Runes of the North

· Sold by Knopf
Ebook
254
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

A rune is, in its general meaning, a tale of magic and mystery. To Sigurd Olson it expresses his feelings about the haunting appeal of the wilderness and of the tales and legends to be found there. His runes are legends, yards, and wilderness reflections drawn from the great northern vastness of Canada and Alaska. Whether he is recounting a charming Indian myth, such as “The Dream Net,” or describing the exhilaration of the sauna, the primitive Finnish bath, or sharing the pleasure of digging a spring for a remote 

Runes of the North
is divided into two sections: one, “Le Beau Pays,” reveals woodland lore of the land of big timber, rushing white water streams, and “lost” lakes of the Canadian border; the other, “Pays d’en Haut,” has for the setting of its chapters the wilderness farther north, from Hudson Bay across the Barren Grounds and tundra to the Yukon and Alaska. This new book by the author of The Singing Wilderness, Listening Point, and The Lonely Land will please thousands of readers who have found in him a kindred spirit and a man who puts into words their own deep feelings about nature.

Robert Hines’s jacket drawing of the loon, symbol of far places, and his atmospheric pen-and-inks of birds, animals, and voyageurs add pictorial appeal to these tales and ruminations of the Big North, ancient, old, and modern.

About the author

Sigurd F. Olson is known by a generation of wilderness canoemen as the Bourgeois, as voyageurs of old called their trusted leaders. The author of The Singing Wilderness, Listening Point, The Lonely Land, and Runes of the North is one of our country’s well-known woodsmen and naturalists. Born in Chicago in 1899, educated at the University of Wisconsin (Geology) and the University of Illinois (Plant and Animal Ecology), he was a professor and dean until he began devoting himself entirely to wilderness interpretation and its preservation. Mr. Olson is a former President of the National Parks Association, and is still a member of its Board of Trustees. He serves on the Council of the Wilderness Society and as a consultant to the Izaak Walton League of America, the President’s Quetico-Superior Committee, and since 1952 the Department of the Interior. His home is in Ely, Minnesota, gateway to the canoe country.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.