Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain & Ireland

Written by Kevin Crossley-Holland

Narrated by David Shaw-Parker

Ancient, rich, and strange, this collection of eerie tales from across Britain and Ireland have influenced our culture and the folklore that followed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Oct 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9781666578768

Kevin Crossley-Holland

Kevin Crossley-Holland is a Carnegie Medal-winning author and a well-known poet. He is the author of the Arthur trilogy, including The Seeing Stone, which won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, as well as Norse Myths: Tales of Odin, Thor, and Loki. He currently resides on the north Norfolk coast in England.

Reviews for Between Worlds

[jonnijones-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

These fairy tales are stories that have been retold by the author in a more modern style for adults. They’re beautifullly done but these aren’t children’s stories. Sitting down to read these made for an enjoyable break in the day. If you like fairytales I recommend these. I received an advanced reading copy in exchange for a fair review.

[mattries37315 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Created to entertain one night and retold over the years then centuries, folktales came down to the early modern times in oral form before being written down before they were lost forever. Between Worlds: Folktales of Britain and Ireland by Kevin Crossley-Holland is collection of nearly 50 tales that cover a variety of fantastical territory. Amongst the titles that I personally liked “The Dead Moon”, “Fair Gruagach”, “Mossycoat”, and “The Dauntless Girl” while the entire section entitled “Wits, Tricks, and Laughter” was a waste. While the primary audience is for middle school children, as an adult I did have a nice time reading the book overall though there were some stretches where I was just making it through several stories until a decent one came up.

[aethercowboy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first discovered Kevin Crossley-Holland through his book on Norse Myths. It was then that I started appreciating his ability to take such stories and make them accessible to people who don't want to learn olde languages or dialects to understand what the heck is going on when the cow Audumla licks the world into existence.When I saw that he had a new collection of folktales, I had to pick it up. I've loved folk tales since I was a young boy, reading the Aesop fables and the stories of Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill, and cultivating that appreciation into a broader spectrum of tales, legends, and fables from many different cultures. I was not disappointed by Between Worlds.Presented here are a handful of stories collected from Britain and Ireland, some of which were familiar (such as Tom Tit Tot, a version of Rumpelstiltskin; Mossycloak, a version of Cinderella; and even a selkie story). Some, though, were entirely new to me, and every one was a delight. Crossley-Holland takes the original story (or in some cases, stories) and adapts them to make them readable and understandable to a modern audience. He successfully captures that fairy-tale setting with each story, giving it that other feeling while at the same time, nestling it among familiar roots, much like a child who might very well be a changeling, but might also be your own true heir.If you like me are a fan of the folktale and fairy story, I highly recommend this collection of stories. They're sure to not disappoint. Meanwhile, I'm going to track down more of Crossley-Holland's books so I can linger in his worlds a little while longer.

[5eva5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of wondrous folktales, told with the author's signature spin. I've read some of Crossley-Holland's œuvre and am rarely disappointed with his take on myths or fairly tales, both those I know and those I don't. This collection is just as intriguing as his others and I particularly enjoyed the darker stories (but that may say more about me than the collection itself). Particularly interesting was the section at the end describing how the stories were sourced, but I would have loved if each story had ended with its section rather than having to flip back and forth to the end. Very entertaining collection of stories.

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received an advance galley of this book through NetGalley.The author, Kevin Crossley-Holland, mentions at the end that his intent with this collection was to take old tales and reclothe them in clean, bright, direct language. He succeeded. The collection flows between England and Ireland and all around the isles, and includes tales unfamiliar and familiar. His takes are entertaining and feature men and women and fairies and specters. The end of the book was a special delight for a research geek like me: he cites his sources and mentions the specific classic stories he drew from and why and how he changed them. The original stories were published throughout the 19th century and into the very early 20th. This would be a great book to read aloud to children, but as an adult I found it to be quite enjoyable.

[klarsenmd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this book as part of the LT early reviewer program. I really enjoyed this. It is a great collection of standard and unusual folk tales that have been passed down and nicely told in a form that feel like it is authentic and true. The language is simple and direct, without embellishment or additions by the author. A great reference for those who are intrigued by the original tellings.

[ftmckinstry · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a fantastic collection, and aptly named. Written in classic fairytale style, it’s also unique, lyrical, colorful and strange, giving it that otherworldly feel characteristic of the genre; not here or there but somewhere, in-between worlds where all manner of unexpected things can happen. With expert care, the author has brought together fresh, obscure tales with well-imagined familiar ones, breathing new life into something timeless. Beautiful and highly recommended.

