Katherine Langrish
@kathlangrish.bsky.social
I write children's & YA fantasy novels, and moonlight as a folklorist. I blog at https://steelthistles.blogspot.com/
With all the Olympian fervour around Christopher Nolan's 'Odyssey', here's a long-ago piece from my blog 'Seven Miles of Steel Thistles', about rowing and sailing with Tim Severin's crew on the good ship Argo. steelthistles.blogspot.com/2011/11/myst...
Mystical Voyages (9) ...Or Were They Real?
Argo's sail against the light Well, what if they were real? What if some or any of the Mystical Voyages I've been talking about during ...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
Lovely to discover that 'Writing the Magic' - a book of essays on writing fantasy edited by Dan Coxon - has been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards! I'm proud to have had an essay in it, on writing fantasy for children.
Here's a link to a post about 'Naming and Identity in Myths, Legends, Fairy Tales & Fantasy' - it starts with Adam and Eve and goes on to examine Earthsea, the summoning of fairies in Tudor times, fairytales, Irish legends and more. Naming is important... steelthistles.blogspot.com/2023/04/nami...
Thrilled to have contributed to this lovely book, 'Brian Froud's Green Women', along with many distinguished writers, some of whom are friends. It'll be published 6th October this year, and fans of Brian Froud will love it - as will anyone who loves fantasy. More at Brian's website: bit.ly/4cOoxUT
On a dismal February day what could be better than a fairy tale? Here is a Breton story, with a hapless hero and a determined heroine bent on rescuing her sweetheart from - The Groac'h of the Isle of Lok! steelthistles.blogspot.com/2020/03/fair...
Fairy Tale Heroines #4: THE GROAC’H OF THE ISLE OF LOK
This lively fairy tale comes from Brittany (the Isle du Loch is a real island off the Brittany coast, and as the name sugges...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
The Government is planning to send King Charles to the US to celebrate with Trump. Giving him a royal visit right now sends a terrible message that his behaviour is acceptable. We can stop this if enough of us speak up. Will you add your name to the petition? you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/ca...
Call off the King’s visit to the US for the 250th anniversary of America's independence
With the current political chaos in the US and Trump’s failure to adhere to international norms, and given his apparent obsession with the Monarchy, calling off this visit would send a powerful messag...
you.38degrees.org.uk
Another post from the archives which I look in detail at the Grimms' fairy tale 'Maid Maleen' and investigate its emotional depth as a story that delves unusually deeply for fairy tales into the trauma caused by abandonment and suffering. steelthistles.blogspot.com/2019/06/maid...
Maid Maleen: a fairytale study of trauma?
This essay was originally published nearly two years ago in the 12th issue of Gramarye, Winter 2017 (It will take you a while to read! 😊 )...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
'The elders told how in the ‘white night’ of the Arctic summer a rope would be stretched between two trees to signify a gateway to the sky, and as the sun rose the gateway would be filled with aromatic smoke from two bonfires...' steelthistles.blogspot.com/2020/12/flyi...
Happy holidays, everyone! steelthistles.blogspot.com/2020/12/flyi...
Flying Reindeer, Little Gerda, and the different histories of Father Christmas and Santa Claus
Re-reading Hans Andersen’s ‘The Snow Queen’ recently, I noticed how in this lovely illustration by Errol le Cain the reindeer turns it...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
A wintry Russian fairy-tale of an ill-used maiden, her cruel stepmother and step-sisters, and the spirit of winter himself - Father Frost! steelthistles.blogspot.com/2021/12/fath...
Father Frost: a winter fairy tale
This wintry Russian fairy tale is my loose adaptation of ‘Morozko’ (‘Frost’), collected by Aleksandr Afanasiev and translated by...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
A gorgeous paperback edition of the superb FROM SPARE OOM TO WAR DROBE: TRAVELS IN NARNIA WITH MY NINE YEAR-OLD SELF by kathlangrish.bsky.social ‘The best book ever about why we love Narnia!’ Francis Spufford. Available now: www.hernebooks.com/product-page... #Narnia #CSLewis
Lovely on a very wet morning to receive copies of the paperback of my book about the Narnia stories - 'From Spare Oom to War Drobe' published by Herne Books and available from UK bookstores and Amazon. As you can see, I'm very happy.
