Tales of Enchantment

As with their previous collaboration, Atticus the Storyteller’s 100 Greek Myths, Coats and Lewis use the device of a traveller’s quest to create a series of adventures in which encounters with strangers in a variety of settings provide a traditional pretext for the sharing of tales. In this case the traveller is Coll Hazel, the youngest bard in his community of Druids, who is sent on a mission to find the hidden treasures of Avalon and to bring them safely out of the way of Viking marauders. He is accompanied by his talking raven Branwen on a journey through the Celtic western fringe of Europe from the Hebrides via Scotland, Wales and Ireland to Brittany and back to Cornwall. In the process they share a wide ranging compendium of 50 tales from the Celtic World, including familiar myths from the Mabinogion and Arthurian legends as well as less frequently anthologised folk-tales. The retellings concern the ceaseless magical interactions between the human and supernatural worlds and are simple, vivid and conversational. They are also necessarily abbreviated, so the gains for the young audience in terms of admirable breadth and pace are offset by a rather fleeting treatment of the wonders and tragedies presented here. In spite of this, and the rather over-lush linking narrative, this is a very engaging introduction to the sheer fecundity of Celtic folklore.