The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice

by Carolyn McVickar Edwards

A collection of twelve traditional tales from around the world that honor the "return of the light" that takes place on the winter solstice

The winter solstice, the day the "sun stands still," marks the longest night and the shortest day of the year, and it comes either on December 20th or 21st. Celebrations honoring the winter solstice as a moment of transition and renewal date back thousands of years and occur among many peoples on every continent. The Return of the Light makes an ideal companion for everyone who carries on this tradition, no matter what their faith. Storyteller Carolyn McVickar Edwards retells twelve traditional tales-from North America, China, Scandinavia, India, Africa, South America, Europe, and Polynesia-that honor this magical moment. These are stories that will renew our wonder of the miracle of rebirth and the power of transition from darkness into light.

Genres: Short Stories, Mythology, Christmas, Fiction, Folklore, Holiday, Nature

192 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2000

Reviews

[Calista · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short myths are all in celebration of the Winter Solstice and the return of the light. In addition to the 12 stories there are games, rites and songs in the back that look interesting.

The stories include:
Why Hummingbird has a red throat = Olamentko-Miwok, NC
The Golden Earring = Thoria-Orissa, India
Raven Steals the Light = Inuit N. America
The Sun Crow and the Thief = Kuttia Kondh-Orissa, India
How Maui Snared the Sun = Polynesia
How the Cock got his Crown = Miao Tzu, China
Loki and the Death Light = Norse
The Pull-Together Morning = Sukuma, Tanzania
Grandfather Mantis and his Thinking Strings = Kung San, Khalahari Desert
The Girl who Married the Sun = Luhya, Kenya
The Light Keepers Box = Warao, Venezula
La Befano and the Royal Child of Light = Italy

The stories are grouped into 3 categories. The 1st 4 are the theft of the light, Next 4 are the surrender of the Light and the Last 4 are the grace of the light.

If you enjoy world myths and stories, then this should interest you. They are unknown stories to me. It took me a while to get to it, but I’m glad I finished this.

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

They say that spring will come again
No one knows exactly when.
Still the sun's a long lost friend
On the longest night of the year.*

The problem with themed story collections is repetitiveness, and that's really the only thing wrong here. Every tale seems to involve so-and-so stealing/losing the sun/moon/light in general and someone else needing to go get it back again. Still, the author does a wonderful job of collecting folk tales from all over the place and all but one were new to me.

There is also a collection of games that can be played on Solstice night that involve sprinkling glitter on tree roots and pretending to be squirrels. Then you can sing Solstice songs that are traditional carols with lyrics altered to be more New Agey:

Oh holy night!
The stars are brightly shining!
It is the night of the Sun Child's birth.

?

Yeah. I can see my friends and family gathering to do that.

My advice? Read a few of the stories, then go outside and look at the stars.

(Well, all right...you can pretend to be a squirrel if you really want to...)

So keep me safe and hold me tight
Let the candle burn all night
Tomorrow welcome back the night
It was longest night of the year*

*from The Longest Night of the Year by Mary Chapin Carpenter

Listen here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IKca...

[abthebooknerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book full of folktales from around the world!

This was super interesting. I loved hearing some of the lesser-known folktales from ancient peoples I was honestly ignorant of. My favorites were La Befana, and the legend of how Loki stole the light (of course). They were all so beautifully written. You can just imagine people hundreds of years ago telling these stories, and speaking these words over a fire.

Writing Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Telling-it-Over-a-Bonfire Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
( ^ yeah, that's a category. No, I did not just make it up)
Enjoyment Level: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

「 Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 」

[Renee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love the winter solstice, especially as a seasonal affective disorder person who loves the annual reminder (both physical and metaphorical) that “the darkest days are behind us and the world only gets brighter from here”

A book full of creation of the light myths from around the world would normally thrill me. Unfortunately, the author here chose to rewrite the tales in her own voice, rather than curating the stories (most of which are open source) into an anthology. The authors voice loses the feel of most of the stories, especially ones from cultures where the stories would be sung, or where the story is supposed to fall into a rhythm or cadence. The author barely even put in repetition of phrases, rhymed words, or onomatopoeia, all of which are common storytelling tools used in oral traditions. Worst, the author introduces each of the stories with a note about the people that the story came from. Her tone here often felt condescending to the original storytellers and used pejorative descriptors to describe them, like “simplistic”.

