Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1639362290
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.
Looking for the Hidden Folk
Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1639362290
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1639362290
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.
The Little Book of the Hidden People
Author: Alda Sigmundsdóttir
Publisher: Little Books Publishing
ISBN: 1970125209
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Icelandic folklore is rife with tales of elves and hidden people that inhabited hills and rocks in the landscape. But what do those elf stories really tell us about the Iceland of old and the people who lived there? In this book, author Alda Sigmundsdóttir presents twenty translated elf stories from Icelandic folklore, along with fascinating notes on the context from which they sprung. The international media has had a particular infatuation with the Icelanders’ elf belief, generally using it to propagate some kind of “kooky Icelanders” myth. Yet Iceland’s elf folklore, at its core, reflects the plight of a nation living in abject poverty on the edge of the inhabitable world, and its people’s heroic efforts to survive, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That is what the stories of the elves, or hidden people, are really about. In a country that was, at times, virtually uninhabitable, where poverty was endemic and death and grief a part of daily life, the Icelanders nurtured a belief in a world that existed parallel to their own. This was the world of the hidden people, which more often than not was a projection of the most fervent dreams and desires of the human population. The hidden people lived inside hillocks, cliffs, or boulders, very close to the abodes of the humans. Their homes were furnished with fine, sumptuous objects. Their clothes were luxurious, their adornments beautiful. Their livestock was better and fatter, their sheep yielded more wool than regular sheep, their crops were more bounteous. They even had supernatural powers: they could make themselves visible or invisible at will, and they could see the future. To the Icelanders, stories of elves and hidden people are an integral part of the cultural and psychological fabric of their nation. They are a part of their identity, a reflection of the struggles, hopes, resilience, and endurance of their people. What you will read about in The Little Book of the Hidden People: • The fascination in the international media: why are they so obsessed with elves? • The meaning of elf: what do hidden people stories tell us about the psyche of the Icelanders of old? • The elves' badassery—they could make or break your fortune so you’d better be nice! • The ljúflingar ... hidden men who became the lovers of mortal women • Glamorous and regal: why were the elves so damn good-looking? • The grim realities: what do scholars believe about all those children abducted by elves? ... and so much more!
Publisher: Little Books Publishing
ISBN: 1970125209
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 100
Book Description
Icelandic folklore is rife with tales of elves and hidden people that inhabited hills and rocks in the landscape. But what do those elf stories really tell us about the Iceland of old and the people who lived there? In this book, author Alda Sigmundsdóttir presents twenty translated elf stories from Icelandic folklore, along with fascinating notes on the context from which they sprung. The international media has had a particular infatuation with the Icelanders’ elf belief, generally using it to propagate some kind of “kooky Icelanders” myth. Yet Iceland’s elf folklore, at its core, reflects the plight of a nation living in abject poverty on the edge of the inhabitable world, and its people’s heroic efforts to survive, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. That is what the stories of the elves, or hidden people, are really about. In a country that was, at times, virtually uninhabitable, where poverty was endemic and death and grief a part of daily life, the Icelanders nurtured a belief in a world that existed parallel to their own. This was the world of the hidden people, which more often than not was a projection of the most fervent dreams and desires of the human population. The hidden people lived inside hillocks, cliffs, or boulders, very close to the abodes of the humans. Their homes were furnished with fine, sumptuous objects. Their clothes were luxurious, their adornments beautiful. Their livestock was better and fatter, their sheep yielded more wool than regular sheep, their crops were more bounteous. They even had supernatural powers: they could make themselves visible or invisible at will, and they could see the future. To the Icelanders, stories of elves and hidden people are an integral part of the cultural and psychological fabric of their nation. They are a part of their identity, a reflection of the struggles, hopes, resilience, and endurance of their people. What you will read about in The Little Book of the Hidden People: • The fascination in the international media: why are they so obsessed with elves? • The meaning of elf: what do hidden people stories tell us about the psyche of the Icelanders of old? • The elves' badassery—they could make or break your fortune so you’d better be nice! • The ljúflingar ... hidden men who became the lovers of mortal women • Glamorous and regal: why were the elves so damn good-looking? • The grim realities: what do scholars believe about all those children abducted by elves? ... and so much more!
