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Folk-Tales of the British Isles
Muchachas pobres, princesas, enanos, gigantes, espíritus..., todo tipo de seres, reales y fantásticos, pueblan el rico paisaje creado por Kevin Crossley- Holland para Cuentos populares británicos. Kevin Crossley- Holland, poeta, profesor universitario y folkclorista; ganador de la Medalla Carnegie en 1985, ha investigado directamente en las fuentes de la tradición folklórica británica para recrear nuevas versiones de cuentos y mitos de la popularidad de Dick Whittington, Jack y el tallo de las judías o Ricitos de oro y los tres osos, ofreciéndonos una visión fiel, pero al tiempo espontánea y llena de lirismo, de un universo tan fascinante y mágico como arraigado en la memoria de los pueblos.
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
18 people are currently reading
489 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Crossley-Holland
206 books243 followersKevin Crossley-Holland is an English poet and prize-winning author for children. His books include Waterslain Angels, a detective story set in north Norfolk in 1955, and Moored Man: A Cycle of North Norfolk Poems; Gatty's Tale, a medieval pilgrimage novel; and the Arthur trilogy (The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March), which combines historical fiction with the retelling of Arthurian legend.
The Seeing Stone won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal. The Arthur trilogy has won worldwide critical acclaim and has been translated into 21 languages.
Crossley-Holland has translated Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon, and his retellings of traditional tales include The Penguin Book of Norse Myths and British Folk Tales (reissued as The Magic Lands). His collaborations with composers include two operas with Nicola Lefanu ("The Green Children" and "The Wildman") and one with Rupert Bawden, "The Sailor’s Tale"; song cycles with Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias; and a carol with Stephen Paulus for King’s College, Cambridge. His play, The Wuffings, (co-authored with Ivan Cutting) was produced by Eastern Angles in 1997.
He often lectures abroad on behalf of the British Council, regularly leads sessions for teachers and librarians, and visits primary and secondary schools. He offers poetry and prose workshops and talks on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, King Arthur, heroines and heroes, and myth, legend and folk-tale.
After seven years teaching in Minnesota, where he held an Endowed Chair in the Humanities, Kevin Crossley-Holland returned to the north Norfolk coast in East Anglia, where he now lives.
He has a Minnesotan wife, Linda, two sons (Kieran and Dominic) and two daughters (Oenone and Eleanor). He is an Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, a patron of the Society of Storytelling and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
The Seeing Stone won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and the Smarties Prize Bronze Medal. The Arthur trilogy has won worldwide critical acclaim and has been translated into 21 languages.
Crossley-Holland has translated Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon, and his retellings of traditional tales include The Penguin Book of Norse Myths and British Folk Tales (reissued as The Magic Lands). His collaborations with composers include two operas with Nicola Lefanu ("The Green Children" and "The Wildman") and one with Rupert Bawden, "The Sailor’s Tale"; song cycles with Sir Arthur Bliss and William Mathias; and a carol with Stephen Paulus for King’s College, Cambridge. His play, The Wuffings, (co-authored with Ivan Cutting) was produced by Eastern Angles in 1997.
He often lectures abroad on behalf of the British Council, regularly leads sessions for teachers and librarians, and visits primary and secondary schools. He offers poetry and prose workshops and talks on the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, King Arthur, heroines and heroes, and myth, legend and folk-tale.
After seven years teaching in Minnesota, where he held an Endowed Chair in the Humanities, Kevin Crossley-Holland returned to the north Norfolk coast in East Anglia, where he now lives.
He has a Minnesotan wife, Linda, two sons (Kieran and Dominic) and two daughters (Oenone and Eleanor). He is an Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, a patron of the Society of Storytelling and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 4, 2019
Folktales are a fascinating product of culture. While I'm not overly interested in British culture, I have a lot of British heritage so I decided to give this book a go.
