'Lisa Tuttle is a subtle and clever writer whose fantasy deals with the world we all believe we have sensed from time to time out of the corners of our eyes.' Michael Moorcock Appleton is a small town nestled on the coast of Scotland. Though it was once famous for the apples it produced, these days it's a shadow of its former self. But in a hidden orchard a golden apple dangles from a silver bough, an apple believed lost for ever. The apple is part of a legend, promising either eternal happiness to the young couple who eat from it secure in their love - or a curse, for those who take its gift for granted. Now, as the town teeters on the edge of decline, the old rituals have been forgotten and the mists are rolling in. And in the mist, something is stirring . . .
The Silver Bough is an indispensable treasury of Scottish culture, universally acknowledged as a classic of literature. The author, F Marian McNeill, succeeded in capturing and bringing to life many traditions and customs of old before they died out or were influenced by the modern era. The Silver Branch of the sacred apple tree, laden with crystal blossoms of golden fruit, is in Celtic mythology the equivalent of the Golden Bough of classical mythology - the symbolic bond between the world we know and the Otherworld.This, the first volume of The Silver Bough, deals with Scottish folklore and folk-belief. There are chapters on the ethnic origins of the national festivals, the Druids, the Celtic gods, and the slow transition from Druidism to Christianity. There are accounts of magic, the fairy faith, second sight, selkies, changelings and the witch cult, including tales of "e;witches"e; being hung, or worse. There are old familiar rhymes and a wealth of information on the Scotland of old, now gone for ever, where the people feared witches and "e;faeries"e;. Readers are bound to find something fascinating about somewhere in Scotland they didn't know before. The book is attractively illustrated, with many interesting relics reproduced for the first time, including a witch's cursing bone, hair rope and corp creadh (clay image) and some well-known amulets and charms. The subsequent three volumes deal with the origins and traditions of Scottish national and local festivals. As man makes greater and greater advances in the understanding and control of his physical environment, the river between the known and the unknown gradually changes its course, and the subjects of the simpler beliefs of former times become part of the new territory of knowledge. The Silver Bough maps out the old course of the waterway that in Celtic belief winds between here and beyond, and reveals the very roots of the Scottish people's distinctive customs and way of life. 1938 character count(extra section to be added where possible)The Silver Bough is a large and important work which involved many years of research into both living and recorded lore. Its genesis lies, perhaps, in the author's subconscious need to reconcile the old primitive world she had glimpsed in childhood with the sophisticated modern world she later entered. "e;I do not believe that you can exaggerate the importance of the preservation of old ways and customs, and all those little things which bind a man to his native place. Today we live in difficult times. The steam-roller of progress is flattening out many of our old institutions, and there is a danger of a general decline in idiom and distinctive quality in our Scottish life. The only way to counteract this peril is to preserve jealously all these elder things which are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. For, remember, no man can face the future with courage and confidence unless it is solidly founded upon the past. And conversely, no problem will be too hard, no situation too strange, if we can link it with what we know and love"e; F Marian McNeill
In The Golden Thread, there are 14 unique tales: from Raven the Lightbringer to Odin, and The Lindworm Prince to The Sun Maiden. Each chapter braids the visible with the invisible, a diverse tapestry of folklore, symbolism, alchemy, psychology and shamanism. The Golden Thread traverses the landscape of imagination and the borderlands of our own lives; those threshold moments of love and loss. It aims to show us in a time of great upheaval, how cosmic, seasonal, and ancestral patterns can help root and connect us. While myth, a vital and steadfast guide, weaves its way throughout.
Winner of the World Fantasy Award: New twists on classic fairy tales from Neil Gaiman, Patricia Briggs, Robin McKinley, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and more. Long ago, when we were children, our dreams were inspired by the fairy tales we heard at our mothers’ and grandmothers’ knees—stories of princesses and princes and witches and wondrous enchantments, by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, and from the pages of 1001 Arabian Nights. But, as World Fantasy Award–winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling remind us, these stories were often tamed and sanitized versions. The originals were frequently darker—and in Silver Birch, Blood Moon, they turn darker still. Twenty-one modern Grimms and Andersens—masterful storytellers including Neil Gaiman, Nancy Kress, and Tanith Lee—now reinvent beloved bedtime stories for our time. The Sea Witch gets her say, relating the story of “The Little Mermaid” from her own point of view. “Thumbelina” becomes a tale of creeping horror, while a delightfully naughty spin is put on “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Author Caitlín R. Kiernan transports Snow White to a dark, gritty, industrial urban setting, and Patricia Briggs details “The Price” of dealing with a royal and unrepentantly evil Rumpelstiltskin. Rich, provocative, and unabashedly adult, each of these tales is a modern treasure, reminding us that wishes have consequences and not all genies have our best interests at heart.
The Silver Darlings is a tale of lives hard won from a cruel sea and crueller landlords. It tells of strong young men and stronger women whose loves, fears and sorrows are set deep in a landscape of raw beauty and bleak reward. The dawning of the Herring Fisheries brought with it the hope of escape from the brutality of the Highland Clearances, and Neil Gunn's story paints a vivid picture of a community fighting against nature and history and refusing to be crushed.
Everything seemed to fall apart for Ty when his parents got a divorce. At his wits end after being bullied endlessly, he started to ditch school. It wasn't until he met up with a skater named Peacock that things somehow turned around and he put the pieces of his life back together.
A marvellous and indispensible treasury of Scottish folklore and folk belief from the world of Celtic magic, gods and fairies, to the prophesies of the Brahan seer, second sight, witchcraft, earth magic, selkies, changelings and a host of traditional spells and cures. The Silver Bough involved many years of research into both living and recorded folklore, and remains a classic of literature.
