Search Loading suggestions...

Travel Light: The enchanting rediscovered fantasy classic

UK Publisher: Virago

Riding on that horse you would need nothing, no cloak even. She dropped it on the edge of the marshland. Nothing. You could travel light.

Halla is the daughter of a king, cast out as a baby into a world of danger and enchantment. She is raised by bears, lives amongst dragons, converses with Valkyries and avoids warmongering heroes. But times are changing, and an encounter with the Wanderer, Odin All-Father, finds her at a crossroads. Cutting a fold from his night-blue cloak and laying it over her shoulders, the Wanderer sends her on a journey into the unknown. With only her bear-like kindness, her dragonish wisdom and her own fierce spirit to guide her, Halla must forge her own path . . .

Weaving folklore, fairy tale and Norse myth into a shimmering, witty and slyly subversive tapestry, Travel Light is a rediscovered gem of classic fantasy writing – perfect for fans of Tolkien, Philip Pullman and Ursula K. Le Guin.

REVIEWS

‘Read it now’ – Ursula Le. Guin

‘Quiet and thoughtful, playful and wayward, rich with exquisite worldbuilding detail. I only wish – as an author who always dreamed of dragons – that I had discovered Travel Light sooner’ – Samantha Shannon

‘besting Tolkien in at least three ways: it has wit, women and beautiful prose… a brave and unusual work from a fascinating writer – The Spectator

‘No one knows better how to spin a fairy tale than Naomi Mitchison’ – Observer

‘I felt, very powerfully, that I had been waiting for Travel Light’ – Amal El-Mohtar, author of This is How You Lose the Time War 

‘Disarmingly familiar, like a memory only half-recalled. You will love this book’ – Holly Black, author of Book of Night

‘Utterly contemporary’ – Daily Mail

Naomi Mitchison was a novelist, poet and passionate campaigner for social justice and women's rights. Born in Edinburgh, Mitchison's first...