An enchantment of lore
Treasury of Folklore: Seas & Rivers
Sirens, Selkies and Ghost Ships
Dee Dee Chainey & Willow Winsham
Batsford 2021
Hb, 192pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781849946599
Treasury of Folklore: Woodlands & Forests
Wild Gods, World Trees and Werewolves
Dee Dee Chainey & Willow Winsham
Batsford 2021
Hb, 192pp, £12.99, ISBN 9781849946872
Dee Dee Chainey and Willow Winsham, the luminaries behind the hugely successful Folklore Thursday hashtag phenomenon on Twitter, prove their own deserved place within the folklore world with these enchanting books.
The first presents a collection of strange aquatic tales gathered across the ages and across the globe, varying from Mami, from the lost city of Ys to the subterranean rivers of London. Within its rolling pages the reader encounters both familiar figures, such as Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid (one of the more disturbing tales to have ever have been given the Disney treatment), and lesser-known entities such as the Funay rei – the revenants of drowned Japanese mariners who unless placated will cause harm to living souls. Kelpies, selkies, nymphs, sirens, ghosts, gods and goddesses galore such as Poseidon, Sedna, Hit (the octopus goddess of the Caroline Islands) and Arnaquagsaq (the sea mother of Greenland) all appear within. Superstitions abound in the sailors’ world and this book casts a net to land numerous omens heeded when setting sail.
