Did you know, in Yorkshire it was believed a person lying on a pillow stuffed with pigeon’s feathers could not die? Or that green is an unlucky colour for wedding dresses—in Scotland they would not even serve green vegetables at the wedding breakfast? In the West Country, the seventh son of a seventh son has the power to cure ringworm. You’ve heard about St. George, but how about the Green Man, who was believed to rule over the natural world? Or Black Shuck, the giant ghostly dog who was reputed to roam East Anglia? As well as looking at the history of this subject, this book has a directory of places you can go to see folklore alive and well today. The Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival, for example, or wassailing cider orchards in Somerset.

Following the hugely popular Treasury of Seas and Rivers and Woodlands and Forests comes Treasury of Stars and Skies, an exploration of the mysteries of the stars, skies, and heavens above. People have gazed up at the same stars for millennia, trading stories about them, conjuring gods and goddesses, mapping the constellations, and navigating the complex human world below. The tales, traditions, and myths included here traverse countries and continents and have been chosen to highlight how humans are linked through time and place, with shared dreams, fears, and ways of rationalizing the unknown. Under the Stars and Heavens section Willow delves into rosy fingered dawn and the hubris of Icarus, the Greek myths surrounding the constellations and the omen of meteors, the trials of the Hawaiian goddess Hina and the legend of the rabbit in the moon. In Skies we are introduced to winged Pegasus and the trials of the Firebird, the Witch of Westray and stories of storms, the mysteries of the Northern Lights and unexplained UFOs. Treasury of Stars and Skies is a fascinating portal into a rich history of myths surrounding the sky, an aspect of the natural world that continues to fascinate and confound.