This collection is very hit-or-miss. The editor obviously put a great deal of care in putting the collection together. Tales are grouped thematically and each section has an introduction, but the book would've been better without them. The intros are a bit too academic and basically discuss the people who collected folktales over the past centuries. Annoyingly, the intros contain a lot of spoilers, too. I also don't like how the dialect is preserved; while this is a great idea in theory to give the original local flavour to a tale, it can be cumbersome:
The highlight of this book are the illustrations. Each story begins with a black-and-white woodcut—although they only take up about a third of the page, the detail in them is amazing and the style is very charming. The stories themselves are okay but not anything special. A lot of them feature kings, princes, and princesses. Some of them have giants, fairies, and witches, but the magical elements seem quaint...the people use magic to spin wool or steal cows' milk; it's more rustic than fantastical. There are some stories that are definitely worth re-reading, but I will probably never read this book cover to cover again.
Stories that I liked:
"The Woman of the Sea," "The Soul Cages," "Fior Usga," "The Sleeping Warriors," "The Dragon of Wantley," "The Ghosts and the Game of Football," "A Legend of Black Gang Chyne," "Whittington," "The Wildman," "The Man that Sold his Soul to the Devil," "The Demon Cat," "The Three Heads of the Well," "Daniel O'Rourke," "The Soul as a Butterfly," "Why Everyone Should be Able to Tell a Story."
This collection is very hit-or-miss. The editor obviously put a great deal of care in putting the collection together. Tales are grouped thematically and each section has an introduction, but the book would've been better without them. The intros are a bit too academic and basically discuss the people who collected folktales over the past centuries. Annoyingly, the intros contain a lot of spoilers, too. I also don't like how the dialect is preserved; while this is a great idea in theory to give the original local flavour to a tale, it can be cumbersome:
Up she gets wi' the towcards, and the tailor wi' the goose, and the twa prentices, the ane wi' the muckle shears, and the tither wi' the lawbrod; but it jinkit them, and ran round about the fire; and ane o' the prentices, thinking to snap it wi' the shears, fell i' the ase-pit. The tailor cuist the goose, and the goodwife the tow-cards; but a' wadna do. The bunnock wan awa', and ran till it came to a wee house at the roadside; and in it rins, and there was a weaver sittin' on the loom, and the wife winnin' a clue o' yarn.
The highlight of this book are the illustrations. Each story begins with a black-and-white woodcut—although they only take up about a third of the page, the detail in them is amazing and the style is very charming. The stories themselves are okay but not anything special. A lot of them feature kings, princes, and princesses. Some of them have giants, fairies, and witches, but the magical elements seem quaint...the people use magic to spin wool or steal cows' milk; it's more rustic than fantastical. There are some stories that are definitely worth re-reading, but I will probably never read this book cover to cover again.
Stories that I liked:
"The Woman of the Sea," "The Soul Cages," "Fior Usga," "The Sleeping Warriors," "The Dragon of Wantley," "The Ghosts and the Game of Football," "A Legend of Black Gang Chyne," "Whittington," "The Wildman," "The Man that Sold his Soul to the Devil," "The Demon Cat," "The Three Heads of the Well," "Daniel O'Rourke," "The Soul as a Butterfly," "Why Everyone Should be Able to Tell a Story."
January 20, 2016
A miscellaneous collection. Tales of fairies, fairy tales, ghost stories, tales of heroes, legends, jocular tales. . . .
If you are looking for one of those types, you may have to read through them all, because they are organized by themes that sometimes cross them. Some are literary -- we have the nasty old woman variant of "Goldilocks" and the "Jack and the Beanstalk" where the giant had robbed Jack's father. Some are in dialect that can be hard to read.
Many interesting ones.
If you are looking for one of those types, you may have to read through them all, because they are organized by themes that sometimes cross them. Some are literary -- we have the nasty old woman variant of "Goldilocks" and the "Jack and the Beanstalk" where the giant had robbed Jack's father. Some are in dialect that can be hard to read.
Many interesting ones.
May 23, 2017
I thoroughly enjoyed The Magic Lands. I love reading original folk tales and myths and this book puts 55 interesting British and Irish ones together.
