Castles

by Alan Lee

Librarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780553050660.

Recounts legends, folk stories, and fairy tales dealing with castles from the traditions of England, Norway, Germany, and other countries

Genres: Art, Fantasy, Reference, Fiction, Historical, Architecture, Picture Books

191 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1984

About the author

Alan Lee is an English book illustrator and movie conceptual designer. He was born on 20 August 1947 in Middlesex, England and studied at the Ealing School of Art, specialising in illustration, and has illustrated a wide range of books, including Faeries (with Brian Froud), The Mabinogion, Castles, Merlin Dreams, The Black Ships of Troy and The Wanderings of Oysseus.

He is best known for his award winning work on The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien - having done illustration work for both the books and the Peter Jackson directed movies. As of 2011, he is working on The Hobbit movies, based on Tolkien's book, again directed by Peter Jackson.

Tolkien's work has inspired him ever since he read his books at an early age. Alan Lee is also inspired by nature, myth, legends and Folklore.

Alan Lee draws a lot of inspiration from nature around in which he lives - he lives and works on the edge of Dartmoor, in Devon, England.

Recommended articles:
* http://www.endicott-studio.com/gal/ga....
* http://gaytonvanryn.blogspot.com/2011... and http://gaytonvanryn.blogspot.com/2011....

His artistic influences include:
"I've been strongly influenced, in technique as well as subject matter, by some of the early 20th-century book illustrators — Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac in particular, Burne-Jones and other Pre-Raphaelites, and the Arts-&-Crafts movement they engendered. I'm continually inspired by Rembrandt, Breughel (I've wondered whether his brilliant "Tower of Babel" had inspired Tolkien's description of Minas Tyrith), Hieronymous Bosch, Albrecht Durer, and Turner; it's not necessarily that they influence my work in any particular direction, more that their example raises my spirits, re-affirms my belief in the power of images to move and delight us, and shows me how much further I have to go, how much is possible. Having visited Venice and Florence for the first time, I am besotted with the Italian Renaissance artists — Botticelli, Bellini, da Vinci and others. Their work is calm, controlled, and yet each face and landscape contains such passion." - Alan Lee

fan homepage:
http://alan-lee.narod.ru/Bio.htm

Reviews

[MissBecka Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful way to string together folklore stories from a multitude of cultures.
The illustrations are just as whimsical as the tales.
I highly recommend to everyone!

[Edwina Book Anaconda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply magical and highly recommended to lovers of fairytales and fables.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for Alan Lee's art, 4.5 stars for the prose. The fact that this book introduced me to several new myths - particularly some Arthurian tales I was unfamiliar with is what makes me rate it a 5 as a whole.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alan Lee’s illustrations were amazing, but the text was a mix of fictional encyclopedia and storybook, and didn’t succeed at either one very well.

[Tobin Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely gorgeous book. Incredible illustrations, and the writing just adds to it. Brilliant.

[Mara]

Gorgeous book from the 1980s that I remembered reading as a kid, so I read it aloud to my youngest boys at bed time. We all enjoyed it!

[Ashley T · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The illustrations are glorious and dreamy (duh- Alan Lee) and well worth getting the book for. The text is very Western European centric and a little disorganized. Sometimes the author tells you the story, sometimes he generalizes about how castles are depicted in certain types of tales, sometimes he summarizes, sometimes he analyses with no summary, and sometimes fascinating sounding stories are mentioned in passing. Interesting content, just not very consistent or organized. I did like that generally the book followed the depiction of castles in stories chronologically. There were also quite a few tales I hadn’t heard, which is always great.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alan Lee's art is amazing! He does a wonderful job of summerizing various legends and myths as he illustrates them. From early Celt through the Arthurian Romances, and beyond he does a fantastic job of catching the very essence of the story. My mother bought this book for me many years ago, and I've held on to it. It is like a fine wine that gets better with age. One of those books I keep returning to.

[Lucia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, fantastic!! The drawings are (as usual) completely breathtaking, Lee paints & draws lands you want to throw yourself into. The writing is also extremely interesting & perfect if you (like me) adore legends & faerie tales.

[brian tanabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yes, this is the Alan Lee of Tolkien illsutrations fame. BUT, I would actually recommend this book more for castle fans than anything else. The author and Lee tie together stories and castles of folklore quite nicely.

[Erinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cousin of mine gave me this book when she saw how I kept going back to it at her house to page through it. I don't think I had any clue at that time that this was one of the same authors that did the Faerie book I loved so much.

[Gareth Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've loved Alan Lee's work for 25 years, ever since I saw his illustrations for The Mabinogion and Titus Groan. This is a great book too. I'm lucky enough to have several of Alan Lee's works hanging on my walls, and every time I pass them, they give me joy.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure whether to class this as fiction or non-fiction, but the artwork is beautiful.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lee's artwork with stories from myth and legend. What more do you want in book?

[Kara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good introdction to a lot of the myths and legends of Europe, told in a very well strung together interlcoking chain of stories.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came for the illustrations of castles, stayed for the prose survey of castles throughout European storytelling.

Wonderful art, of course.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books growing up. I used to make the castles in his artwork out of legos. I think the hardest one was doing the castle of skulls. Don't ask, yes it worked. lol.

[Anna C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always suspected that Alan Lee is a demigod- now confirmed. David Day is still a mere mortal, but Alan Lee is, I think, literally the grandson of Aulë or something.

[Hugo Negron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I ordered this book from the mid-80's recently which I had always wanted to read. It's a wonderful book for fantasy aficionados and castle lovers everywhere. The book is broken down into three chapters with beautiful watercolor and pencil illustrations by Alan Dee, and text by David Day. The first chapter details castles from myths such as the Valkyrie's Tower, the citadel of Asgard, the Ice Castle of Utgard-Loke, and the Castle of Balor, to name a few. The second chapter deals with castles from the Age of Romance - from Camelot to the court of Charlemagne to Siegfried and the Rhine Castles.

The last chapter reflects upon castles from fantasy literature - the Castle of Earthly Paradise, Oberon's Castle of Gold, Dracula's Castle, Poe's Castle of the Red Death, Barad-Dur, the Dark Tower of Mordor and Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings, and even Gormenghast from Mervyn Peake's the Gormenghast Trilogy.

The writing complements the illustrations nicely, reminding me of the story flow from the Time Life Enchanted World book series. There are many myths I was familiar with (Norse mythology, King Arthur, Beowulf, the Tuatha De Danaan), but I was pleasantly surprised at the tales I didn't know - the Polish tale of a castle that sat upon a mountain of pure glass, Jack the Giant-Killer and the Castle of Galigantus, Amadis and the Castle of Apollidon on the Firm Island, Dietrich and the Castle of the Ice Queen, and the Bloody Castle of Altaripa.

[Russell Fox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful old picture book is filled with history and myth, as David Day lays out stories of ancient English, Welsh, Irish, Norse, French, and German history, as well as the stories of various myths and fairy tales from those same cultures, and some stories of modern fantasy literature too, all surrounding the great castles at the heart of so many of these tales. The artwork is gorgeous (though often more impressionistic than detailed), and the connections between the stories is eye-opening. I great read.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have had this book for many years but always dwelled on the incredible artwork by Alan Lee. Well worth owning the book for this reason. However this year I decided to read the text, by David Day. It's a collection of overviews of castles throughout myth & literature--like an easy anthology of some of the greatest mythic castles. I must have read SOME of the words before, because I know this is the book where I learned the word "ensorcelled" (p. 106).

Beautiful book full of legends (the page about Vlad the Impaler was DISTURBING).

[Bec · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute delight. Lee's paintings are stunning, and Day gives just enough information about each myth, legend or tale to let the reader chase down the full story if it so takes their fancy (yes, I'm one of those readers!) Adored it, loved it, will be keeping for rereading.

[Mark]

Rec. by Dave Langford, "Critical Mass" (book reviews), in White Dwarf 60.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Childhood book. Loved Alan Lee's works since I was able to check out books from a library

[JKR · Rating 4 out of 5]

Writing: 3 stars / Subject matter: 4 stars / Art: 5 stars

[Deirdre E Siegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A visual treasure:-)

[Margot]

Brian, thanks for tipping me off to this. I know of Alan Lee's work and I'm excited to see this book.

[Brett]

Non-fiction,History

[Nati Ferrino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un tesoro para leerlo y para tenerlo en la biblioteca a mano para cada vez que se necesite inspiración ✨
Las ilustraciones de Alan Lee cortan el aliento...

[Nishi Serrano · Rating 5 out of 5]

If only I still had my copy (the original)! Beautful, haunting illustrations.