Mythology

'Burning ice, biting flame; that is how life began'The extraordinary Scandinavian myth cycle is one of the most enduring, exciting, dramatic and compelling of the world's great stories. The Penguin Book of the Norse Myths compellingly retells these stories for the modern reader, taking us from the creation of the world through the building of Asgard's Wall to the final end in Ragnarok. You'll discover how Thor got his hammer and how Odin lost his eye, the terrible price of binding the wolf Fenrir and why Loki the trickster can never be trusted. The Norse myths are as thrilling to read as they are of vast cultural and historical importance. In this gripping book Kevin Crossley-Holland brings alive the passion, cruelty and heroism of these unforgettable stories.

"I believe this is one of the best anthologies to come out in 2020." -Christi Nogle, for PseudopodIncluded on the Preliminary Ballot for the 2020 Bram Stoker Awards.Includes the story "A Deed Without a Name" by Jack Lothian, included in THE BEST HORROR OF THE YEAR VOLUME 13, edited by Ellen Datlow.THE FIENDS IN THE FURROWS II: MORE TALES OF FOLK HORROR is a collection of short stories of Folk Horror, honoring its rich and atmospheric traditions. Fans of Folk Horror will find herein more terrifying tales of rural isolation, urban alienation, suburban superstition, pastoral paranoia, as well as mindless and monstrous ritual that epitomize the atmospheric dread of this fascinating and developing subgenre.FEATURING:Alys Hobbs, "Yan"Coy Hall, "Hour of the Cat's EyeElizabeth Twist, "The Complete Compleat GardenerNeil McRobert, "A Well-Fed Man"Shawn Wallace, "The Binding Tide"Jack Lothian, "A Deed Without a Name"Hazel King, "The Hanging Tree and The Old Tom Pit"Sara Century, "The Death of a Drop of WaterKristi DeMeester, "A Ritual for Pleasure and AtonementTim Major, "The Slow King"Tracy Fahey, "Dearg-an-Daol"

WINNER OF THE ORANGE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONTHE INTERNATIONAL SENSATIONA SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Captivating' DONNA TARTT'I loved it' J K ROWLING'Ravishingly vivid' EMMA DONOGHUEGreece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their differences, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess.But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear. 'A book I could not put down' ANN PATCHETT'An exciting, sexy, violent Superman version of The Iliad' GUARDIAN'Sexy, dangerous, mystical' BETTANY HUGHES.

Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable and quiet life. His contentment is disturbed one day when the wizard, Gandalf, and the dwarves arrive to take him away on an adventure.Smaug certainly looked fast asleep, when Bilbo peeped once more from the entrance. He was just about to step out on to the floor when he casught a sudden thin ray of red from under the drooping lid of Smaug's left eye. He was only pretending to sleep! He was watching the tunnel entrance!Whisked from his comfortable hobbit-hole by Gandalf the wizard and a band of dwarves. Bilbo Baggins finds himself caught up in a plot to raid the treasure hoard of Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon...

In the Tale of The Fall of Gondolin are two of the greatest powers in the world. There is Morgoth of the uttermost evil, unseen in this story but ruling over a vast military power from his fortress of Angband. Deeply opposed to Morgoth is Ulmo, second in might only to Manwe, chief of the Valar.

Illustrated by Alan Lee. Painstakingly restored from Tolkien´s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Luthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien´s Middle-earth. The tale of Beren and Luthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J. R. R. Tolkien. Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Luthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Luthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Luthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Luthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril. In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Luthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father´s own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.

