Tony Mitton (1951–2022)

Wayland is a modern retelling of Wayland the Smith from a poem within the Poetic with exquisite woodcut artwork from John Lawrence.

The tale is simplified with its originally ambiguous ending made more happily ever after and told in alternating rhyming couplets.

It's a beautiful book and an impressive undertaking that seems to succeed in want it sets out to do, I'm just not sure exactly who it's for. It's written in a way that suggests it's a children's book, but deals with many adult themes, including an ongoing sexual liason between Wayland and Gunhild, the daughter of the king that imprisoned him, including illustrations, and the plot point of a picture and reveal of Wayland and Gunhild doing the sex carved into the skulls of her brothers, which their mother and father were unwittingly drinking from...

I think there is a sad and all to common 'remaining true to the original', despite other changes made, to classical and historical narratives without in anyway engaging with how much these stories rely on the backwards politics of when they were written. This means those 'modern' retellings are only modern in so far as their language and presentation and continue to put forth fucked ideas, which is one thing when it's presented to adults with an understanding of the source and context, but quite another when presented to kids. In before anyone tries to accuse me of trying to cancel Sæmundr, Snorri, Wayland, or Mitton. I don't even think the story elements need to be changed, I just think the passive way everything, beyond Wayland being seen as a pure and good hero because he was nice to his kidnapped bride and only orchestrated a situation where the princes killed each other, cut their heads off, carved their deaths and him making fuck berserker with the princess on their skulls and serving them to their parents, rather than killing them himself.

Also, what the fuck did the princess do to have him blow up her spot? Like, we never see her after hearing about their trysts. This revelation could be really bad for her. It's also really gross for 'haha I fucked your daughter' to be an own. I just think maybe don't serve ancient sexual politics to kids--of course people should talk to kids about this stuff if necessary and it's not an artist's responsibility to explain things to their audience...but I think it kinda is if you are making something for kids.

Look, it's pretty. It's kinda cute. I am OK with rhyming couplets up to a point, but this was way too much for me, and I have to say that I think Philip Pullman is somewhat to blame for how much this didn't hit for me with just delirious his quote on the cover is, "I've read nothing so enthralling for a long time". Get. Fucked.… (mere)