Rittin Books Whispers of the Longest Nights Broché

What came out after dark at Christmas?In the old North, Yuletide was not only a season of feasting, candles, and celebration. It was also a time when the dead walked, trolls came down from the mountains, strange riders crossed the winter sky, and long-hidden things drew near the firelight.Shadows of the Longest Nights brings together seventeen dark Nordic folktales of Christmas and Yuletide, retold from folklore collections, sagas, archives, and oral tradition.Within these pages:The dead gather for Christmas mass.A drowned deacon returns for the woman he loves.Trolls overrun a Faroese village.A restless child cries through the winter darkness.Sea-draugs rise from the shore.A seal woman returns to pronounce a terrible curse.Stallo descends in the shape of the moon.And the dreadful Åsgardrei rides through the night.Drawn from Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Lapland, and Svalbard, these stories reveal a harsher and more unsettling side of Nordic winter tradition-one shaped by darkness, isolation, faith, superstition, and the constant nearness of the unseen.Some tales are famous. Others survive only in obscure collections, remote local tradition, or fragmentary sources. All belong to the long northern storytelling season, when the nights were longest, and the old stories were told beside the fire.Perfect for readers of folklore, ghost stories, dark Christmas traditions, Nordic mythology, and supernatural history.Light the candles, close the door, and enter the longest nights.Story overview:The Mass of the Dead - NorwayThe Deacon of Myrká - IcelandThe Visitors on Christmas Night - IcelandThe Devil at Cards - DenmarkThe Child Beneath the Step - SwedenUntil the Church Falls - DenmarkThe Troll Dance of Trøllanes - The Faroe IslandsThe Child Without a Name - NorwayA Winter Wedding in Hattarvík - The Faroe IslandsThe Cave That Was Not There - IcelandStallo's Moon - LaplandThe Draugs of Sea and Land - NorwayThe Seal Woman of Mikladalur - The Faroe IslandsThe Scurvy Sister - SvalbardLojsta Hed - SwedenThe Åsgardrei - NorwayGlámur - Iceland