[elenchus_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This new edition of Crossley-Holland's re-tellings from folklore is immensely enjoyable, from the stories to the illustrations, cover art to book design and typesetting. Eventually I may replace my ARC with a hardbound edition, for now it stays on my shelves for re-reading.The tales were mostly unfamiliar to me. On offer are a mix of eras and outlooks, from Bronze Age to Age of Cash, and Pagan visions of the supernatural alongside Christian. Some tales are comic, some dramatic, most but not all feature some form of sinister magic. Just three stories are told in verse, though a line occasionally appears in several of the prose tales. Some stories are fairly involved, others just a few pages or even paragraphs. As with The Norse Myths, I appreciate C-H's notes on how he chose to revise or edit his sources for the tales presented here. From his new foreword: "I have ranged widely to show not only different types of tales and different themes, but the best and worst of human nature". The selection gives a taste of what British & Irish folktales can be, sorted under six broad headings. Frances Castle's black and white line drawings also are new to this edition and lovely throughout. Some are decorations, some chapter headings or scenes from specific tales, and the largest --double-page spreads-- serve as section separators. Her style recalls woodcuts though from her instagram it appears she renders her black & white illustrations digitally (e.g. time lapse for the "Wits, Tricks, and Laughter" section art). The colour cover of my ARC sadly cut off the left-hand third of the original painting, leaving out the person on foot trudging beside the horserider. The UK edition has a wraparound cover including the full painting, so I suspect that's the ARC and not the final version even in the US.//Poking around on the internet, it appears there is no clear critical consensus on how myths and folklore (legends, fairy tales, sagas) relate. Never located reference to a specific myth originating in a folktale, or vice versa; always it was to the genres and how they relate, and always the evidence was sparse, problematic, and not confidence-inspiring. So my own speculations are as interesting to me, at this point, as scholarly evidence.To wit: many of these tales have a mythic voice, but are not as weighty as a myth. Are these potentially proto-myths, awaiting further evolution? Is there any evidence some folktales & legends "evolve" into myths, potentially, but not all do? -- and those that do, take on mythic status and voice? -- and, those that do are selected for mythic themes, implying that those merely entertaining or thematically undeveloped, do not become myth? All of that seems too neat a viewpoint. I speculate that some myths may well originate in folktales, while many more do not; and many folktales never aspire to myth, being their own thing and not a failed something-else.

[anniehidalgo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book reminded me of Andrew Lang's fairy series. It was a collection of folktales that made me wish that my daughter was younger, as they would make for great read-aloud material, sitting by the side of the bed at bedtime, or gathered around the campfire. In the back of the book, a little blurb about each tale gives some idea of the origins and any changes that may have been made to it by the author. There were many stories included that I had heard under a different guise, a few that were hardly changed at all from the last time I had heard them, and some that I had never heard.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This collection of folktales is split into different themes: Magic and Wonder; Adventures and Legends; Fairies and Little People; Power, Passion, and Love; Wits, Tricks, and Laughter; Ghosts. The st9ories themselves come from all over Great Britain, Ireland, and from some of the smaller islands. Many have a variety of versions, and only one is used here. Some are very short, others a bit longer. There is an English version of Rumplestiltskin, and a version of Cinderella. All are fun to read. In the Sources and Notes section at the end Crossley-Holland gives a little more information about the origins of each of the stories. I would have preferred that each of those be at the beginning of the story itself. It was neat to find out that one of the stories--The Farmer and The Boggart--was collected in the small town (Mumby, Lincolnshire) my 3ggrandfather was christened in in 1824. Did he know a version of this story?––––These versions of the stories in this collection were previously published in two collections (1987 and 1997)--the illustrations are new. All of the stories originally came from stories collected and published in the 19th and 20th centuries. Crossley-Holland updated them to modern English (out of various dialects, he is also a translator from Anglo-Saxon).

[managedbybooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rich and strange, these eerie and magical folktales from across Britain and Ireland have been passed down from generation to generation, and are gathered together in a definitive new collection from the master storyteller and winner of the Carnegie Medal, Kevin Crossley-Holland. Dark and funny, lyrical and earthy, these fifty stories are part of an important and enduring historical tradition that dates back hundreds of years.