TY - BOOK ID - 77903558 TI - Children into swans : fairy tales and the pagan imagination PY - 2014 SN - 077359616X 9780773543942 0773543945 9780773596160 9780773596177 0773596178 PB - Montreal, Quebec : McGill-Queen's University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Fairy tales KW - Fairytales KW - Children's stories KW - Tales KW - History and criticism. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:77903558 AB - Fairy tales are alive with the supernatural - elves, dwarfs, fairies, giants, and trolls, as well as witches with magic wands and sorcerers who cast spells and enchantments. Children into Swans examines these motifs in a range of ancient stories. Moving from the rich period of nineteenth-century fairy tales back as far as the earliest folk literature of northern Europe, Jan Beveridge shows how long these supernatural features have been a part of storytelling, with ancient tales, many from Celtic and Norse mythology, that offer glimpses into a remote era and a pre-Christian sensibility. The earliest stories often show significant differences from what we might expect. Elves mingle with Norse gods, dwarfs belong to a proud clan of magician-smiths, and fairies are shape-shifters emerging from the hills and the sea mist. In story traditions with roots in a pre-Christian imagination, an invisible other world exists alongside our own. From the lost cultures of a thousand years ago, Children into Swans opens the door on some of the most extraordinary worlds ever portrayed in literature - worlds that are both starkly beautiful and full of horrors. ER -