Frindleswylde

The story opens with Cora’s Granny telling her the story of Frindleswylde, who steals into houses bringing the cold with him and snatching those he finds within. The reader is immediately hooked with the opening lines ‘Can you feel a tremble in the wind? Frindleswylde is coming.’ She warns her granddaughter to be wary and never let him put out the lamp. As you may guess, Frindleswylde succeeds in entering Cora’s house and snatching the light, but she is determined to get it back – and so her quest begins.

Cora is fearless and undeterred when Frindleswylde sets her three seemingly impossible challenges intending to keep her in his frozen world. Cora achieves all of these tasks, deploying some of Frindleswylde’s own possessions to help her. Unfortunately, in the process Cora’s heart begins to freeze. Is she destined to be trapped forever in this frozen land?

The three challenges provide a traditional structure to a tale with a feminist twist as a brave heroine thwarts a cunning foe. The story is a metaphor for the changing of the seasons; Frindleswylde personifies the coming of winter and parallels are drawn between the winter freeze and human warmth or coldness. Frindleswylde is steeped in Nordic tales of the coming of winter and has echoes of ‘Starjik’ in Robert Swindell’s The Ice Palace and Andersen’s The Snow Queen.

The text is beautifully written, rich with similes and rhythmic language which would be a delight to read aloud:

‘If you open the door, he’ll bring in the cold, if he brings in the cold, he’ll put out the lamp and if he puts out the lamp, I cannot come home to save you.’

The illustrations are perfectly pitched, evoking Frindleswylde’s mysterious icy world ‘where summer waits frozen for winter’s end’ with a cool palette of blues, greens and purples.  The hardback version contains a sparkling dust jacket over a haunting cover of the eponymous Frindleswylde.

This is a stunning picturebook for fearless lovers of fairy tales perfect for sharing on chilly winter’s evenings.