The Book of Ballads and Sagas, by Charles Vess et al

This is an odd collection of more than a dozen old folk ballads, retold by authors such as Neil Gaiman, Charles de Lint, Delia Sherman, Emma Bull, Midori Snyder, Jane Yolen and others, each illustrated by Charles Vess (entirely in black and white) as a short graphic novel, collected together as The Book of Ballads in 2004, and slightly expanded as The Book of Ballads and Sagas in 2018. (The new, unfinished saga item is based on Old Norse legends.) The whole product is reminiscent of the various fairy tale retellings edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (the latter provides an introduction to this volume) in the 1990s and 2000s. One tires rather easily of such retellings, even when some new ingredient is added. But how many versions can one stand of Tam Lin, Thomas the Rhymer and other ballads--things that were pretty ephemeral and unengaging in their original forms. Vess's illustrations don't really help, and I'm afraid I found the whole collection tired. Others may feel differently, of course, but there was nothing in here that even mildly piqued my interest.