All in all, did not like this book. Think that something like this could be cool if it was an anthology using original source material, or where modern storytellers and authors from the people group that the stories came from could retell them (instead of the white lady that wrote this).

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of these stories were interesting and many I have never heard since they were gathered from around the world. Inuit, Chinese, Italian, and even God mythology. What I really liked about this book is the brief intro to each tale and it's people as well as the rites and games at the end of the book. There were even a few Christmas carols in the back.

[Kelly Furniss · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of twelve traditional folktales from around the World in celebration of the winter solstice, the customs and the celebrations that take place. A fabulous mix, interesting and educational.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the stories themselves. It felt like the author was trying to push her her own voice and agenda through the stories, and that was distracting when it came through. Her introduction makes her particular agenda clear, but her inclusion of some of the modified songs in the back starts to feel ridiculous, like she’s just trying too hard to force them into her vision for what the season should be. It would have been better if she’d just let the stories and songs from various cultures stand on their own, and only include the ones that fit her agenda instead of trying to push her agenda through the ones that didn’t fit.

[Andre · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the selected stories that Edwards chose for the book, but I found many of the translations to be a bit forced. Quite honestly it felt like someone had combed through the book and used a thesaurus to change the words in every other sentence to make it sound more complex then it needed to be. The beauty of most of these stories is their simplicity. There is no reason why a two page story needed to be stretched out to 4-5 pages.

[Patricia Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Return of the Light is a really interesting book by Carolyn McVickar Edwards. She presents 12 myths--soul stories, as she calls myths, about the way different cultures have celebrated the winter solstice.

The book is divided into three parts: The Theft, The Surrender, and The Grace. In each section, there are different myths from a variety of cultures about how light returned to darkness. Several involve animals in the spirit world. They were interesting and I felt like I learned more about each culture by the characters in the myth and what seemed to be valued.

Besides the stories themselves, I really appreciated the way Edwards would introduce a word, solstice, for instance, and then provide the etymology, which helped me see the word in a new light (no pun intended). Second, I liked the books introduction a lot. Edwards explanation about December marking the winter solstice and Christmas. I do remember learning something this when I was a college student in theology about this and the Julian and Gregorian calenders, along with why Christmas is celebrated on the 25th. I learned quite a bit in the introduction, including about the worship of Mithras, god of light, in December. I always find the parallels of light between religious and pagan celebrations to be fascinating.

I listened to the audio version of the book, and very much enjoyed the information about how different cultures celebrate the return of light. I kept thinking how little I know about others. Thank goodness for books and those who take the time to write them.

[Gilly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twelve short, charming folk tales from various world cultures, all interpreting the winter solstice and the creation of day and night. Fun to read one story for each of the twelve days of Christmas.

[Sanalith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book with 12 myths from around the world concerning the birth and/or return of the sun. I'd never read any of them before, and even ones that appeared familiar - such as how the rooster came by his red crown and the tale of La Befana - were versions that were new to me. The author split the tales into three sections - Theft, Surrender, and Grace - which referred to how the light was gained. I did feel some of them didn't quite fit the theme, hence four stars instead of five, but overall I quite enjoyed the author's interpretations. I was also excited for the appendix, which contained several great suggestions for Solstice-themed activities and carols for adults and children. I'll definitely be putting some of them to use next year.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite thing about this book is that it gives credit to the indigenous origins of each story and also context for each one’s meaning and importance. It includes a complete bibliography, so it’s well researched. The cherry on top is the traditions, games, and rites to do on the Winter Solstice that are listed at the end of the book. We finished it just in time for Epiphany this year. So fun and interesting! A great way to dip your toe into solstice traditions and literature and a tradition we will be carrying on each year.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting reading the story told by the ancients to explain the phenomena of increasing and decreasing daylight hours as a result of the rotation and tilting of the planet earth as it rounds the Sun. It must have been frightening as these cultures experienced diminishing light and encouraging when the daylight hours began to lengthen. Year after year but until recent years, maybe the last 200 or 300 did human's begin to understand and explain the Solstices and equinoxes.

