"In the Days of Giants" is an excellent read for everyone interested in Norse mythology and culture. It will introduce you to the magical world of Norse heroic and scheming gods, clever trolls, elves and giants. Contents: The Beginning of Things How Odin Lost His Eye Kvasir's Blood The Giant Builder The Magic Apples Skadi's Choice The Dwarf's Gifts Loki's Children The Quest of the Hammer The Giantess Who Would Not Thor's Visit to the Giants Thor's Fishing Thor's Duel In the Giant's House Balder and the Mistletoe The Punishment of Loki
"This book is made of the stories told by the Northern folk,-the people who live in the land of the midnight sun, where summer is green and pleasant, but winter is a terrible time of cold and gloom; where rocky mountains tower like huge giants, over whose heads thunder rolls and crashes, and under whose feet are mines of precious metals."--p.1-2.
This book presents individuals who have made an important contribution to tourism. Most are entrepreneurs in the classic sense, but others are individuals who have had unintentional subsequent effects on tourism through their actions. The book is arranged in four parts: (i) giants of hospitality (chapters 1-5); (ii) giants of travel (chapters 6-10); (iii) giants of activities (chapters 11-14); and (iv) giants of development (chapters 15-19).
The oldest stories of every race of people tell about the Beginning of Things. But the various folk who first told them were so very different, the tales are so very old, and have changed so greatly in the telling from one generation to another, that there are almost as many accounts of the way in which the world began as there are nations upon the earth. So it is not strange that the people of the North have a legend of the Beginning quite different from that of the Southern, Eastern, and Western folk. This book is made of the stories told by the Northern folk,—the people who live in the land of the midnight sun, where summer is green and pleasant, but winter is a terrible time of cold and gloom; where rocky mountains tower like huge giants, over whose heads the thunder rolls and crashes, and under whose feet are mines of precious metals. Therefore you will find the tales full of giants and dwarfs,—spirits of the cold mountains and dark caverns. You will find the hero to be Thor, with his thunderbolt hammer, who dwells in the happy heaven of Asgard, where All-Father Odin is king, and where Balder the beautiful makes springtime with his smile. In the north countries, winter, cold, and frost are very real and terrible enemies; while spring, sunshine, and warmth are near and dear friends. So the story of the Beginning of Things is a story of cold and heat, of the wicked giants who loved the cold, and of the good Æsir, who basked in pleasant warmth. In the very beginning of things, the stories say, there were two worlds, one of burning heat and one of icy cold. The cold world was in the north, and from it flowed Elivâgar, a river of poisonous water which hardened into ice and piled up into great mountains, filling the space which had no bottom. The other world in the south was on fire with bright flame, a place of heat most terrible. And in those days through all space there was nothing beside these two worlds of heat and cold. But then began a fierce combat. Heat and cold met and strove to destroy each other, as they have tried to do ever since. Flaming sparks from the hot world fell upon the ice river which flowed from the place of cold. And though the bright sparks were quenched, in dying they wrought mischief, as they do to-day; for they melted the ice, which dripped and dripped, like tears from the suffering world of cold. And then, wonderful to say, these chilly drops became alive; became a huge, breathing mass, a Frost-Giant with a wicked heart of ice. And he was the ancestor of all the giants who came afterwards, a bad and cruel race.
Abbie Farwell Brown (1881-1927) was the author of The Lonesomest Doll (1901), In the Land of Giants (1902), The Curious Book of Birds (1903), John of the Woods (1909) and The Christmas Angel (1910).
Stephen Hawking explains how such great men of science as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton and Einstein built on the discoveries of those who came before them, and how these works changed the course of science, ushering astronomy and physics out of the Middle Ages and into the modern world.
