I loved the story of the old woman as a child - in the version we had, it was a fairy, and the old woman "never thought to say thank you to the fairy".

The Emelya story starts like the fish story you mention, but ends up differently, as Emelya doesn't quite overstretch himself.

The Hephaestos/Satan parallel reminds me of some books that popped up at school. I'm not sure if the author was the graphic artist who did the pictures - they were graphic versions. The first I came across was Genesis, and it was literal in interpretation. The second was Prometheus, and it was told through the same eyes as Genesis, emphasising how wrong P was to oppose Zeus, totally regardless of how Zeus came to be king of the gods, or what sort of being he was. It was wrong to rebel against the king. I'm not sure if she did a Norse book with Loki, or if I have imagined how she would have done it.

After reading her on Prometheus, I could quite have turned sympathetic to Satan as well. I like your attitude to Hephaestos - despite all, he was one of the good guys.

Penny