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St George for England: songs & plays for St
George’s Day
For 800 years, St George’s Day, April 23rd, has been celebrated as an
English national holiday. This book brings together new adaptations of
traditional songs and plays in honour of England’s patron saint,
retelling the legend of how St George was born near Coventry, fought
and killed the dragon, and then married the King of Egypt’s daughter
before returning home to England with his bride.
Includes music for the songs and black-and-white illustrations
reproduced from early woodcuts.
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A Hundred Merry Tales:
The Shakespeare Jest Book
First published by John Rastell in 1524-5, the earliest English jest
book was an
acknowledged classic of Tudor literature, and was even name-checked by
Shakespeare. This new edition is the first ever to draw on all
surviving early copies, and to include the complete selection of 103
tales.
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From its
first beginnings in a world of primordial ice floes, the story of the
Viking gods is one of continual struggle against etins and monsters,
but it is a tale of humour and triumph as well as of grit and tragedy.
The Norse myths are justly famous for a host of vivid characters
including the wise and enigmatic Odin, the bluff strongman Thor, and
the incorrigible trickster Loki.
In the first major retelling for a
generation, storyteller and historian Thor Ewing rediscovers the brisk
vitality with which these ancient myths were told in the earliest
sources.
With 45 stunning b&w illustrations
inspired by Viking art.
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The
Wisdom of the Celts presents new translations from medieval
Welsh and Irish manuscripts on the theme of wisdom. On each page, a
single verse is beautifully presented, with an illuminated initial.
This collection brings together ancient
texts for the first time, in a unique combination of timeless wisdom
and sublime poetry inspired by the natural world. Texts are chosen from
proverbial lists of Threes (or ‘Triads’) found in Irish manuscripts,
and from the poems of The Red Book of Hergest (the Mabinogion
manuscript). Translations include thirty Irish Threes and three longer
Welsh sequences, Bagla6c bydin
(translated as ‘Close-set’), Gna6t
(translated as ‘Usual’) and Eiry
mynyd (translated as ‘Snow on the fells’). An Afterword looks at
the nature of Celtic poetry and art, and tackles the vexed question of
the Celts in British and Irish history.
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The Vikings
had a surprising reputation for neatness, and their fashions were
copied far beyond the realms of Scandinavia. Those who could displayed
a love of fine clothes made from silks, from lightweight worsteds in
subtly woven twills, and from the finest of linens. They wore short
hair, and their beards were carefully trimmed.
This accessible new book is the first to
tackle the question of what the Vikings wore, drawing on evidence from
art and archaeology, literature and linguistics to arrive at a fresh
understanding of the nature of Viking clothing, covering rich and poor,
men and women across Scandinavia.
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A unique
treasure trove of traditional Scottish nursery rhymes, containing more
than 100 rhymes along with their music.
All songs
are presented in regularized modern Scots spelling, with a
comprehensive Glossary as well as Notes and Introduction.
The book includes 84 vintage
black-&-white illustrations.
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