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The Serpent Bride and Other Stories from Medieval Danish Ballads
The Serpent Bride and Other Stories from Medieval Danish Ballads Author:K. V. Johansen The Serpent Bride is a collection of ten stories inspired by the ballads of medieval Denmark. Among the stories retold in The Serpent Bride are those of Benedikte, whose brother dooms her to life as snake in order to steal her inheritance; Ellensborg, who sails for the Holy Land with a crew of maidens to fetch home her straying lover; jilted Ni... more »ls, set by a ghostly huntsman to the pursuit of a doe that is not all it seems; and that of Germand Gladensvend and Silverlad, shape-shifting lovers kept apart by a mother's desperate bargain with a troll. These are stories of magic used for good and ill, of heroic ladies and knights, of lovers and trolls, of dragons and animal transformations. They are also the stories of determined women, of merchants and farmers and crusaders, and of the extremes of emotion that throughout human history have lurked beneath the surface of everyday life, to be given shape and safe release in the folk and fairy tales of all nations.« less