New England is rich in history and mystery. Numerous sleepy little towns and farming communities distinguish the region's scenic tranquility. But not long ago, New Englanders lived in fear of spectral ghouls believed to rise from their graves and visit family members in the night to suck their lives away. Although the word "vampire" was never spoken, scores of families disinterred loved ones during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries searching for telltale signs that one of them might be what is now referred to as the New England vampire.

William Penn, the might of Pittsburgh steel and the Revolutionary figures of Philadelphia dominate the scene of Pennsylvania history. Thomas White brings together a collection of tales that have been cast in the shadows by these giants of the Keystone State. From the 1869 storm that pelted Chester County with snails to the bloody end of the Cooley gang, White selects events with an eye for the humorous and strange. Mostly true accounts of cannibalistic feasts, goat-rescuing lawmen, heroic goldfish, the funeral of a gypsy queen and a Pittsburgh canine whose obituary was featured in the "New York Times" all leap from the lost pages of history.

This book contains a detailed account of the various types of Icelandic folk-story, their likely origins and sources, the folk-beliefs they represent, and their meanings. In Iceland, people do not compose verse just to comfort themselves; they worship poetry and believe in it. In poetry is a power which rules men's lives and health, governs wind and sea. Icelanders have faith in hymns and sacred poems too, because of their content. They also have faith in secular poetry composed by themselves, believing it to be no less able to move mountains than religious faith is. By this belief in their own culture, they transfer it into the realm of mythology, and the glow of the super-human is shed over it. Whatever may have been their origin, the folk-stories of Iceland come to mirror the people's life and character, and in the period when the idea gained ground that all power comes from the people, their poetry and lore became sacred things that were revered and looked to as a potential source of strength. Icelandic folk-stories were similarly an important element in the Icelanders' struggle for national and cultural integrity in the nineteenth century. They were more truly Icelandic than anything else worthy of the name.