Tag: folklore

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Heart of Winter – Shona Kinsella

ramblingmads

Brigit is a young woman living in a Scotland still ruled by tribes and largely Pagan.
As Christianity is beginning to find a foothold, Brigit pays lip service to the church, but truly venerates the old gods. She does not support the changing position of women through the teachings of the
church.
A cool, damp summer and an early winter threaten the harvest. A harsh winter means starvation, so the elders of Brigit’s village panic. They petition Aengus, the god of summer, to protect them. He agrees on the condition that they provide him with a bride. He chooses Brigit and the deal is made without her knowledge or consent.
When Brigit learns of this arrangement, she flees into the Highlands to seek out the Cailleach, the goddess of winter. The Cailleach is uninterested in Brigit’s plight; humans have hated and feared her for generations, and she is tired of their complaining.
Brigit is not discouraged. She sets up camp outside the Cailleach’s cave and makes offerings to the Winter Queen every day. Aengus comes looking for his bride but cannot approach the cave because he and the Cailleach are opposites.
Caught between two gods and finding an unlikely ally in the Fae witch, Nicnevin, Brigit will be tested to her limits and beyond.


Scottish fantasy author Shona Kinsella is the author of The Heart of Winter, The Vessel of KalaDene series, dark Scottish fantasy novella Petra MacDonald and the Queen of the Fae, British Fantasy Award shortlisted industrial novella The Flame and the Flood, and non-fiction Outlander and the Real Jacobites: Scotland’s Fight for the Stuarts. Her short fiction can be found
in various magazines and anthologies. She served as editor of the British Fantasy Society’s fiction publication, BFS Horizons for four years and is now the Chair of the British Fantasy Society.
Shona lives near the picturesque banks of Loch Lomond with her husband and three children.
She enjoys reading, nature walks, and spending time with her family. When she is not writing, doing laundry, or wrangling children, she can usually be found with her nose in a book.
Website  TwiX Instagram

My thoughts: inspired by Celtic folklore, this is the story of a young woman who is determined to choose her own path, and flees the Summer god Aengus for the winter, Cailleach, hoping the opposite god can help her.

Brigit just wants to be free of the agreement her village elders made binding her to Aengus in return for a good harvest. But the Cailleach isn’t really interested in helping a human. Until she has no choice unless she’s willing to let Brigit die.

This sets in motion a change that will affect Brigit, Cailleach and Aengus, and change the way they govern the seasons.

A beautiful and enchanting tale of gods, different kinds of love and finding your own path.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Summer Fishing in Lapland – Juhani Karila, translated by Lola Rogers

ramblingmads

When Elina makes her annual summer pilgrimage to her remote family farm in Lapland, she has three days to catch the pike in a local pond, or she and the love of her life will both die. This year her task is made even more difficult by the intervention of a host of deadly supernatural creatures and a murder detective on her tail.

Can Elina catch the pike and put to rest the curse that has been hanging over her head ever since a youthful love affair turned sour? Can Sergeant Janatuinen make it back to civilisation in one piece? And just why is Lapland in summer so weird?

Summer Fishing in Lapland is an audacious, genre-defying blend of fantasy, folk tale and nature writing.

Juhani Karila (b. 1985) is an award-winning journalist and an author who was born and raised in Finnish Lapland. Summer Fishing in Lapland is his debut novel. It was published in 2019, winning widespread acclaim and numerous prizes in Finland, and is being translated into 13 languages around the world.

Lola Rogers is a full-time literary translator living in Seattle. Her published translations include works by Sofi Oksanen, Riikka Pulkkinen and Antti Tuomainen. Her translation of Oksanen’s novel Purge was chosen as a best book of 2010 by The Sunday Times and several other publications. She has also contributed translations of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to numerous journals and anthologies.

My thoughts: this is not an easy book to define, featuring as it does a whole host of otherworldly creatures, curses, a detective, witches, a pike that somehow seems to regenerate, and other weirdness near the Arctic Circle. Lapland is part of Finland and the home of the Sami people, although none of the characters in this book are Sami, who might be further away with the reindeer they herd, which considering the goings on, is probably for the best.

This small town is very strange and the locals are just part of it. They live quite happily alongside things like the raskals, bear or dog like monsters, although the one we meet is very friendly and called Musti. He adopts the cop, or she adopts him, I’m not sure.

Theres the knacky, that won’t let Elina have the pike from the pond, and Slabber Olli, a sort of ghost/monster made out of trees and earth. I don’t know a huge amount about Finnish folklore to know whether these are regular creatures in the Arctic or not. There’s also a guest appearance by a bad dream that Sandman fans might recognise, it certainly made me say “oh, wait!”

I really enjoyed this book, weirdness and all. I love a good mash up of “reality” and the older, somewhat forgotten stuff. Our ancestors believed in all sorts of creatures, good or otherwise, that lived alongside us, maybe they still do in some places.