Painstakingly restored from Tolkien's manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of The Children of Hurin will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, dragons and Dwarves, eagles and Orcs, and the rich landscape and characters unique to TolkieThere are tales of Middle-earth from times long before The Lord of the Rings, and the story told in this book is set in the great country that lay beyond the Grey Havens in the West: lands where Treebeard once walked, but which were drowned in the great cataclysm that ended the First Age of the World.In that remote time Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in the vast fortress of Angband, the Hells of Iron, in the North; and the tragedy of Turin and his sister Nienor unfolded within the shadow of the fear of Angband and the war waged by Morgoth against the lands and secret cities of the Elves.Their brief and passionate lives were dominated by the elemental hatred that Morgoth bore them as the children of Hurin, the man who had dared to defy and to scorn him to his face. Against them he sent his most formidable servant, Glaurung, a powerful spirit in the form of a huge wingless dragon of fire. Into this story of brutal conquest and flight, of forest hiding-places and pursuit, of resistance with lessening hope, the Dark Lord and the Dragon enter in direly articulate form. Sardonic and mocking, Glaurung manipulated the fates of Turin and Nienor by lies of diabolic cunning and guile, and the curse of Morgoth was fulfilled.The earliest versions of this story by J.R.R. Tolkien go back to the end of the First World War and the years that followed; but long afterwards, when The Lord of the Rings was finished, he wrote it anew and greatly enlarged it in complexities of motive and character: it became the dominant story in his later work on Middle-earth. But he could not bring it to a final and finished form. In this book Christopher Tolkien has constructed, after long study of the manuscripts, a coherent narrative without any editorial invention.

Designed to take fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings deeper into the myths and legends of Middle-earth The Silmarillion is an account of the Elder Days, of the First Age of Tolkien's world. It is the ancient drama to which the characters in The Lord of the Rings look back, and in whose events some of them such as Elrond and Galadriel took part. The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-Earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Included in the book are several shorter works. The Ainulindale is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabeth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Numenor at the end of the Second Age and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age, as narrated in The Lord of the Rings. This pivotal work features the revised, corrected text and includes, by way of an introduction, a fascinating letter written by Tolkien in 1951 in which he gives a full explanation of how he conceived the early Ages of Middle-earth.

A dark contemporary romance from viral BookTok and USA Today bestselling author Emily McIntire, featuring reimagined characters from popular fairy tales and other stories.***He wants revenge, but he wants her more...James has always had one agenda: destroy his enemy, Peter Michaels. When Peter's twenty-year-old daughter Wendy shows up in James's bar, he sees his way in. Seduce the girl and use her for his revenge.It's the perfect plan-until things in James's organisation begin to crumble. Suddenly, he has to find the traitor in his midst, and his plan for revenge gets murkier as James starts to see Wendy as more than just a pawn in his game.Wendy has been cloistered away most of her life by her wealthy and cold father, but a spontaneous night out with friends turns into an intense and addictive love affair with the dark and brooding James. As much as she knows James is dangerous, Wendy can't seem to shake her desire for him.But as their relationship grows more heated and she learns more about the world he moves in, she finds herself unsure if she's falling for the man known as James...or the monster known as Hook.Hooked joins the Never After series as a dark and sexy reimagining of a classic tale, twisting it into an enticing new shape for mature readers.TropesFractured Fairy TaleMafia RomanceEnemies to LoversAge Gap RomanceForbidden LoveDark RomanceSpicy RomanceTouch Her and DieThe Never After Series:HookedScarredWretchedTwistedCrossedHexed

THE ODYSSEY retold by Geraldine McCaughrean is the epic journey of Odysseus, the hero of Ancient Greece...After ten years of war, Odysseus turns his back on Troy and sets sail for home. But his voyage takes another ten years and he must face many dangers - Polyphemus the greedy one-eyed giant, Scylla the six-headed sea monster and even the wrath of the gods themselves - before he is reunited with his wife and son.The Puffin Classics relaunch includes:A Little PrincessAlice's Adventures in WonderlandAlice's Adventures Through the Looking GlassAnne of Green GablesBlack BeautyHans Andersen's Fairy TalesHeidiJourney to the Centre of the EarthLittle WomenPeter PanTales of the Greek HeroesThe Adventures of Huckleberry FinnThe Adventures of King ArthurThe Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Call of the WildThe Jungle BookThe OdysseyThe Secret GardenThe Wind in the WillowsThe Wizard of OzTreasure Island

Continuing the story begun in The Hobbit, this is the first part of Tolkien's epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Sauron, the Dark Lord, has gathered to him all the Rings of Power - the means by which he intends to rule Middle-earth. All he lacks in his plans for dominion is the One Ring - the ring that rules them all - which has fallen into the hands of the hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.

