Research Catalog

Title

The lure of the honey bird : the storytellers of Ethiopia / Elizabeth Laird.

Author

Laird, Elizabeth

Publication

Edinburgh : Polygon, 2013.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

ix, 374 p. ; ill.; 22 cm.

Summary

In 1967, at the age of 23, Elizabeth Laird set off for Addis Ababa to take up her first teaching post. She was introduced to Haile Selassie, made a pilgrimage across the mountain on foot to the ancient city of Lalibela, hitched a ride on an oil tanker across the Danakil Desert, and was arrested for a murder she did not commit. Back in Britain, Laird established herself as a major author of fiction for children and young adults, but she always wanted to return to Ethiopia. Her chance came in the late 1990s, when the British Council in Addis Ababa invited her to collect folk stories from every region of the country. Encountering ex-guerrilla fighters, camel traders, Coptic nuns and tribespeople en route, Laird has written a remarkable account of her journey interwoven with a treasure trove of stories featuring princes and maidens, snakes and lions, zombies and hyena-women.

Subject

• Laird, Elizabeth > Travel > Ethiopia
• Storytelling > Ethiopia
• Oral tradition > Ethiopia
• Ethiopia > Description and travel
• Ethiopia > Social life and customs

Genre/Form

• Autobiography
• Autobiographies
• Autobiographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Addis Ababa -- Jesters and zombies in Amhara -- Forty dogs in Tigray -- The Hyena King of Afar -- Tricksters in Gambela -- The magic cow in the forest -- Mighty queens in Sidama and Wolayita -- The man who grew feathers in Oromia -- Echoes of Baghdad in Harar -- The lion's bride of Somalia -- The porcupine man of the Beni Shangul -- The Bard of Bonga -- A chanceful person.

ISBN

• 9781846972461 (pbk.)
• 1846972469 (pbk.)

OCLC

843811583

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library