A Book of Myths

Myths retold for the general reader: Baldur, Prometheus, Persephone, Beowulf, Roland, the Wandering Jew and Peer Gynt. Jean Lang gathered them from several traditions and told them as stories rather than as evidence. The Norse chapters are the strongest, and the choice of the Icelandic and German material shows what an educated Edwardian was expected to recognise. Fifty-two plates by painters including Delacroix and Leighton follow the myths themselves, from Prometheus bound to Orpheus among the animals.