Cirrus@Austlit

'Rolling a hitherto unknown word off the tongue or rediscovering an under-used word can be very satisfying in, I suspect, the manner of young children who seem to savour words for their sound. However, when you consider the importance of those words, those 26 letters employed to craft them cannot be over estimated : they are the building blocks of expression, and lifters of communication, thought, ideas, instruction ... all arranged in a myriad of combinations to produce, according to the 2nd edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, 171,486 words in current use. Add the many languages around the world and the concept is mind-blowing.' (Editorial)

'Kevin Crossley Holland has a new collection of of Norse Myths published and a striking work it is :  a thing of strength and wonder, but what has taken my fancy in particular is his introduction in which he refers to the myths as brilliant, fast moving, ice-bright stories. Equally melodramatic is his explanation of why myths were created and why we should still be reading them: They try to explain how humans are as we are and how things came to be. The tell us about ourselves and out world, but through the lens of imaginative story telling, coloured by the beauty and expanse and extremes of the icy fiery landscape where they originated.' (Editorial)