Song of the Vikings
Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1137073713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229
Book Description
“A wonderfully evocative biography of the . . . 13th century Icelandic writer and chieftain” who wrote the immortal stories of Thor, Odin, Valhalla, and Ragnarök (Guardian, UK). Much like Greek and Roman mythology, Norse myths are still with us. Famous storytellers from JRR Tolkien to Neil Gaiman have drawn their inspiration from the long-haired, mead-drinking, marauding and pillaging Vikings. But few of us know much about the creator of these immortal heroes: a thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain by the name of Snorri Sturluson. Like Homer, Snorri was a bard, writing down and embellishing the folklore and pagan legends of medieval Scandinavia. Unlike Homer, Snorri was a man of the world—a wily political power player, one of the richest men in Iceland who came close to ruling it, and even closer to betraying it. In Song of the Vikings, award-winning author Nancy Marie Brown brings Snorri Sturluson’s story to life in a richly textured narrative that draws on newly available sources.
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1137073713
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 229
Book Description
“A wonderfully evocative biography of the . . . 13th century Icelandic writer and chieftain” who wrote the immortal stories of Thor, Odin, Valhalla, and Ragnarök (Guardian, UK). Much like Greek and Roman mythology, Norse myths are still with us. Famous storytellers from JRR Tolkien to Neil Gaiman have drawn their inspiration from the long-haired, mead-drinking, marauding and pillaging Vikings. But few of us know much about the creator of these immortal heroes: a thirteenth-century Icelandic chieftain by the name of Snorri Sturluson. Like Homer, Snorri was a bard, writing down and embellishing the folklore and pagan legends of medieval Scandinavia. Unlike Homer, Snorri was a man of the world—a wily political power player, one of the richest men in Iceland who came close to ruling it, and even closer to betraying it. In Song of the Vikings, award-winning author Nancy Marie Brown brings Snorri Sturluson’s story to life in a richly textured narrative that draws on newly available sources.
Icelandic Folktales and Legends
Author: Jacqueline Simpson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520021167
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
A translated selection devoted to supernatural beings, ghosts, and magic practices.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520021167
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 224
Book Description
A translated selection devoted to supernatural beings, ghosts, and magic practices.
A Good Horse Has No Color
Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811707046
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
After several visits to study Icelandic sagas, Nancy Brown returns to Iceland to search for the perfect Icelandic horse, one she can bring back to her Pennsylvania farm and make her own. To do so, she must become part of the country's tightly knit horse-breeding community, which can be wary of outsiders and extremely protective of the world-famous breed. In this clear-eyed, evocative account set against Iceland's austere and majestic landscape, she describes what makes Icelandic horses and their owners so distinctive. She also discovers her limitations as a horsewoman and learns much about what she is looking for-in a horse and in her life.
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811707046
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
After several visits to study Icelandic sagas, Nancy Brown returns to Iceland to search for the perfect Icelandic horse, one she can bring back to her Pennsylvania farm and make her own. To do so, she must become part of the country's tightly knit horse-breeding community, which can be wary of outsiders and extremely protective of the world-famous breed. In this clear-eyed, evocative account set against Iceland's austere and majestic landscape, she describes what makes Icelandic horses and their owners so distinctive. She also discovers her limitations as a horsewoman and learns much about what she is looking for-in a horse and in her life.
Tales of the elves : icelandic folktales for children
Author: Anna Kristín Ásbjörnsdóttir
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789979788805
Category : Elves
Languages : en
Pages : 34
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789979788805
Category : Elves
Languages : en
Pages : 34
Book Description
The Shadow of Malabron
Author: Thomas Wharton
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 0307374556
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Malabron the Night King seeks to turn all stories into one – his story, a nightmare of absolute power. When Will Lightfoot, a rebellious teenager, stumbles into the Perilous Realm where all stories come from, he is unwillingly caught up in the struggle against this ancient evil. Aided by some of the Storyfolk – including the feisty Rowen, her grandfather, Pendrake the loremaster, Finn Madoc, a knight-in-training, and Shade, the wise and loyal wolf – Will must set out on a dangerous journey and face a host of perils if he is ever to find the gateless gate that will take him home. This is high fantasy on a grand scale, which imaginatively intertwines well-known stories with Will’s quest to weave an unforgettable adventure.