It’s also a break up/love story as Elina is still trying to get over her ex, and getting the pike out of the pond is what she thinks she needs to do to break a curse on them both. But things aren’t quite as she presents them and if her witchy neighbour Asko could remember where he is for five minutes and help her, she might be ok.

Funny, strange and somewhat profound in places, this is an enjoyable and entertaining read.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Tales From Beyond the Rainbow – Pete Jordi Wood

ramblingmads

Ten captivating stories of adventure and resilience celebrating LGBTQ+ characters, published as an illustrated collection of queer classics for the first time.

These are the fairy tales that history forgot – or concealed. Tales in which gender is fluid and where queer stories can have a happy ending.

From the humble sailor who finds his handsome prince to the transgender market girl who becomes queen, from Europe to Asia via the African savannah, LGBTQ+ folklore researcher Pete Jordi Wood has combed through generations of history and adapted ten unforgettable stories, each illustrated by an artist who shares heritage with the culture from which the stories were born.

Pete Jordi Wood (he/him) is a British author, illustrator and screenwriter from Cornwall, U.K. Pete has written original drama for Channel 4 and the BBC and was a recipient of The John Brabourne Award from the Film and Television Charity. He describes himself as a ‘fairy tale detective’ who has dedicated himself to the academic study of queer folk tales, myths and legends.

My thoughts: what a great book to start Pride Month off with, ten stories from around the world collected here in this beautiful book. Each story has an LGBTQ+ protagonist and they’re illustrated too.

From modern day Benin (then the Kingdom of Dahomey) to Russia, China, India and beyond, these are traditional tales featuring characters that are either explicitly Queer or could be read as such.

Modernising the language but not altering the content, making them more accessible for younger readers as well as folklorists means this is a collection that could sit easily alongside a collection of Grimm tales on either a child’s shelf or a researchers. Or just someone like me, who loves fairy tales and folklore (and ok, I do have an academic background in this) but any reader would find these enchanting.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Foxfire, Wolfskin & Other Stories of Shapeshifting Women – Sharon Blackie*

ramblingmads

Charged with drama and beauty, this memorable collection by a master storyteller weaves a magical world of possibility and power from female myths of physical renewal, creation and change. It is an extraordinary immersion into the bodies and voices, mindscapes and landscapes, of the shape-shifting women of our native folklore. We meet the Water Horse of the Isle of Lewis, the huldra, the Scandinavian supernatural forest-dweller, and Baba Yaga of Slavic folklore (but will she help you or kill you?) Here too is the Snow Queen; the wild bird-woman of the Sliabh Mis Mountains; Blodeuedd, the Welsh ‘flower-faced’ woman.

Drawing on myth and fairy tales found across Europe – from Croatia to Sweden, Ireland to Russia – Sharon Blackie brings to life women’s remarkable ability to transform themselves in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. These stories are about coming to terms with our animal natures, exploring the ways in which we might renegotiate our fractured relationship with the natural world, and uncovering the wildness – and wilderness – within.


Dr Sharon Blackie is a writer, mythologist and psychologist, and an internationally recognised teacher of the mythic imagination. Her bestselling book, If Women Rose Rooted, won a 2016 Nautilus award, and laid out a haunting heroine’s journey for every woman who finds power, inspiration and solace in the natural world. She has an international following through her online communities, and the courses and workshops she offers through ‘The Hedge School’. Her first novel, The Long Delirious Blue, was described by the Independent on Sunday as ‘hugely potent’. She lives in Connemara, Ireland.

Website

Illustration from Foxfire…

My thoughts:

As someone who has studied folklore and fairy tales I was thrilled to be asked to review this fascinating volume.

Containing retellings of myths of selkies, huldafolk and faerie, drawn from folk tales hailing from Scandanavia, Western Europe Ireland and the British Isles, Blackie weaves a magical spell, empowering the often silent female characters of these tales; giving them voices and a chance to right the wrongs done to them.

I was familiar with a large number of these tales previous forms but a few were less so, which I think makes the book much more interesting. The blend of strange and familiar, old and new.

Blackie is an accomplished writer and it shows, even in such slight tales as these, the writing is rich and the characters empathetic and powerful.

She draws on the rich tradition of shape shifters in literature, which stretches across oceans, often women whose power is stolen from them along with their true form. By giving them voices she is giving them back their power and they take back their true shapes.

Women are shape shifters in real life too; flowing between forms all day long, between mother and daughter, professional to friend, changing our shape to fit into the world. These are definitely feminist retellings, many of the characters had no agency in their original tales, and all the better for it.

In an age where women’s strength is often dismissed we need more reminders of the power inherent in women.

*I was kindly gifted this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour but all opinions remain my own.