Ring Out: A Book of Bells - Hardcover

The sound of the bell is the sound of the world's past. The people of medieval towns and cities rose, ate, prayed and retired to the ringing, jingling, pealing of bells.
Bells are a part of the world's present, too. Electric alarms wake late sleepers. Electronic bells call out classroom changes and clocks still ring in the hours and the New Year all over the world.
As the author comments, 'Where men and their civilisations have flourished, bells flourished, their voices touching all fields of human endeavour'.
In this refreshing book, Jane Yolen expertly combines information on bells with tales about them from different cultures and periods. Legends and stories add colour to the passages describing the long history of bells and their uses in times of war - and peace. The importance of bells in religion is stressed, especially the part they have always played in man's great rituals celebrating birth, marriage and death.
Factual chapters give information on how bells are made and how they are struck in the art of change ringing and the book concludes with a charming chapter of poetry and song inspired by bells.