Serpents and Werewolves (13 page)

Buzzard Boy

Mexican folktale

This is my retelling of a Tzotzil Mayan tale from
Latin American Folktales
by John Bierhorst (Pantheon Books, 2002), and it may be the story that I've changed most as I've worked with it, mainly because I first told it to an audience of young children and it seemed natural to change the main character from a lazy man into a lazy boy. Now that the reckless boy who swaps places with the buzzard is a living character in my head, I can't swap him back to an unknown workshy husband!

The Laidly Wyrm

Northumbrian legend

My granny was from Northumberland, and one of my favourite places in the north of England is the beach below Bamburgh Castle. So I love this story of magic and monsters, set in that beautiful and dramatic place. I first read about the Laidly Wyrm when I was very young, in Roger Lancelyn Green's
A Book Of Dragons
, retold by Joseph Jacobs (Puffin Books, 1970.)

The Accidental Wolf Cub

German folktale

Another story inspired by the
Book Of Werewolves
by Sabine Baring-Gould. I read his very short version of this old tale, then started describing the story to my own children, and the characters just came to life as I talked about them. So this is my own imagining of what might happen if a little boy accidentally became a werewolf cub.

A stunning collection of folktales and legends from all over Europe. Magical to farcical, tender to terrifying, this selection of often unusual and little known stories from each state of the European Union is a joy to read.

Lari Don's magical collection of folktales about winter from all around the world. Find out how spiders invented tinsel, what happened when the spring girl beat the hag of winter, why eagle feathers made snow, and how a hero with hairy trousers used ice to kill a dragon.

First published 2015 by

A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP

www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Copyright © A & C Black 2015

Text copyright © Lari Don 2015

Illustrations © Francesca Greenwood 2015

The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

All rights reserved. You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-4729-1633-4
ePub ISBN 978-1-4729-1635-8

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