Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Linda Raedisch, author of Night of the Witches, Old Magic of Christmas, and the new Lore of Old Elfland.
[caption id="attachment_16705" align="aligncenter" width="300"] The Rumpelwichtelbaum at the Viking Museum in Haithabu, Germany.[/caption]
When my editor asked me if I had any special wishes for the cover of Lore of Old Elfland, I told her what I didn't want: elves. If there absolutely had to be elves on the cover, I said, they should be well camouflaged, covered in lichen, tucked away among the roots of trees. Then I thought of what I did want: a tree, and not just any tree, but one particular European beech now known in our family