ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES
Crossley-Holland, Kevin

King Alfred and the Ice Coffin

88 pp. | Candlewick Studio | November, 2024 | Trade ISBN 9781536238808 $18.99
(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Chris Riddell. Quick, lyrical prose, an ear for the music of words, and an affection for Britain's medieval past characterize much of Crossley-Holland's work. He brings it all into play in this "wonder-journey" first recorded in Old English by King Alfred in the ninth century. At home in his busy hall in Winchester, Alfred is an eager pupil, learning Latin so he can translate books into the language of his people and record their stories too. Then Wulfstan shows up and tells Alfred's court a strange tale. Shipwrecked with his "salt-friends," he was rescued by a people whose ways were very different: they drank only mares' milk and mead -- never ale. Imagine Wulfstan's even greater astonishment when their headman died and was packed with ice -- remaining in an ice coffin for a month while friends and family "kept him company" before setting him on his funeral pyre. Such unfamiliar rites are wonders in themselves, and Crossley-Holland vividly evokes the suspense of strangeness in Wulfstan's tale. With deft, pliable sentences, neatly embedded Old English poetic language (wonder-journey, bone-house), and a subtle orality of tone, Crossley-Holland makes Alfred's pursuits and the performance of Wulfstan's tale entrancing. The text's font, with its pen-on-parchment effect, quietly implies the temporal distance, as do Riddell's monochromatic images: pale browns for Alfred's court; fantastical, haunting blues for Wulfstan's tale. Yet the otherworldliness of the past is immersive in Riddell's double-page spreads, which draw us right into Alfred's hall or the pending weight of a colossal wave. An author's note contextualizes King Alfred's rule and literary legacy.
Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2025

RELATED 

FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

Nine Color Deer
by Duan, Kailin
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

An Illustrated Collection of Nordic Animal Tales
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

The Three Billy Goats Gruff
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

Mother Goose Goes to India
by , Sehgal, Kabir & Sehgal, Surishtha
FOLKTALES AND NURSERY RHYMES

What Are Little Girls Made Of?
by Willis, Jeanne
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?