Taking in the vineyards of New Zealand and the majestic landscape of Ireland, &i>The Story of the Missing Sister &/i>is the seventh instalment in Lucinda Rileys multimillion-selling epic series, The Seven Sisters, but its not the last . . .

The complete series of Father Christmas letters written by JRR Tolkien for his own children between 1920 and 1943. Can you imagine writing to Father Christmas and actually getting a reply? Every year, the children of J.R.R. Tolkien would write to Father Christmas, and the letters they received told wonderful stories of his adventures at the North Pole. These humorous tales are brought to life by Derek Jacobi as Father Christmas, John Moffatt as Polar Bear, and Christian Rodska as Ilbereth the Elf, complete with specially composed music.

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial new epic of love, faith and medicine, set in Kerala, South India.

Zhu journeys from peasant girl to rebel commander in this powerful coming-of-age tale of war and empire. Lush and subversive, this is an alternate history of Mongol-occupied China in the vein of Madeline Miller's Circe and Mulan.

A feminist retelling of the Trojan War - giving voices to the women the myths forgot . . .

Building on the story begun in The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, this is the second part of Tolkien's epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. Frodo and the Companions of the Ring have been beset by danger during their quest to prevent the Ruling Ring from falling into the hands of the Dark Lord by destroying it in the Cracks of Doom. They have lost the wizard, Gandalf, in the battle with an evil spirit in the Mines of Moria; and at the Falls of Rauros, Boromir, seduced by the power of the Ring, tried to seize it by force. While Frodo and Sam made their escape the rest of the company were attacked by Orcs. Now they continue their journey alone down the great River Anduin - alone, that is, save for the mysterious creeping figure that follows wherever they go.

Concluding the story begun in The Hobbit, this is the final part of Tolkien's epic masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings. The armies of the Dark Lord Sauron are massing as his evil shadow spreads ever wider. Men, Dwarves, Elves and Ents unite forces to do battle agains the Dark. Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam struggle further into Mordor in their heroic quest to destroy the One Ring. The devastating conclusion of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic tale of magic and adventure, begun in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, features the definitive audio recording of the complete tale - including Appendix A - all of which is expertly read by Rob Inglis.

A dark contemporary romance from viral BookTok and USA Today bestselling author Emily McIntire, featuring reimagined characters from popular fairy tales and other stories.***She doesn't belong to him...she belongs to the crown.Prince Tristan Faasa was never destined for the throne. That was always his brother, Michael. The same brother responsible for both Tristan's tormented childhood and the scar that mars his face.When their father dies, Michael is set to assume the throne, and Tristan is set to steal it. The leader of a secret rebellion, Tristan will stop at nothing to end his brother's reign. But when Michael's new betrothed, Lady Sara Beatreaux arrives, Tristan finds himself in the middle of a new kind of war-the kind that begs the question of what's most important: the crown or the woman about to wear it.Sara has one plan. Marry the King and eradicate the Faasa line, even at her own peril. But she never expects the Scarred Prince. He's dangerous. Forbidden. And one of the men she's been sent to kill.But the line between hatred and passion has never seemed so thin, and as secrets come to light, Sara grows unsure of whom she can trust-torn between vengeance and the villain she was never supposed to love.Scarred joins the Never After series as a dark and sexy reimagining of a classic tale, twisting it into an enticing new shape for mature readers.TropesFractured Fairy TaleEnemies to LoversRoyal RomanceForbidden LoveDark RomanceSpicy RomanceBad Boy RomanceThe Never After Series:HookedScarredWretchedTwistedCrossedHexed

Nordic Tales by Chronicle Books, published in 2019, is a mesmerizing collection of tales that takes you on a captivating journey through the stunning landscapes of the Nordic countries. This book is a beautiful compilation of traditional tales that have been passed down through generations. It is a perfect blend of adventure, mystery, and folklore that will transport you to the enchanting world of Nordic mythology. Published by Chronicle Books, it is a must-read for those who love to delve into different cultures and their stories. This book is a testament to Chronicle Books' commitment to bringing diverse and engaging content to readers worldwide. It's a book that you would want to add to your collection and revisit time and again.