Children of Odin

Public

Ernest Edwin Speight (6 December, 1871 - 17 September, 1949) was an author and English professor who spent most of his life teaching English in India and Japan. He also wrote and edited textbooks such as "Children of Odin" (1901) as well as English language textbooks. In 1918 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Fifth Class, in recognition of his teaching work at the Imperial University in Tokyo and the Fourth Higher School in Kanazawa. Disambiguation Note: "Children of Odin" (1901) by E. E. Speight is often confused with Padriac Colum’s "The Children of Odin" (1920). "Children of Odin" (1901) is a selection of retellings that begins with mythological material from the Icelandic "Eddas" and episodes from Icelandic sagas, and then moves on to Germanic mythology with “The Story of the Necken,” followed by the Norwegian fairy tale “The White Bear and the Trolls,” and concludes with the Norwegian poem “The Elf Dance.” Colum’s "The Children of Odin", on the other hand, is a retelling of Norse mythology from start to finish. The title of Speight’s book refers to “the people of [the] northern countries…the children of Odin themselves” (Preface 7), while the title of Colum’s book refers to the Norse gods that Odin was said to have fathered. Early Print Review: The "Saga-Book" reviewer A.F.M. wrote a generally positive review of Speight’s "Children of Odin". However, he added that “we cannot regard [the illustrations] as a merit, for the artist, whose name is not given, has evidently little acquaintance with Northern literature, and has read the letterpress very hurriedly and carelessly" ("Saga-Book" III of the Viking Club 1903 491). Dr. P. A. Baer For more information and further resources please refer to My Norse Digital Image Repository ( https://myndir.uvic.ca/)

In Collection:
Creator Subject Publisher Language Date created Resource type Rights statement Extent
  • 166 pages
Edition
  • New and Revised Edition
Geographic coverage Coordinates
  • 63, 12
Additional physical characteristics
  • Illustrations.
Collection
  • Norse Mythology Collection
Provenance
  • From the collection of Dr. Trish Baer.
Provider Genre Date digitized
  • October 2022
Technical note
  • Plustek flatbed book edge scanner @ 600dpi. Photoshop batch cropping, rotation, image size 4.8; digitization by KM. Metadata by KD.
Rights
  • This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
DOI

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