Book excerpt: A GREAT READ FOR KIDS! In this volume you will find 14 of the most popular Norse Myths and Tales rewritten especially for children. Tales and stories like Odin’s Reward, Tyr and the Wolf, Freyja’s Necklace, The Hammer of Thor, A Gift from Frigga, The Stealing of Iduna, Skadi, Ægir’s Feast and more. This little volume is the outcome of several years’ experience of the telling of the classic Norse myths to classes of children. There are graphic descriptions in the Norse tales of the hard struggle with rugged nature and the severe climate of the North. The tales and adventures of equally rugged men and women, of bravery and heroes in a time when heroes were needed and men were knighted for achieving great feats - and great hose feats were. Then, too, the moral tone of the Norse myths is higher, purer, and more steadfast than that of the Greek tales, and is more congenial to our Western point of view which has been influenced more by the Teuton than the Greek. But this is simply not a number of made up tales, many works were consulted in the preparation of this volume, and the compilers are especially indebted to the following: Thorpe’s translation of Sæmund’s “Edda”; “The Younger Edda,” in translations; Anderson’s “Norse Mythology”; Guerber’s “Myths of Northern Lands”; William and Mary Howitt’s “Literature and Romance of Northern Europe”; and Mallet’s “Northern Antiquities.”