Top of the World Stories for Boys and Girls: Fantastic Tales for Children Translated from the Scandinavian Languages

Not for my dear usual public of little children have I gathered these stories from Scandinavian authors, but for boys and girls who have reached a stage which warrants a rather free range in Story Land. For here are to be encountered creatures and events, deeds and ideas, unsuited to youngest readers, but which have legitimate attraction for boys and girls from nine to fourteen years old—the age varying according to the child's maturity and previous reading. Five of these stories were written by the noted Finnish author, Zachris Topelius, who wrote them, and much else, for the children of Finland and Sweden more than fifty years ago. His loving sympathy for children, and his earnest desire to write only what was wholesome and good for them, shine through all his literary work for the young. His "Läsning för Barn" (Reading for Children) in several volumes, contains stories, true and imaginative, poems, songs, hymns, and many charming plays for children to act. Although a Finn, Topelius wrote in the Swedish language. By the kind permission of Miss Margaret Böcher I have made use of her excellent rendering of “Sampo Lappelil”. Of the other stories presented here, two (“The Forest Witch” and “The Testing of the Two Knights”) were translated from the Danish, and one (Anton's Errand, or The Boy Who Made Friends by the Way) from the Norwegian. It is a pleasure to publish this new, high quality, and affordable edition of these timeless stories.