Created by the powerful Hasyisi, yet missing for centuries from its home world, the Lyre just hangs in a willow tree, waiting. Hasyih, the Heart of the Worlds, links contiguous dimensions, many worlds invisible to each other, yet accessible through doors on Hasyih, one of the keys to which is the Lyre. Now danger threatens both Hasyih and Ranuit, the only inhabited worlds in the group, and when a young girl takes the Lyre from the willow tree, a set of interlinked activities is set into motion. Moving from world to world, going into the hands of the one who needs it most at the time, the Lyre reveals its nature as not only a Key, but also as a Weapon, an Enigma, an Answer, and a resolution, affecting both Hasyih and Ranuit. And the girl Queen Yisri is the center of it all.

"First published by Penguin Books, Australia"--Copyright page.

An action-packed, mythological chapter book series from Tony Abbott! The underworld is in our world now. . . .Owen, Jon, and Sydney managed to rescue Dana from the underworld. But if they don't fulfill their end of the bargain with Hades, she might be headed back -- forever. As if that wasn't bad enough, some very creepy, very one-eyed mythological beasts are on the loose. Cyclopes have taken over the power plant in Pinewood Bluffs! Owen and his friends have to stop them before they destroy the town. But what chance do four kids stand against an army of mythological monsters?

Practical Symbols is an empowering guide to the surprising history of over 250 symbols, showing you how to invoke their properties whenever you need them.

The myth of Orpheus articulates what social theorists have known since Plato: music matters. It is uniquely able to move us, to guide the imagination, to evoke memories, and to create spaces within which meaning is made. Popular music occupies a place of particular social and cultural significance. Christopher Partridge explores this significance, analyzing its complex relationships with the values and norms, texts and discourses, rituals and symbols, and codes and narratives of modern Western cultures. He shows how popular music's power to move, to agitate, to control listeners, to shape their identities, and to structure their everyday lives is central to constructions of the sacred and the profane. In particular, he argues that popular music can be important 'edgework,' challenging dominant constructions of the sacred in modern societies. Drawing on a wide range of musicians and musical genres, as well as a number of theoretical approaches from critical musicology, cultural theory, sociology, theology, and the study of religion, The Lyre of Orpheus reveals the significance and the progressive potential of popular music.

The Ruthwell Cross is one of the finest Anglo-Saxon high crosses that have come down to us. The longest epigraphic text in the Old English Runes Corpus is inscribed on two sides of the monument: it forms an alliterative poem, in which the Cross itself narrates the crucifixion episode. Parts of the inscription are irrevocably lost. This study establishes a historico-cultural context for the Ruthwell Cross’s texts and sculptures. It shows that The Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem is an integral part of a Christian artefact but also an independent text. Although its verses match closely with lines of The Dream of the Rood in the Vercelli Book, a comparative analysis gives new insight into their complex relationship. An annotated transliteration of the runes offers intriguing information for runologists. Detailed linguistic and metrical analyses finally yield a new reconstruction of the lost runes. All in all, this study takes a fresh look at the Ruthwell Cross and provides the first scholarly edition of the reconstructed Ruthwell Crucifixion Poem—one of the earliest religious poems of Anglo-Saxon England. It will be of interest to scholars and students of historical linguistics, medieval English literature and culture, art history, and archaeology.

The formerly noble, now downtrodden horse known as Dogmeat helps Annie and her family reassess their values.

Seven-foot-tall Grittel, daughter of the Lord of Sundoth, has refused the impossible marriage arranged by her domineering mother. Now an embarrassment to her family, she is sent forth to make her own way in the world. But Grittel Sundotha is no shrinking maiden. Along the way she castrates a noble noted for his lechery; defeats the assassins he sends after her; and, having been trapped by a sorceress in an enchanted forest, winds up boiling the witch in her own cauldron, taking with her the spell book she finds there. This proves invaluable, for she finds that she has an innate gift for sorcery. When she meets a space ship's crew whose vessel has been pulled from their own dimension (where magic is impossible), into Grittel's (where technology does not work), she attempts to prove her abilities by "clearing" the Captain's head--and instead, inadvertently makes it invisible. She knows that she must find the wizard whose spell has trapped the ship, for only he can send the vessel home. But not all mages on this world practice white magic!

Solomon Peat, the wry narrator of Slewfoot Sally and the Flying Mule, returns with 17 more tall tales of Cotton County, Texas, including "The Day of the Boomers," "Fierce as a Banty Hen," "The Ring-Tailed Sidewinder," "The Skunk Works," "The Crooked-Tail Cow," and "The Loquat Eyes." Also featured are two original children's fantasies, "The Jeweled Mouse" and "The Kingdom of Yip."

Araminta Palomer, the oversheltered child of a wealthy family, enlivens her life by imagining a near-invisible animal playmate-Willbe. But "Minta" possesses an unsuspected psychic talent, and so she unwittingly creates a tulpa, an envisioned being that gradually becomes tangible, first to herself and then to others. Willbe seems a loving companion at first, but as Minta matures, he changes into an increasingly perilous and unreliable friend. Learning to un-create Willbe becomes Araminta's lifelong ambition, as he threatens her governess, her family -- and even herself! "Mayhar is a master at creating fantastical situations and strange creatures embedded within the everyday lives of attractive, recognizable characters. Her fans will love this new fantasy!" --Robert Reginald. First Publication in Book Form!