 1973. She won the Carnegie Medal in 1968 for The Moon in the Cloud. This book was the first in a trilogy set in ancient Egypt. The subsequent books were The Shadow on the Sun and The Bright and Morning Star. The book was also the basis for a 1978 episode of the BBC series "Jackanory." Other books dealt with topics as diverse as terrorism, magic and futuristic totalitarianism.

Reviews

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of fairy tale, myth, and legend adaptations for children. Some of them were decent, but most of them were kind of meh.

[Eleanor Jones]

Alright I basically never DNF books but it’s been months and I can’t find any motivation to push myself through this one.