River Legends; Or, Father Thames and Father Rhine

About the book

A visitor to Eton falls asleep near the river and awakens to an extraordinary gathering: Father Thames and Father Rhine sit together like crowned old gentlemen, enjoying refreshments and conversation. Their meeting supplies a frame for tales of the lands around their waters. A monstrous boar troubles Windsor Forest; other adventures involve family enmity, giants, witches, and the strange inhabitants of a castle. Knatchbull-Hugessen moves easily between mock solemnity and familiar social comedy, giving supernatural beings the habits and irritations of ordinary storytellers. The collection invites readers to imagine landscape as a store of extravagant narrative possibilities. Its legends are presented through a deliberately playful literary voice, with the rivers' rivalry and sociability helping to bind the separate adventures together.

• Landscape and storytelling
• Comic fantasy
• Rivalry and fellowship

Why read it

The convivial river gods give the separate fairy tales a memorable shared setting and voice.

English text of the 1875 collection