Myth and the Greatest Generation calls into question the glowing paradigm of the World War II generation set up by such books as The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw.

Including analysis of news reports, memoirs, novels, films and other cultural artefacts Ken Rose shows the war was much more disruptive to the lives of Americans in the military and on the home front during World War II than is generally acknowledged. Issues of racial, labor unrest, juvenile delinquency, and marital infidelity were rampant, and the black market flourished.

This book delves into both personal and national issues, calling into questions the dominant view of World War II as 'The Good War'.

The perfect gift for nature lovers - The Book of the Owl is a beautifully illustrated small format hardback exploring the legend and history of the owl. A true celebration of this magnificent creature - its natural powers and its mythical glory. Fans of Stephen Moss and Fiona Stafford will not be disappointed. 'In this short, beautiful little book, the farmer and nature writer introduces us to the wisdom of owls.. every question you might ask ... is answered with economy and insight and the cultural references and quotations are as rich as you would expect from this brilliant writer.' -- Daily Mail 'John Lewis-Stempel is one of the best nature writers of his generation' -- Country Life 'One of our finest nature writers with an essay length portrait of a bird that has fascinated humans for millennia.' -- Mail on Sunday 'An absolute pleasure to read' -- ***** Reader review 'Hypnotic reading' -- ***** Reader review 'Absolutely fascinating' -- ***** Reader review 'Hard to put down once opened, it is finished all too quickly' -- ***** Reader review ******************************************************************************* 'Dusk is filling the valley. It is the time of the gloaming, the owl-light. Out in the wood, the resident tawny has started calling, Hoo-hoo-hoo-h-o-o-o.' There is something about owls. They feature in every major culture from the Stone Age onwards. They are creatures of the night, and thus of magic. They are the birds of ill-tidings, the avian messengers from the Other Side. But owls - with the sapient flatness of their faces, their big, round eyes, their paternal expressions - are also reassuringly familiar. We see them as wise, like Athena's owl, and loyal, like Harry Potter's Hedwig. Human-like, in other words. No other species has so captivated us.

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The Myth and Ritual Theory" provides the first sourcebook for one of the most influential theories of myth, the theory which connects myth to rituals. Both classic and contemporary readings are brought together in this unique volume. The selections cover the theory from the origin in biblical and classical studies to its spread to the study of religions worldwide and to its extension to literature and the social sciences. Critics as well as exponents of the theory are well represented. In his lucid introduction, Robert A. Segal, a leading authority on the theories of myth, systematically charts the history of the theory from its beginnings to the present.

Longford Folk Tales is a treasure trove of wonderful stories of saints and deities, fairies and devils, kings and ghosts, shoemakers and other engaging characters. Read about The Blake Millions, butter stealing, the Wooing of Etain, and 'The Walking Gallows', Hempenstall - all your favourite legends and many more. This selection of tales and stories from every corner of the county of Longford reflects the wisdom of the countryside and its people. Legends, folk customs and local lore from earliest times up to the county's more recent past are expertly told by storyteller Philip Byrne.

Subtitled An Outline of the Origins of Moon and Sun Worship, Astrology, Sex Symbolism, Mystic Meaning of Numbers, the Cabala, and Many Popular Customs, Myths, Superstitions and Religious Beliefs. Important information not easily found. Mythologist Jordan Maxwell was so impressed he created a three-part video series based on this material and wrote a Preface to the book.

A new pottery tradition has been developing along the border of northern Indiana and southern Michigan. Despite the fact that this region is not yet an established destination for pottery collectors, Michiana potters are committed to pursuing their craft thanks to the presence of a community of like-minded artists. The Michiana Potters, an ethnographic exploration of the lives and art of these potters, examines the communal traditions and aesthetics that have developed in this region. Author Meredith A. E. McGriff identifies several shared methods and styles, such as a preference for wood-fired wares, glossy glaze surfaces, cooler colors, the dripping or layering of glazes on ceramics that are not wood-fired, the handcrafting of useful wares as opposed to sculptural work, and a tendency to borrow forms and decorative effects from other regional artists. In addition to demonstrating a methodology that can be applied to studies of other emergent regional traditions, McGriff concludes that these styles and methods form a communal bond that inextricably links the processes of creating and sharing pottery in Michiana.

A collection of investigations into strange and mysterious phenomena from around the world. * Explores ancient and modern sacred sites, places of power, natural wonders, altered states, UFO encounters, and the afterlife * Investigates sites and phenomena in Egypt, China, Ireland, and throughout North America, including Oak Island, Florida's Coral Castle, Wisconsin's UFO hot-spot, and giant-built constructions in Illinois * Examines the forgotten or suppressed work of extraordinary personalities, including Jules Verne, Sir Francis Bacon, and the real-life Indiana Jones, Count Byron de Prorok Sharing his personal investigations into a wide range of ancient mysteries and paranormal enigmas in America and abroad, Frank Joseph takes us on a journey into the high strangeness of our world. Beginning with the work of the master builders of antiquity, the author examines Old World connections with New World sacred centers, such as the similarities between Ohio's Mound City and the pyramids and tombs of the Giza Plateau, as well as ancient American cities of the Sun, China's Great Pyramid, and the possibility of a Templar treasure on Oak Island. He explores modern sacred sites, such as Iowa's Grotto of Gems, Tennessee's Greek Temple of the goddess Athena, and Florida's Coral Castle. He investigates pre-Columbian sites and underwater pyramids in the Midwest, Wisconsin's UFO hot-spot, lost Aztec Cities of Gold in Kansas, and giant-built constructions in Illinois. He details how the intriguing acoustics of Newgrange in Ireland are echoed in its spiral carvings. Exploring spiritual uses of altered states, he looks at the practices of Minoan snake handlers, Mayan shamans, and prophets through the ages.

