THE MAGIC LANDS
By Kevin Crossley-Holland
Orion - November 2001
ISBN 1842550519 - TPB
Juvenile / Teenage / Adult -
British Folk Tales

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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This is a compendium of folktales from all parts of the British Isles by acclaimed juvenile author Kevin Crossley-Holland (see my reviews of his Arthur trilogy). A knowledgeable folklorist, he has managed to vary the retellings in a novel way with some of them traditional but others with a modern setting. There are delightful fool stories told at the expense of various villages, the confused history of Dick Whittington (an old folktale grafted on to the life of a real person) and a lot of Celtic stories, particularly from Ireland. Find out about why Ophelia says, "the owl was a baker's daughter" and read the shortest folktale of them all! I particularly liked his choice of some lesser-known gems and unusual versions of classics; for example the gypsy "Mossycoat", which is better known as Cinderella, and "The Small-Tooth Dog", a version of Beauty and the Beast from Derbyshire. Quite a few of these stories were originally told in ballad form and some of them still are in the book; they possess a power that a prose telling wouldn't have. At the reverse of the book, there is quite a bit of information about each tale which is fascinating reading whether you are a folklorist or not, although an index of tale types and motifs would have increased its interest to the more serious folklorist.

I am not sure what age group this book is aimed at but I don't think it truly matters; folktales were created to be told to people of all ages. The tales vary from being funny to scary, romantic to tragic. I feel that there is something for everybody. A good introduction for anybody who thinks that folktales are for buffs only.

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