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 0307374556
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
Malabron the Night King seeks to turn all stories into one – his story, a nightmare of absolute power. When Will Lightfoot, a rebellious teenager, stumbles into the Perilous Realm where all stories come from, he is unwillingly caught up in the struggle against this ancient evil. Aided by some of the Storyfolk – including the feisty Rowen, her grandfather, Pendrake the loremaster, Finn Madoc, a knight-in-training, and Shade, the wise and loyal wolf – Will must set out on a dangerous journey and face a host of perils if he is ever to find the gateless gate that will take him home. This is high fantasy on a grand scale, which imaginatively intertwines well-known stories with Will’s quest to weave an unforgettable adventure.
The Hidden Folk
Author: Lise Lunge-Larsen
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0618174958
Category : Dwarfs
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Book Description
Selkies, fairies, gnomes, hill folk, river sprites--do you believe in them? Perhaps among the flowers, beside a mountain, or near deep waters you’ve caught a glimpse, once or twice, of what you thought might be the silvery shadow of a dwarf, or a hint of a fairy’s wing, or the tail of the water horse. Or was it just the odd light of dusk or dawn playing tricks? As Lise Lunge-Larsen’s magical, timeless stories reveal and Beth Krommes’s enchanting scratchboard illustrations capture, the hidden folk are there, all right: you just have to know where--and how--to look.
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0618174958
Category : Dwarfs
Languages : en
Pages : 84
Book Description
Selkies, fairies, gnomes, hill folk, river sprites--do you believe in them? Perhaps among the flowers, beside a mountain, or near deep waters you’ve caught a glimpse, once or twice, of what you thought might be the silvery shadow of a dwarf, or a hint of a fairy’s wing, or the tail of the water horse. Or was it just the odd light of dusk or dawn playing tricks? As Lise Lunge-Larsen’s magical, timeless stories reveal and Beth Krommes’s enchanting scratchboard illustrations capture, the hidden folk are there, all right: you just have to know where--and how--to look.
The Young Folk's Cyclopædia of Games and Sports
Author: John Denison Champlin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Games
Languages : en
Pages : 916
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Games
Languages : en
Pages : 916
Book Description
The Hidden People
Author: Alison Littlewood
Publisher: Arcadia
ISBN: 1848669917
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
A chilling Gothic mystery from the bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club hit The Cold Season, perfect for fans of Susan Hill, The Coffin Path and The Silent Companions - where superstition and myth bleed into real life with tragic consequences. 'The twist is brilliant' Daily Mail 'Intriguing and unsettling' Sunday Express Pretty Lizzie Higgs is gone, burned to death on her own hearth - but was she really a changeling, as her husband insists? Albie Mirralls met his cousin only once, in 1851, within the grand glass arches of the Crystal Palace, but unable to countenance the rumours that surround her murder, he leaves his young wife in London and travels to Halfoak, a village steeped in superstition. Albie begins to look into Lizzie's death, but in this place where the old tales hold sway and the 'Hidden People' supposedly roam, answers are slippery and further tragedy is just a step away. 'A skilful blend of the supernatural and the psychological . . . If you enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and the Woman in Black by Susan Hill, this is one for you' Mature Times
Publisher: Arcadia
ISBN: 1848669917
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
A chilling Gothic mystery from the bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club hit The Cold Season, perfect for fans of Susan Hill, The Coffin Path and The Silent Companions - where superstition and myth bleed into real life with tragic consequences. 'The twist is brilliant' Daily Mail 'Intriguing and unsettling' Sunday Express Pretty Lizzie Higgs is gone, burned to death on her own hearth - but was she really a changeling, as her husband insists? Albie Mirralls met his cousin only once, in 1851, within the grand glass arches of the Crystal Palace, but unable to countenance the rumours that surround her murder, he leaves his young wife in London and travels to Halfoak, a village steeped in superstition. Albie begins to look into Lizzie's death, but in this place where the old tales hold sway and the 'Hidden People' supposedly roam, answers are slippery and further tragedy is just a step away. 'A skilful blend of the supernatural and the psychological . . . If you enjoyed Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and the Woman in Black by Susan Hill, this is one for you' Mature Times