A Dream of Dragons: A Saga in Verse
Willem Lange
(Author)
Mary Azarian
(Illustrator)
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world
Description
NORWAY, 1894Olav -- son of Erik Bjørnsson -- seventeen, swung his father's scythe and dreamed: The singing scythe Grandfather Bjørn had madeand honed each time he found a bit of shadeand passed on to his oldest sonto pass on to his oldest sonto pass until there were no longer sons --the scythe hissed like the grains of sand on the beachthat hiss when a wave falls back and the bubbles burst.The wind that whispered through the grainand dried the sweat upon his arms and chestbore from the west the scent of saltand the distant rumble of the Norwegian Sea. The Viking Age began more than a thousand years ago when the ancient Norse perfected their swift-sailing, dragon-headed longships. Young men, and later whole families, left Norway's rugged fiords in search of open land, trade, treasure, or fame. Many others took to the unknown sea simply because something vague and irresistible beckoned to them. They settled islands all across the North Atlantic and landed in North America more than four hundred years before Columbus. Their exploits are recounted in the ancient Norse sagas. A Dream of Dragons is a proper and modern Norse saga, written with all the power of Melville and Hemingway and a true story now retold in the ageless rhythms of blank verse, as irresistible as the beautiful and specially commissioned woodcuts of Mary Azarian.
Product Details
Price
$19.95
$18.55
Publisher
Bunker Hill Publishing Co
Publish Date
April 16, 2011
Pages
36
Dimensions
6.2 X 9.1 X 0.2 inches | 0.55 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781593730895
BISAC Categories:
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
About the Author
Willem Lange is a short-story writer, commentator and host on Vermont Public Radio and New Hampshire Public Television. He also has a weekly column in The Valley News, the major newspaper in the NH/VT Upper Valley area. In addition to the Yuletide readings of his Christmas story, Favor Johnson, a staple on Public Radio for fifteen years, his annual readings of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -- on stage, on Vermont Public Radio, and on Armed Forces Radio overseas -- have been popular since the 1970s. Mary Azarian has illustrated over 40 books, including Snowflake Bentley which won the Caldecott Award. Mary Azarian moved to a small hill farm in northern Vermont in 1963. vegetable and flower garden. These years on the farm became the basis for the subjects she has chosen to depict in her woodcut prints. In 1969, she started Farmhouse Press and began producing woodcut prints, first printing by hand and eventually printing on a 19th century Vanderhook proof press.
Reviews
"Willem Lange has carved with his talents and his dreams a character of the north woods, not unlike the poet he has always admired, Robert Frost. With an eye to the grains of New England woods and a nose for the textures and odors of the great evergreen wilderness that stretches into Canada, he has become a bard of the cold, stony land of life and adventures that expand in his imagination as he brings us a saga of imagination, and draws us into a dream that travels from Norway to Iceland, to Greenland, and to the far northern wastes of Canada and our great American continent. Like the great Icelandic tales, his dream is vivid, sensitive to the sights and sounds of the North, and like them, is a realization of the Viking blend of curiosity and adventure, ranging from deep joys to heart-piercing sorrows."
"A Dream of Dragons is a fascinating tale! In this true modern saga, Olav Erikson and his son Martin pursue their destiny against a background of stark natural beauty. The author heard parts of this story years ago from the son's wife and has recreated the whole of their adventure in a narrative poem. The young Olav, sailing west from Norway to Labrador in a boat more fragile than the ships of his Viking ancestors, is haunted on the harsh seas by the flickering dragon-fires of the night sky and the distant threat of Thor's hammer. It's as if the Norse gods first inspire his odyssey and then pursue him, and later his son, to their dramatic ends."
"A Dream of Dragons: A Saga in Verse is a beautifully illustrated tale which spans the old and the new worlds. A journey across the North Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century in the wake of the Vikings of old ends in love and loss, joy and sorrow, as the dragon-fires dance in the night, evoking longing and memories in the hearts of men."
