LEGENDS OF THE NORSE KINGS ~ ISABEL WYATT
by Floris
Legends of the Norse Kings
- The Saga of King Ragnar Goatskin and The Dream of King Alfdan
The tales of the medieval Norse kings were originally sung or told as 'sagas'. These were legendary adventures full of exciting episodes in which the hero fought wicked enemies or even dragons in order to win the hand of a princess or to fulfil a great destiny.
The two sagas in this book date from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. The Danish ruler known as King Ragnar Goatskin was famous for fighting a dragon which had captured the princess Tora, and so won her hand in marriage. She died after giving him two sons and he then married Kraka, a beautiful maiden of royal birth disguised as a farm girl. Their struggle against the evils of war and witchcraft are vividly narrated in the stories that follow.
The Dream of King Alfdan tells the adventures of the brave princess Ragnild and her brother Guthorm after the death of their father King Sigurd, and how Alfdans dream that he will have a son to rule over all Norway comes true in the end.
These stories of Norse kings, beautifully retold by the renowned storyteller Isabel Wyatt, are drawn from the sagas recorded by the historian Saxo Grammaticus and other Scandinavian writers of the Middle Ages.
Format: Paperback (216mm X 138mm) 112 pages
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Isabel Wyatt was born in England in 1901. She spent many years teaching young children and was then, until her retirement in 1965, co-director of studies at Hawkwood College in Gloucestershire. She compiled many books for children, including The Seven-Year-Old Wonder Book, Homer's Odyssey, King Beetle-Tamer and The Book of Fairy Princes. She died in 1992.