From the authors of the Goddess Girls series comes the second book in a brand-new series steeped in Norse mythology, magic, adventure, and friendship. Twelve-year-old Sif is goddess of the harvest, with her abilities woven into her long, blonde hair. She also has special prophetic powers—she is a seer—but is reluctant to share them after a mishap years ago caused a big rift in a friendship that meant a lot to her. And Sif is determined to not let that happen again! But when the mischievous Loki cuts her hair in a horrible prank gone wrong, Sif orders Loki to fix it. Without her hair, the crops in the land of Midgard—which supplies the wheat for food in Asgard Academy as well—are in danger of dying off. With Sif and Freya, Loki goes to ask for help from the dwarfs, specifically, the sons of Ivaldi who are all skilled blacksmiths and strikes a bargain with them. They hammer and spin gold into fine golden strands along with a spear and a ship that will grow to full size once in water. On his way back through the cave, Loki gets an idea for how to get more treasures by playing one set of dwarfs off against another. Envious of the work of the sons of Ivaldi, the dwarfs Brokk and Eitri say they can do better. Loki replies that he doesn’t think they can and that, furthermore, he’ll stake his head on it. Is that a bet that Loki will regret? And will Sif be able to restore her magical powers to prevent the drought in Midgard?

From the authors of the Goddess Girls series comes the fourth book in a series steeped in Norse mythology, magic, adventure, and friendship. Skade, the goddess of skiing, is known as one of the best athletes—and a top student—at Asgard Academy. But lately, she’s felt like she’s been in a slump. When three giants appear and offer to mend the rift between the worlds by organizing a ski competition, Skade feels like this is her big chance to prove herself again. After all, the powerful Odin will be choosing the Asgard team based on ability, attitude, and academics! But much to Skade’s embarrassment, Odin is less than impressed with her—and names her as an alternate instead of part of the main team. Aside from Skade’s frustrations, something seems fishy about the whole competition. After one of Skade’s classmates has a strange nightmare about it, they start to wonder if the games are one big cover-up for something more sinister. And when the Asgard team finds themselves on thin ice, it’s up to Skade to overcome a big fear, save her friend—and show everyone what she’s made of!

Curated new Myths and Tales. Lively, stark and formidable, the imagery of Norse mythology storms through this classic collection. The fierce glory of Odin, Frey, Loki and their fellow gods of Asgard are featured here with all the great adventures, from Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, to the endings of Ragnarok. And from the fabled Bifrost to the forging of Thor’s hammer, each Viking legend is riven with a vitality that speaks to us still. The latest title in Flame Tree's beautiful, comprehensive series of Gothic Fantasy titles, concentrates on the ancient, epic origins of modern fantasy.

"This book is made of the stories told by the Northern folk,-the people who live in the land of the midnight sun, where summer is green and pleasant, but winter is a terrible time of cold and gloom; where rocky mountains tower like huge giants, over whose heads thunder rolls and crashes, and under whose feet are mines of precious metals."--p.1-2.

Written in consultation with leading academics.

The islands of Britain have been a crossroads of gods, heroes, and kings-those of flesh as well as those of myth-for thousands of years. Successive waves of invasion brought distinctive legends, rites, and beliefs. The ancient Celts displaced earlier indigenous peoples, only to find themselves displaced in turn by the Romans, who then abandoned the islands to Germanic tribes, a people themselves nearly overcome in time by an influx of Scandinavians. With each wave of invaders came a battle for the mythic mind of the Isles as the newcomer's belief system met with the existing systems of gods, legends, and myths. In Gods, Heroes, and Kings, medievalist Christopher Fee and veteran myth scholar David Leeming unearth the layers of the British Isles' unique folkloric tradition to discover how this body of seemingly disparate tales developed. The authors find a virtual battlefield of myths in which pagan and Judeo-Christian beliefs fought for dominance, and classical, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Celtic narrative threads became tangled together. The resulting body of legends became a strange but coherent hybrid, so that by the time Chaucer wrote "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in the fourteenth century, a Christian theme of redemption fought for prominence with a tripartite Celtic goddess and the Arthurian legends of Sir Gawain-itself a hybrid mythology. Without a guide, the corpus of British mythology can seem impenetrable. Taking advantage of the latest research, Fee and Leeming employ a unique comparative approach to map the origins and development of one of the richest folkloric traditions. Copiously illustrated with excerpts in translation from the original sources,Gods, Heroes, and Kings provides a fascinating and accessible new perspective on the history of British mythology.