Carolyne Larrington

A fresh look at the stories at the heart of Norse mythology, exploring their cultural impact right up to the present day. The heroes and villains of Norse mythology have endured for centuries, infiltrating art, opera, film, television, and books, shape-shifting—like the trickster Loki—to suit the cultures that encountered them. Through careful analysis of the literature and archaeology of the...

Who were the Norse gods - the mighty Æsyr, led by Óðinn, and the mysterious Vanir? In The Norse Myths, we meet this passionate and squabbling pantheon, and learn of the mythological cosmos they inhabit. Passages translated from the Old Norse bring this legendary world to life, from the myths of creation to Ragnarök, the prophesied end of the world...

Whether they breathe fire from above, spit poison on the land, or cause churning maelstroms in the sea, dragons can be found lurking in the margins of illuminated legend around the world. Their global ubiquity means they have many guises: primordial chaos-monsters to the ancients, wise and auspicious guardians in East Asian tradition, formidable foes to be slain by saints...

Beyond its housing estates and identikit high streets, there is another Britain. This is the Britain of mist-drenched forests and unpredictable sea-frets: of wraith-like fog banks, druidic mistletoe and peculiar creatures that lurk, half-unseen, in the undergrowth, tantalising and teasing just at the periphery of human vision. How have the remarkably persistent folkloric traditions of the British Isles formed and...

Trolls have escaped from the black lava wastes of Iceland and the dense pine forests of Scandinavia to take on a new life in the collective global imagination. They may not steal goats and eat people quite so much, but they remain disruptive and dangerous, even if their limited imaginations sometimes make them comic and even quite likeable. Emerging from...