The Junior Classics, Volume 2: Folk Tales and Myths

Published in 1918 as part of The Junior Classics series, this anthology has been opening doors to the ancient world for young readers for over a century. It gathers folk tales, legends, and myths from across civilizations, particularly drawing from Norse, Greek, and Roman traditions, and weaves them into a single enchanted volume. The book opens with a sweeping Norse creation myth: the birth of the giant Ymir, the wars between gods and giants, and the shaping of Midgard and Asgard. From there, readers encounter Odin the All-Father, heroic quests, love stories, and nature personified through a cast of emblematic characters and creatures. What distinguishes this collection is its unusual curation. Some tales have become beloved standards, while others, marked here as 'failed to find elsewhere', remain remarkably rare, preserved in these pages when they might otherwise have been lost to time. This is a book for the curious child who has devoured Greek myths and hungers for something wilder, stranger, and less familiar. It endures because it treats its young readers as worthy of the real thing: stories that are dark, funny, violent, and beautiful, exactly as they have been told for millennia.