Each tale is short, some less than a page, some several pages long, so this is a perfect book for reading to children or to bring with you while you need to wait somewhere.
As much as I enjoyed the stories, I am a historian at heart, so found myself going to the end to read the “Sources and Notes” section for each tale. Crossley-Holland has obviously done huge amounts of research in this area and tells us about where the stories first came from, where first recorded, and other interesting details.
This is a great book for anyone wanting original tales written in accessible, modern language.
Each tale is short, some less than a page, some several pages long, so this is a perfect book for reading to children or to bring with you while you need to wait somewhere.
As much as I enjoyed the stories, I am a historian at heart, so found myself going to the end to read the “Sources and Notes” section for each tale. Crossley-Holland has obviously done huge amounts of research in this area and tells us about where the stories first came from, where first recorded, and other interesting details.
This is a great book for anyone wanting original tales written in accessible, modern language.
December 31, 2019
Very interesting read :) I like it as a compendium of folk tales, as they're different from fairy tales and with different in the way they have more obvious moral and are for adults. They are similar but with a different end and audience.
Read
December 4, 2020A top-notch collection.
December 19, 2021
one of my favorite books since middle school <3
December 9, 2014
I read this delightful group of stories about the year 2003, and then reread some in 2014.
These many folk tales in 393 pages are grouped into the following sections:- Fairies, Origins and causes, Kings and heroes, Fabulous beasts, Nursery and jocular, Ghosts, Fables and animal tales, Giants and strong men, Historical, Saints and devils, and finally Enchantment.
This book constitutes a grand survey of this genre! Many to be reread from time to time for the sheer enjoyment of the folk tale printed in this handsome edition. Some remain cast in somewhat archaic language, a product of the source and time from which the tale was recorded. One needs to know some medieval history of Britain so the personal names and place will provide meaning to one reading it today in a far distant country. Yet the editor probably retained the old voice so as to convey the old primitive context within which the tales were passed on from generation to generation.
A beautifully packaged book published 1985 by the Folio Society of England - cover outstanding, wood-engravings by Hannah Firmin serve as chapter headings are super, and the select ion of tales is varied and very engaging.
These many folk tales in 393 pages are grouped into the following sections:- Fairies, Origins and causes, Kings and heroes, Fabulous beasts, Nursery and jocular, Ghosts, Fables and animal tales, Giants and strong men, Historical, Saints and devils, and finally Enchantment.
This book constitutes a grand survey of this genre! Many to be reread from time to time for the sheer enjoyment of the folk tale printed in this handsome edition. Some remain cast in somewhat archaic language, a product of the source and time from which the tale was recorded. One needs to know some medieval history of Britain so the personal names and place will provide meaning to one reading it today in a far distant country. Yet the editor probably retained the old voice so as to convey the old primitive context within which the tales were passed on from generation to generation.
A beautifully packaged book published 1985 by the Folio Society of England - cover outstanding, wood-engravings by Hannah Firmin serve as chapter headings are super, and the select ion of tales is varied and very engaging.
September 12, 2013
How anyone can suck the life out of good, well known tales I do not know. But here it is. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes this collection fall so short: The writing is not technically bad, and the stories are at least told, but I find myself at the end of a tale thinking, "What?" as if it never actually happened. That's probably the most magical thing that happened while reading this.
June 23, 2014
I quite liked this collection of stories. Some of them were more interesting than others, and I would have liked an indication at the beginning of the story as to where it was from (but that was given in the contents, so not impossible to find out, just more effort). I also found the introduction to the section by the author/editor(?)quite handy.
February 12, 2013
Nice cross-section of British folktales - some I already knew, others I'd never heard of. Some in dialect, others not. Not just Great Britain but every isle from the Shetlands to Jersey. Nice collection if you can find it.
September 1, 2013
ok myths/legends book
December 18, 2013
Another of those folk tale type books I keep handy to read a few stories when I need a little bit of light reading.
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April 28, 2015gjnn
July 27, 2011
I liked this.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews