Spirited Away: Fairy stories of old Newfoundland

by Tom Dawe, Tom Dawe

In this companion volume to their collaboration An Old Man's Winter Night, Tom Dawe and Veselina Tomova present a fascinating, tantalizing, and chilling collection of fairy lore. No benign tooth fairies here; these fairies are amoral, tricky, dangerous, and beguiling.

A young school teacher learns about strange lights in a foreboding marsh; a nurse in a remote outport visits the baby she delivered just weeks before to find a devastating change; a woman meets a mysterious funeral procession late one evening; a musician happens upon a group of strange little people; a girl is entranced by a strange green butterfly. The pages of Spirited Away are populated by those who wander onto fairy paths or fall under the spell of mysterious music; by the fairy-led--people lost in surroundings long familiar; by changelings; by people who stray onto fairy turf, and experience unnerving events.

These literary renderings of stories and anecdotes Dawe has collected across the province offer an accessible and engaging introduction to one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most powerful and peculiar folk traditions. Tomova's darkly poetic wood-cut illustrations plumb the fascinating heart of these strange and affecting tales.

Genres: Canada, Short Stories

58 pages, Hardcover

Published October 17, 2017

About the author

Tom Dawe, CM ONL (born October 24, 1940) is a Canadian writer from Newfoundland and Labrador. Born in Long Pond, Conception Bay, Newfoundland (present-day Conception Bay South, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada), Dawe has written poetry and children's literature for many years. He is also a visual artist. His work often draws on folklore, mythology, autobiography, and Newfoundland culture, particularly the experience of growing up in a Newfoundland outport community.

Reviews

[Derek Newman-Stille · Rating 5 out of 5]

A man who makes his shoe-laces out of dried eel skins, another who can make an instrument of any object he finds, an old woman who goes from house to house asking for bones, children who fear dragonflies – and these are just the human characters in Tom Dawe’s Spirited Away: Fairy Stories of Old Newfoundland. Dawe weaves together fairy tales told in Newfoundland with a bit of the eccentricities of the island, creating a dynamic set of stories. Dawe explores tales of landscapes come alive with mischief, of homes made unfamiliar by the presence of the fairies, of animals who can sense otherworldly presences, of mysterious strangers showing up to play music and just as soon disappearing, of fairy rings, and of babies hurt by fairies appearing as green butterflies.

Dawe draws on the Newfoundland Fairy Tale telling tradition, but transforms it from a primarily oral narrative tradition into a solid set of tales to entertain and intrigue. Dawe wraps these tales of the otherworldly in the realm of humans, giving context to the characters involved in a way that is rarely done in such detail in the Newfoundland Fairy Tale telling tradition.

For a longer version of my review, visit https://overtherainbowfairytale.wordp...

[Sherry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom Dawe lives with his wife in Conception where he collects and writes the Fairy Stories of Old Newfoundland. The ninestories in this collection are told in a voice with a different cadence and often vocabulary. Each story is told in a meandering fashion with bits and pieces tossed in after, but they have a solid feel of place and fairy darkness, leaving you wanting to be tucked up tight in your own bed, quilts pulled tight around you, and with a light left burning.

2017-18 Anne Izard Award contender.

[Patricia Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely stories and wonderful artwork.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I read what this was about before picking it up? Did I mistakenly believe this was similarly fashioned into a Ghibli movie like Howls Moving Castle was? No and Yes, respectively. This was an alright fairy tale collection and a quick read!

[Tina Hoggatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of paint and fairy stories from Newfoundland will give you a familiar and delicious shiver. Dark, funky, and perfect woodcuts be Vaselina Tomova illustrate.