Description
In this companion volume to their collaboration An Old Man's Winter Night, Tom Dawe and Veselina Tomova present a fascinating, tantalizing, and chilling collection of fairy lore. No benign tooth fairies here; these fairies are amoral, tricky, dangerous, and beguiling.
A young school teacher learns about strange lights in a foreboding marsh; a nurse in a remote outport visits the baby she delivered just weeks before to find a devastating change; a woman meets a mysterious funeral procession late one evening; a musician happens upon a group of strange little people; a girl is entranced by a strange green butterfly. The pages of Spirited Away are populated by those who wander onto fairy paths or fall under the spell of mysterious music; by the fairy-led—people lost in surroundings long familiar; by changelings; by people who stray onto fairy turf, and experience unnerving events.
These literary renderings of stories and anecdotes Dawe has collected across the province offer an accessible and engaging introduction to one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most powerful and peculiar folk traditions. Tomova's darkly poetic wood-cut illustrations plumb the fascinating heart of these strange and affecting tales.
A young school teacher learns about strange lights in a foreboding marsh; a nurse in a remote outport visits the baby she delivered just weeks before to find a devastating change; a woman meets a mysterious funeral procession late one evening; a musician happens upon a group of strange little people; a girl is entranced by a strange green butterfly. The pages of Spirited Away are populated by those who wander onto fairy paths or fall under the spell of mysterious music; by the fairy-led—people lost in surroundings long familiar; by changelings; by people who stray onto fairy turf, and experience unnerving events.
These literary renderings of stories and anecdotes Dawe has collected across the province offer an accessible and engaging introduction to one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most powerful and peculiar folk traditions. Tomova's darkly poetic wood-cut illustrations plumb the fascinating heart of these strange and affecting tales.
Author Bio
One of Newfoundland's finest poets, Tom Dawe is also an editor, former teacher, visual artist and award-winning children's author. He spent years collecting folklore throughout Newfoundland and Labrador; many of these stories have found their way into this collection of ghostly tales. He lives in Conception Bay South, Newfoundland.
Born in Sofia, Bulgaria, Veselina Tomova graduated from Leipzig's School of Graphic Art and Book Design before moving to Newfoundland and Labrador. A graphic designer and award-winning artist, she has illustrated several books for Running the Goat, including PB's Comet, Daphne's Bees, and The Wall & the Wind, which she also wrote. Veselina divides her time between St. John's, Newfoundland, where she lives in a small house overlooking the harbour, and Rusalya, Bulgaria, a village chockful of memorable characters, where she tends her family's huge vegetable garden and enjoys the antics of Bucky the dog and Ginger the cat.
Prizes
- American Folklore Society - Aesop AccoladesWinner 2018
Table of contents
In A Place Like This 7
Music Man 13
The Marsh 18
A Fairy Funeral 23
Bones 27 Fallen Angels 31
Spirited Away 37
The Changeling 44
Where Water Ran the Other Way 50
Glossary 53
Notes 57
Review text
"Spirited Away is a book to be enjoyed in front of a cozy fire or tucked up on the sofa with a hot water bottle, somewhere very safe and far from the spirits depicted and described so that the horrors are far away—though there is always the possibility that one is lurking under the bed... a deliciously scary thought. Highly Recommended."
Review Quotes
"Dawe is a poet, which is reflected in his simple, but lyrical, text. Tomova's sinister woodcuts, with their muted colours and grotesque figures, draw the reader deeper into the unsettling world of these dark fairies. Together, they've perfectly captured the sweet terror that comes when sitting by a flickering light and listening to unearthly tales."
— Quill & Quire