[Jenni Pertuset · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of our winter solstice celebration, each member of the family present read one of these solstice stories by candlelight. It was a lovely way to end the day, and a meaningful addition to our family's rituals.

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful collection of stories from around the world celebrating the winter solstice and Christmas. I love this book and will keep it forever.

[Kayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like mythology, but these tales were just not holding my attention :(

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection of tales about winter from indigenous cultures all over the world. Such beautiful stories to reflect on during the darkness of winter.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for children.

[Cam P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 1.5

I really, (and i cannot stress this enough) REALLY, wanted to love this book. I had been waiting for a year to read it. I tried so hard to like it and to hype my kids to like it.

None of the tales were actually about the winter solstice, which I found strange when there are some specifically about this topic, and which really annoyed my 8 y.o. and confused my 5 y.o.

The choice of a white author to present exclusively, except one, myths from racialized communities felt a bit icky and kind of appropriative, especially that none of the stories (which are very interesting themselves) directly pertain to the alleged topic of the book.

This was a read aloud during December with my children and we read aloud a lot — from all kinds of authors, langage levels, and literary complexity — and never have I ever found something so unpleasant to read out loud. The text fell clunky and the lack of rythm you would expect from stories coming from oral traditions was jarring. The jump from more sophisticated language to really casual was an odd choice and did not help the flow of the writing.

Or maybe as someone with an academic background in religious studies, classics, and history, my expectations were just too high? Who knows.

The cover art is really beautiful, though.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of marvelous and carefully located and introduced folktales around the winter solstice. Recommended for lovers of teaching stories, folktales, and those interested in deepening their relationship with the winter solstice.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the winter solstice enough that I really wanted to love this book, but really didn't. The re-telling of many of these tales was flat and the whole thing felt appropriative - the author is a white woman from the US and nearly all the stories came from global indigenous communities.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely little compilation of folktales that helps to garner appreciation for the dark winter months.

[Liv Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute round up of solstice stories from all other the world!

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful myths and folk takes about the returning of the light. I want to make this part of my annual Winter Solstice rituals.

[Sienna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bedtime reading with my son. This is a patchy collection — some gems, some awkward turns of phrase, some rather shallow analysis between stories — but one that we enjoyed as a part of our nighttime routine. I appreciated that the stories weren't limited to European traditions. The number of typos was kind of astonishing for a book stamped with "fifth anniversary edition." (Had anyone read it during those five years?)

[Bitsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Return of the Light Carolyn McVickar Edwards assembles twelve legends, folktales and fairy tales told about the “return of light” that occurs at the winter solstice. I wanted to know more about the roots of the older traditions surrounding the Winter Solstice before it was taken over by the Church. I didn’t really find that, but I did find several different takes from around the world on just what happens during the solstice, the shortest day of the year, and their explanations for why the sun goes away, and more importantly why it comes back after.

The book is divided into three parts, each part containing four stories of a particular way in which the sun is lost at the solstice: the first through theft, the second through surrender and the third by grace. Each part is preceded with a short discussion about the method of reacquiring the sun, and each story is additionally given an introduction explaining the society it came from and where the story originated.

I thought that the introductions to the book and the sections in particular were by turns overly analytical, and then bizarrely whimsical. They could have perhaps been written in a more user friendly way. I am used to reading sociological and historical texts with a lot of technical terms in them and even I found myself lost and re-reading passages trying to get the gist of the great deal of knowledge the author attempted to cram into very little space. This also resulted in a bit of reader's whiplash when you switched to reading the story.