I love this wonderful, teasing and spooky summer tale! It's the work of the Norwegian writer Jonas Lie, who was a contemporary of Henrik Ibsen, and it tells the tale of a drummer boy who climbs up into the Blue Mountains and meets some troll girls... steelthistles.blogspot.com/2023/08/the-...
'The Homestead Westward in the Blue Mountains' by Jonas Lie
Jonas Lie was a contemporary of Ibsen, born 1833 at Hvokksund, not far from Oslo, but spent much of his childhood at Tromsø, inside the ...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
From the archives, a post about the Wild Hunt and the Fairy Rade. And when did ordinary people stop being afraid of the fairies? steelthistles.blogspot.com/2021/03/from...
From the Wild Hunt to the Fairy Rade
Sir Joseph Noel Paton: 'The Fairy Rade: Carrying Off A Changeling - Midsummer's Eve' This account from an unnamed 'old woman’ of Nithsda...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
We want the media and politicians to recognise that there is a large number of women who are supportive of the trans+ community. We call on them to report truthfully about the sources of violence against women and to address the systems that perpetuate harm. notinourname.org.uk/petition/not...
Not In Our Name: Women in support of the trans+ community - Not in our name
notinourname.org.uk
A post for lovers of C.S. Lewis's adult novels as well as of the Narnia series - an investigation of how his characterisation of women evolved over the years. steelthistles.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-...
The Green Lady, Jane, Orual and other adult women in the novels of C S Lewis
I will begin with the Green Lady, Perelandra’s unfallen Eve, although the novel has very much the quality, simplicity and large theme ...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
I have some good news; there's an essay of mine (called 'The Door in the Mound' in this book: 'Writing the Magic: Essays on Crafting Fantasy Fiction' published 18th of this month by Dead Ink. Contributors include Juliet E McKenna, Francesco Dimitri, Hannah Kaner & many others. I love the cover!
The Silver Apples of the Moon, The Golden Apples of the Sun Why are apples so evocative? Why was the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil assumed to be an apple? Why did golden apples of immortality grow in the Garden of the Hesperides...? steelthistles.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-...
Is a young girl still sleeping in a sunken ship under the sea? steelthistles.blogspot.com/2021/11/folk...
Folklore Snippets: The Ship Beneath the Waves
From Le Folk-Lore de France , Paul Sebillot (1904), this tale is an odd twist on 'The Sleeping Beauty'. "Sailors seldom talk about...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
A guest post by Garth Nix who very kindly wrote me this piece for my blog quite a few years ago - entitled 'Where The Monsters Lurk' and exploring his remarkable world - the Old Kingdom! steelthistles.blogspot.com/2018/10/wher...
"Where the Monsters Lurk"- a guest post by Garth Nix
While on tour a couple of years ago to promote his Old Kingdom novel "Goldenhand", Garth Nix generously took time out to write Ste...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
A lovely guest post by science-fiction writer Gwyneth Jones, who also writes for children as Ann Halam, on 'The Princess as Role Model'. Her book for children, 'Snakehead', is a wonderful reimagining of the Perseus and Andromeda legend! steelthistles.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
The Princess as Role Model
A guest post by Gwyneth Jones I’ve always been attracted to fairytales. I knew I was a storyteller long before I knew I’d be a writer: I too...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
Friend and fellow-blogger Cathrin Hagey posts an interview we did together a few years back - all about fairy tales, magic and enchantment. www.cathrinhagey.com/an-interview...
An Interview with Katherine Langrish: Author and Folklorist - Cathrin Hagey
Katherine Langrish is the creator of the award-winning blog Seven Miles of Steel Thistles and gave the 2022 Katharine Briggs Memorial Lecture.
cathrinhagey.com
Early Eowyns? An old ballad tells how the daughters of a wronged knight become shieldmaidens and take revenge on his murderer. steelthistles.blogspot.com/2019/05/sist...
Sisters with Swords
I have a very old book of Scandinavian ballads, ‘Ballad Stories of the Affections’, edited and translated by Robert Buchanan. ...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
So this isn't topical; it isn't Hallowe'en, but good ghost stories are always welcome... aren't they? steelthistles.blogspot.com/2021/10/true...
True Ghost Stories
'The Ghosts' by Lord Dunsany, illustrated by Sidney Sime There is a great difference between a supposedly true ghost story and a fiction...
steelthistles.blogspot.com
On springtime, The WInter's Tale, and Shakespeare's flowers steelthistles.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-...
