Remarkable collection

• Published date: 10 March 2022
• Publication title: Taupo Weekender

By A. W. Reed, revised by Ross Calman, Oratia Books, $59.99

Alexander Wyclif Reed, who died in 1979, was one of the country’s most influential writers and publishers and his work on Māori mythology has been around for decades. His first collection of myths was published in 1963.

Ross Calman is an author and translator who has written extensively on Māori language, legends and Treaty issues. Almost 60 years later, he has revised Reed’s work on gods and people and produced a valuable volume of traditions from the underworld, demigods and...