The stories were simplified and written in a very easy to understand and casual manner, particularly the dialogue which was written in a very believable modern day cadence and made the stories easy to read aloud and easy for listeners of any age to relate to. With the skill exhibited here, the stories were very much the book's strong point. I wish the introductions were similarly written, it would have made for a powerful book.

The ending includes several songs and games to be done on the winter solstice. To me these seemed like very much an after thought. The publisher might have insisted they add them, or an editor tacked them on. They were not well thought out, they were sometimes cheesy, even for families with children, and didn't add anything to the book at all.

The stories though were well written, and powerful, reminders of the other cultures that make up this world and of thee people of the past and their varying reactions to the, probably at that time terrifying, sight of the sun showing up less and less each day. These stories explained for them what was happening and reassured them that the sun would come back and light would return once again.

[Liander (The Towering Pile) Lavoie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on my book blog, The Towering Pile.

The Return of the Light is a collection of stories, most of them involving someone stealing the Sun, and then other characters getting it back. The idea behind these stories is that at the Winter Solstice, the Sun has moved away as far as it's going to, and appears to stay far away, sitting still, causing people to worry that it might not come back.

I normally don't like book introductions very much, for whatever reason. But the introduction to this book really made the book, in my opinion. It describes how ancient people saw the Winter Solstice. Reading it, I could easily imagine living in a time when such an event could be a cause for worry. The Sun has been moving away, and now is sitting still, and the people have to convince it to come back. That's where traditions like the Yule log come from: the log burns, showing the Sun how it's done and convincing it to come back and be bright and hot again. This was a really interesting topic to read about.

As for the stories themselves, I enjoyed them, but I tend to find stories like that kind of repetitive. Which sort of makes sense, since it's basically the same event being explained by different groups of people from around the world. So the interesting thing about them is how similar they are. So I guess I just shouldn't have read them all in a row (the same problem I had when I read The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales).

So overall, I still recommend this book. The introduction is great, and the stories are nice to dip into when you just want to read one short story. They'd be good for reading to kids around the Solstice time, teaching them about the origins of the holiday.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mom and I have a tradition of going to a local Yoga Solstice class. It is always the most calming and wonderful experience so I thought I would do a little legend and lore reading on the subject. This slim volume was my first pick and I really enjoyed all the tales from so many cultures, all honoring the return of the sun. The cover artwork is beautiful and reminds me of the class, where they have sprigs of greenery and oranges with cloves to take home, and remember throughout the year, honoring what the Solstice can mean to each of us personally.
This book was broken down into three parts; Theft, Surrender and Grace. The stories of each are well suited, background given for each story and lightly interspersed with lovely artwork. The Light Keeper's Box was one of my favorite stories due to the lushness of detail and the turtle. Grin. Anyone who knows me knows I have a "turtle thing". I did like each story specifically in some way and overall. There are games and songs included in the last bit, for those who want to take a little more lively approach. All in all a good jumping in point for Solstice celebration.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

For having picked this up in an Alaskan gift shop, I quite enjoyed reading it near winter solstice. I liked that the breadth of stories were from multiple cultures across the world, and that some background was presented before each story relating it to the details of the cultures, correlation to modern religion when relevant, etc. I appreciated the bibliography, but am also keeping in mind that the author and the bibliography authors don’t seem to necessarily be a member of those cultures whose stories are presented here.

[Jala · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a charming selection of folk tales from around the globe, including many cultures which are drastically under-represented in story collections. The book is organized into 3 sections containing a particular theme, and each of the 4 stories in these sections are short and easy to read as a bedtime story to a child, or when preparing to go to bed yourself. The stories are prepended with a brief description of the culture from which it came, sometimes explaining who the primary characters are or what one or another item or concept means to the people who tell this tale. At the end of the book are several songs and yuletide games to play.

It's not intended to be a deep and thorough delving into the cultures and their stories, but rather a brief survey to be enjoyed with your family. It's charming, easy to read, clearly written with a strong narrative voice, and is relaxing material to settle in with on cold winter nights.