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- Herausgeber: Hesperus Press Ltd.
- Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
- Sprache: Englisch
Who is Santa Claus? We all know he is real, but where did he come from, and how does he deliver presents to all the children of the world? In this wonderful book, L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, tells the true story of Santa Claus, from being found as a baby in the woods to making the first toy the world has ever seen (a carving of his cat Blinkie), to the invention of the dolly, the Christmas stocking, the Christmas tree, his battles with the evil Awgwas and being granted the mantle of immortality so he can keep bringing joy to children for ever. Beautifully written, and with glorious new illustration by John Shelley, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus brings the magic of the Oz books to the life of Father Christmas. Introducing unforgettable characters like the Master Woodsman, Necile the Wood-Nymph and little Mayrie, who just wants a toy of her own, this is a book for children of all ages, and is as immortal as Santa Claus himself.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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the life and adventures of santa claus
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Published by Hesperus Press Limited 28 Mortimer Street, London W1W 7RDwww.hesperuspress.com
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus first published in 1902. This edition published by Hesperus Press Limited, 2016.
Illustrated by John Shelley Design by Madeline Meckiffe Printed by Liber Duplex Barcelona
ISBN: 978-1-84391-590-4
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be resold, lent, hired out or otherwise circulated without the express prior consent of the publisher.
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the life and adventures of santa claus
l. frank baum
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contents
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youth
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chapter one
burzee
Have you heard of the great Forest of Burzee? Nurse used to sing of it when I was a child. She sang of the big tree-trunks, standing close together, with their roots intertwining below the earth and their branches intertwining above it; of their rough coating of bark and queer, gnarled limbs; of the bushy foliage that roofed the entire forest, save where the sunbeams found a path through which to touch the ground in little spots and to cast weird and curious shadows over the mosses, the lichens and the drifts of dried leaves.
The Forest of Burzee is mighty and grand and awesome to those who steal beneath its shade. Coming from the sunlit meadows into its mazes, it seems at first gloomy, then pleasant, and afterwards filled with never-ending delights.
For hundreds of years it has flourished in all its magnificence, the silence of its enclosure unbroken save by the chirp of busy chipmunks, the growl of wild beasts and the songs of birds.
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Yet Burzee has its inhabitants—for all this. Nature peopled it in the Beginning with Fairies, Knooks, Ryls and Nymphs. As long as the forest stands it will be a home, a refuge and a play ground to these sweet immortals, who revel undisturbed in its depths.
Civilization has never yet reached Burzee. Will it ever, I wonder?
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chapter two
the child of the forest
Once, so long ago our great-grandfathers could scarcely have heard it mentioned, there lived within the great Forest of Burzee a Wood-Nymph named Necile. She was closely related to the mighty Queen Zurline, and her home was beneath the shade of a wide-spreading oak. Once every year, on Budding Day, when the trees put forth their new buds, Necile held the Golden Chalice of Ak to the lips of the Queen, who drank therefrom to the prosperity of the forest. So you see she was a Nymph of some importance, and, moreover, it is said she was highly regarded because of her beauty and grace.
When she was created, she could not have told; Queen Zurline could not have told; the great Ak himself could not have told. It was long ago when the world was new and Nymphs were needed to guard the forests and to minister to the wants of the young trees. Then, on some day not remembered, Necile sprang into being: radiant, lovely, straight and slim as the sapling she was created to guard.
Her hair was the colour that lines a chestnut burr; her eyes were blue in the sunlight and purple in the shade; her cheeks bloomed with the faint pink that edges the clouds at sunset; her lips were full red, pouting and
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sweet. For costume she adopted oak-leaf green; all the Wood-Nymphs dress in that colour and know no other so desirable. Her dainty feet were sandal-clad, while her head remained bare of covering other than her silken tresses.
Necile’s duties were few and simple. She kept hurtful weeds from growing beneath her trees and sapping the earth-food required by her charges. She frightened away the Gadgols, who took evil delight in flying against the tree-trunks and wounding them so that they drooped and died from the poisonous contact. In dry seasons she carried water from the brooks and pools and moistened the roots of her thirsty dependants.
That was in the Beginning. The weeds had now learned to avoid the forests where Wood-Nymphs dwelt; the loathsome Gadgols no longer dared come nigh; the trees had become old and sturdy and could bear the drought better than when fresh-sprouted. So Necile’s duties were lessened, and time grew laggard, while succeeding years became more tiresome and uneventful than the Nymph’s joyous spirit loved.
Truly the forest-dwellers did not lack amusement. Each full moon they danced in the Royal Circle of the Queen. There were also the Feast of Nuts, the Jubilee of Autumn Tintings, the solemn ceremony of Leaf-Shedding and the revelry of Budding Day. But these periods of enjoyment were far apart, and left many weary hours between.
That a Wood-Nymph should grow discontented was not thought of by Necile’s sisters. It came upon her only after many years of brooding. But when once
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she had settled in her mind that life was irksome, she had no patience with her condition, and longed to do something of real interest and to pass her days in ways hitherto undreamed of by forest Nymphs. The Law of the Forest alone restrained her from going forth in search of adventure.
While this mood lay heavy upon pretty Necile it chanced that the great Ak visited the Forest of Burzee and allowed the Wood-Nymphs, as was their wont, to lie at his feet and listen to the words of wisdom that fell from his lips. Ak is the Master Woodsman of the world; he sees everything, and knows more than the sons of men.
That night he held the Queen’s hand, for he loved the Nymphs as a father loves his children; and Necile lay at his feet with many of her sisters and earnestly harkened as he spoke.
‘We live so happily, my fair ones, in our forest glades,’ said Ak, stroking his grizzled beard thoughtfully, ‘that we know nothing of the sorrow and misery that fall to the lot of those poor mortals who inhabit the open spaces of the earth. They are not of our race, it is true, yet compassion well befits beings so fairly favoured as ourselves. Often, as I pass by the dwelling of some suffering mortal, I am tempted to stop and banish the poor thing’s misery. Yet suffering, in moderation, is the natural lot of mortals, and it is not our place to interfere with the laws of Nature.’
‘Nevertheless,’ said the fair Queen, nodding her golden head at the Master Woodsman, ‘it would not be a vain guess that Ak has often assisted these hapless mortals.’
Ak smiled.
