Blog Tour Guest Post & Giveaway: Chantress Fury by Amy Butler Greendfield

I have enjoyed being a stop for each of Amy's tours for this series and thrilled to have her here as she

talks about sea monsters! Definitely check out her list and enter the giveaway while you're here...

Chantress Fury

(Chantress Trilogy #3)

by Amy Butler Greenfield

YA Urban Fantasy

Paperback, 288 Pages

May 19th, 2015 by Margaret K. McElderry Books

Summary

The sea is coming. We are coming. And we will drown you all.

With a song, Lucy can control the wind and the water; she can bring castles and kingdoms to their feet. Since Lucy mastered her powers, King Henry has kept her close as he’s rebuilt England. She’s his best ally—and his workhorse. And now he’s called her to investigate attempted murder: His men claim they were almost killed on the Thames…by a mermaid. All Lucy can glean from the creature they’ve captured is a warning: The sea is coming. We are coming. And we will drown you all. 

And then the floods begin. Swaths of London are submerged as the people scramble to defend themselves against the water—and the monsters—that are flooding their streets. As mistrust of Lucy's magic grows, the king relies on Nat, Lucy's great love, to guide them through the storm. But Nat is cold and distant to Lucy. He swore his love only a year before, and now he calls her “stranger.”

Lucy is determined to defeat this powerful new magic alone if she must. But then she hears an eerie song within the water…can it mean that she’s not the last Chantress after all? 

Sweepingly romantic and crackling with magic, Chantress Fury triumphantly concludes the powerful Chantress trilogy.

    

Chantress Trilogy

Ten Sea Monsters

By Author Amy Butler Greenfield

Water magic plays a big role in the entire Chantress trilogy, but in Chantress Fury it takes center stage, as Lucy’s England is flooded and besieged by the wild magic of the seas. To bring this watery world to life, I researched ancient beliefs about sea monsters and water spirits, which was huge fun. Here are ten of the most fascinating creatures I came across:

1. Mermaids. Half-woman, half-fish, these gorgeous creatures appear in the mythologies of many cultures. Although Hans Christian Anderson and Disney have given them very good press, mermaids are traditionally a bad omen, especially if they sing. When they’re not combing their long, flowing hair, they usually can be found luring ships and sailors to their doom.

2. Melusine (sometimes called Melusina or Melisande). A variation on the mermaid legend, hugely popular in medieval and Renaissance Europe. A woman who was half-faerie and half-human, Melusine was cursed with legs that turned to a fish tail when she bathed or gave birth. She managed to hide this quirk from her husband for many years, but when he finally discovered her secret, he banished her. In her serpentine form, she is said to haunt both air and water.

3. Sirens. Often confused with mermaids, these creatures from Greek mythology can be found along the coastline, wrecking ships with their songs. Unlike mermaids, however, they have no fishy bits. Taking the appearance of beautiful women, they recline on coastal rocks, usually wearing nothing at all, except maybe a wispy bit of Greek drapery.

4. Sea Serpent. This is the classic scaly sea monster that rears up like a giant snake or dragon from the waters. Probably one of the oldest legends out there, it’s still going strong today. Its close relative is the lake monster – think Nessie (Loch Ness) or Champ (Lake Champlain).

5. Jormungand. The Midgard Serpent of Norse legend, Jormungand is the son of the trickster god Loki. Thrown into the ocean by Odin, Jormungand is so long that he circles the entire world, grasping his tail in his mouth. When he lets go, the world will end (or so the Vikings believed).

6. Jenny Greenteeth. Not a sea monster, strictly speaking, since she appears in fresh water, but certainly very monstrous in other respects. With green skin and sharp teeth, she lives at the bottom of stagnant, weedy pools, appearing at the surface to pull down unwary children and eat them. Most often spotted in Northwestern England, she is close cousin to Peg Powler and the grindylows of Yorkshire, and possibly to Beowulf’s Grendel, too.

7. Kraken. This enormous squid wraps its arms around ships and pulls them to the bottom of the sea. Originally part of Nordic folklore, it may have been inspired by sightings of real-life giant squids, which can be more than 40 feet long.

8. Scylla. Poor Scylla! Daughter of a Greek god, she was transformed by a jealous rival into a horrifying sea monster with six ferocious heads, twelve octopus-like legs, and various other bizarre appendages. She inhabited one side of a narrow strait of water, and Charybdis, a ferocious whirlpool, was on the other. Homer tells us that when Odysseus was forced to sail past one or the other of these terrors, he chose Scylla. (A good call—she plucked off a few of his sailors, but failed to destroy the whole ship.)

9. Leviathan. Discussed in the Book of Job, this sea monster has been depicted in many forms: as a sea serpent, a giant fish, a whale, and even a water-demon. Although the specifics aren’t clear, this is clearly a beast you wouldn’t want to meet out in the ocean. As the verses in Job put it: “When he rises up, the mighty are terrified; they retreat before his thrashing… The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear…. . He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment…. Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.”

10. Rusalka. A Russian water spirit with red hair and an unhappy past, a Rusalka is the soul of a young women who has been drowned or who drowned herself, often as a consequence of a jilting or an abusive marriage. The Rusalka’s favorite prey is young men, whom she entices in the water and then drowns.

Thanks so much for having me at Wishful Endings, Tressa!

It is always a pleasure to have you stop by, Amy!

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About the Author

Amy Butler Greenfield was a grad student in history when she gave into temptation and became a writer. Since then, she has become an award-winning author. 

Amy grew up in the Adirondack Mountains and later studied history at Williams College, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Oxford. She now lives with her family in England, where she writes, bakes double-dark-chocolate cake, and plots mischief.

    

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