Description
The Mermaid Bride (usually £9.99)
25th Anniversary Edition of this very popular collection of Orkney folktales. With edits and additional stories.
Long ago, people sat by their fires and told tales to pass the long winter nights. Tales of how the islands were created, of the beautiful mermaids who lured men beneath the sea, of the selkie-folk who could shed their sealskins and dance in the moonlight. Or the dangers of the trows, who lived mounds and could steal away mortals. The Orcadian Story Trust’s Tom Muir is a respected storyteller and author, founder of the website orkneyology.com.
George Marwick: Yesnaby’s Master Storyteller (usually £20)
The collected works of Yesnaby’s Master Storyteller, George Marwick. Edited by Tom Muir and James Irvine.
George Marwick, 1836-1912, was born and bred of crofting folk in the isolated township of Yesnaby on the west coast of the Mainland of Orkney, exposed to the Atlantic storms but sheltered from 19th century improvements.
He became a surveyor and worked in Canada and Hoy before returning to his first love, the people, Traditions and folklore of the West Mainland. For a quarter of a century he was a popular speaker on these subjects at local events.
This volume contains all his known writings, many published for the first time.
Geordie, as he was known, was not always accurate and his etymology in particular is now dated, but his profuse and detailed records of folklore, local traditions, dialect and archaeology are unique, and provide a fresh and an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of Orkney’s rich heritage.
The royalties of this book are being donated to the Orkney Heritage Society.
Tales of Viking Lands (usually £18.99)
Viking stories from Tom Muir. Paperback, with colour illustrations. 2 audio CDs included.
This book contains folk tales from the Vikings’ lands, from places like Scotland where they settled among other people, to Iceland where they colonised an empty land, as well as their heartlands of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Tom, as an Orcadian, writing the book as a gift for his Swedish family, has included more stories from these two lands. They are probably not Viking Age, but maybe some of them, in an earlier form, would have been known to the Vikings. They celebrate our shared heritage and will find an appreciative audience among modern readers, regardless of where in the world they come from.
Tom Muir is an Orkney man through and through, with a profound love of folk tales, folklore, Norse heritage and history. He has an enviable, international reputation for story-telling and has enthralled audiences, young and old, by reciting tales that entertained Nordic peoples centuries ago.
These myths have been handed down from generation to generation – no doubt embellished on the way – and, in this book, Tom has selected some of his favourites from Viking Lands.
You can read the stories at your leisure, beside a roaring fireside, or tucked up in bed. You can read them to the children. Alternatively, you can load the book CD, shut your eyes, and listen to Tom telling you the tales in his very unique and spell-binding way… whisking you off to the land and legends of Vikings.