A Dream of Dragons is a fascinating tale! In this true modern saga, Olav Erikson and his son Martin pursue their destiny against a background of stark natural beauty. The author heard parts of this story years ago from the son's wife and has recreated the whole of their adventure in a narrative poem. The young Olav, sailing west from Norway to Labrador in a boat more fragile than the ships of his Viking ancestors, is haunted on the harsh seas by the flickering dragon-fires of the night sky and the distant threat of Thor's hammer. It's as if the Norse gods first inspire his odyssey and then pursue him, and later his son, to their dramatic ends. -- Robert Siegel, author of Finches: New & Selected Poems
A Dream of Dragons: A Saga in Verse is a beautifully illustrated tale which spans the old and the new worlds. A journey across the North Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century in the wake of the Vikings of old ends in love and loss, joy and sorrow, as the dragon-fires dance in the night, evoking longing and memories in the hearts of men. -- Astrid Ogilvie, author of The Iceberg in the Mist, Fellow, Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder
Willem Lange has carved with his talents and his dreams a character of the north woods, not unlike the poet he has always admired, Robert Frost. With an eye to the grains of New England woods and a nose for the textures and odors of the great evergreen wilderness that stretches into Canada, he has become a bard of the cold, stony land of life and adventures that expand in his imagination as he brings us a saga of imagination, and draws us into a dream that travels from Norway to Iceland, to Greenland, and to the far northern wastes of Canada and our great American continent. Like the great Icelandic tales, his dream is vivid, sensitive to the sights and sounds of the North, and like them, is a realization of the Viking blend of curiosity and adventure, ranging from deep joys to heart-piercing sorrows. -- Alan T. Gaylord, Professor Emeritus, Dartmouth College
"A Dream of Dragons is a fascinating tale! In this true modern saga, Olav Erikson and his son Martin pursue their destiny against a background of stark natural beauty. The author heard parts of this story years ago from the son's wife and has recreated the whole of their adventure in a narrative poem. The young Olav, sailing west from Norway to Labrador in a boat more fragile than the ships of his Viking ancestors, is haunted on the harsh seas by the flickering dragon-fires of the night sky and the distant threat of Thor's hammer. It's as if the Norse gods first inspire his odyssey and then pursue him, and later his son, to their dramatic ends."
"A Dream of Dragons: A Saga in Verse is a beautifully illustrated tale which spans the old and the new worlds. A journey across the North Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century in the wake of the Vikings of old ends in love and loss, joy and sorrow, as the dragon-fires dance in the night, evoking longing and memories in the hearts of men."
A Dream of Dragons is a fascinating tale! In this true modern saga, Olav Erikson and his son Martin pursue their destiny against a background of stark natural beauty. The author heard parts of this story years ago from the son's wife and has recreated the whole of their adventure in a narrative poem. The young Olav, sailing west from Norway to Labrador in a boat more fragile than the ships of his Viking ancestors, is haunted on the harsh seas by the flickering dragon-fires of the night sky and the distant threat of Thor's hammer. It's as if the Norse gods first inspire his odyssey and then pursue him, and later his son, to their dramatic ends. -- Robert Siegel, author of Finches: New & Selected Poems
A Dream of Dragons: A Saga in Verse is a beautifully illustrated tale which spans the old and the new worlds. A journey across the North Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century in the wake of the Vikings of old ends in love and loss, joy and sorrow, as the dragon-fires dance in the night, evoking longing and memories in the hearts of men. -- Astrid Ogilvie, author of The Iceberg in the Mist, Fellow, Institute of Arctic & Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder
Willem Lange has carved with his talents and his dreams a character of the north woods, not unlike the poet he has always admired, Robert Frost. With an eye to the grains of New England woods and a nose for the textures and odors of the great evergreen wilderness that stretches into Canada, he has become a bard of the cold, stony land of life and adventures that expand in his imagination as he brings us a saga of imagination, and draws us into a dream that travels from Norway to Iceland, to Greenland, and to the far northern wastes of Canada and our great American continent. Like the great Icelandic tales, his dream is vivid, sensitive to the sights and sounds of the North, and like them, is a realization of the Viking blend of curiosity and adventure, ranging from deep joys to heart-piercing sorrows. -- Alan T. Gaylord, Professor Emeritus, Dartmouth College
