Author: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-06-15

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 9781330307519

Excerpt from Story Telling to Children From Norse Mythology and the Nibelungenlied The myths of our northern ancestors, garnered from Iceland, offer us a wealth of material for stories, which are eagerly listened to by children. The dramatic possibilities of these tales, once told by Norse grandmothers during the "long nights," or sung by wandering scalds, are an inspiration to the story teller. Moreover, these stories hold the seeds of our Germanic civilization: justice, order and unity. They are the thought of a people who could foreshadow, in Ragnarok (The twilight of the gods), an end to their own religious beliefs - an end to things which had served their purpose. The ethical teaching of these stories is not subtle, but deep and strong. The struggles of good with evil, the punishment of evil, and the triumph of good are drawn with strong lights and shadows, and with a simple dignity which appeals to children. The dramatic action and poetic setting reveal the sturdy Norse race dependent on the sword for sustenance, living among the phenomena of the frozen north, where nature is full of mysterious suggestion. For the wonder-loving children the stories teem with frost-giants, light-elves and elves of darkness, dwarfs and hideous monsters, as well as gods and goddesses, dauntless heroes, and strong, fierce women. In outlining a course of Norse hero tales, a welding of those from the Volsunga saga and the Nibelungenlied is desirable. In the Volsunga saga, Brynhild appears in all the glory of her shield-hung castle where "Without all around it Sweeps the red flame aloft," while in the Nibelungenlied the northern lights die down and chivalry is predominant. Wagner drew much of his material for the Nibelungen ring from the Volsunga saga, but preserved the chivalry of the Nibelungenlied, and used as the main thread of his plot the tragedy of the gods as told in the Elder edda. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.