These fourteen myths and tales, probably first written down around the eighth century a.d., represent the oral tradition of Iron Age Celts who flourished in Europe during the seven centuries before Christ.

Finally available in a popularly priced,  non-illustrated, smaller-format edition, which is ideal  for the college market and general reader alike,  this extraordinary best-seller is a brilliant  evocation of the noted scholar's teachings on mythology.

The nornir or norns were a group of female supernatural beings closely related to ideas about fate in Old Norse tradition. Karen Bek-Pedersen provides a thorough understanding of the role played by norns and other beings like them in the relevant sources. Although they are well known, even to people who have only a superficial knowledge of Old Norse mythology, this is the first detailed discussion of the norns to be published amongst the literature dealing with Old Norse beliefs. Surprisingly little has been written specifically about the norns. Although often mentioned in scholarship treating Old Norse culture, the norns are all too often dealt with in overly superficial ways. The research presented in this book goes much deeper in order to properly understand the nature and role of the norns in the Old Norse world view. The conclusions reached by the author overturn a number of stereotypical conceptions that have long dominated our understanding of these beings. The book has a natural focus on Old Norse culture and is especially relevant to those interested in or studying Old Norse culture and tradition. However, comparative material from Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Classical traditions is also employed and the book is therefore of interest also to those with a broader interest in European mythologies.

'A marvellously original slice of social history' Daily Mail (Book of the Week) 'The facts and folklore of birdlife , and man's equivocal relationship with birds, are dissected in admirable detail in this handsome new book' Sunday Times Birds are a joy and solace in troubled times, as well as a reminder of past experiences and a symbol of hope for the future. For centuries, they were also seen as a source of food, feathers and even fuel, and being so numerous, many were persecuted as pests. When There Were Birds is a social history of Britain that charts the complex connections between people and birds, set against a background of changes in the landscape and evolving tastes, beliefs and behaviour. Birds were once key elements of the nation's history, traditions and sports, and this gave rise to a rich legacy of literature, language and myths. No other group of animals has had such a complex and lengthy relationship with humankind. Birds have been kept in cages as pets, taught to speak and displayed as trophies. More practically, they have been used to tell the time, predict the weather, foretell marriages, provide unlikely cures for ailments, convey messages and warn of poisonous gases. Although very familiar, birds have often seemed strange, sinister and alarming. With their ability to fly, they bridged the gap between the earth and the heavens, and superstitions were rife because they were presumed to be linked to the supernatural. When There Were Birds draws together many disparate, forgotten strands to present a story that is an intriguing and unexpectedly significant part of our heritage.

Fairy tales are supposed to be magical, surprising, and exhilarating, an enchanting counterpoint to everyday life that nonetheless helps us understand and deal with the anxieties of that life. Today, however, fairy tales are far from marvelous - in the hands of Hollywood, they have been stripped of their power, offering little but formulaic narratives and tame surprises. If we want to rediscover the power of fairy tales - as Armando Maggi thinks we should - we need to discover a new mythic lens, a new way of approaching and understanding, and thus re-creating, the transformative potential of these stories. In Preserving the Spell, Maggi argues that the first step is to understand the history of the various traditions of oral and written narrative that together created the fairy tales we know today. He begins his exploration with the ur-text of European fairy tales, Giambattista Basile's The Tale of Tales, then traces its path through later Italian, French, English, and German traditions, with particular emphasis on the Grimm Brothers' adaptations of the tales, which are included in the first-ever English translation in an appendix. Carrying his story into the twentieth century, Maggi mounts a powerful argument for freeing fairy tales from their bland contemporary forms, and reinvigorating our belief that we still can find new, powerfully transformative ways of telling these stories.

Open-access edition: DOI 10.6069/9780295745701 The Nuosu people, who were once overlords of vast tracts of farmland and forest in the uplands of southern Sichuan and neighboring provinces, are the largest division of the Yi ethnic group in southwest China. Their creation epic plots the origins of the cosmos, the sky and earth, and the living beings of land and water. This translation is a rare example in English of Indigenous ethnic literature from China. Transmitted in oral and written forms for centuries among the Nuosu, The Book of Origins is performed by bimo priests and other tradition-bearers. Poetic in form, the narrative provides insights into how a clan- and caste-based society organizes itself, dictates ethics, relates to other ethnic groups, and adapts to a harsh environment. A comprehensive introduction to the translation describes the land and people, summarizes the work's themes, and discusses the significance of The Book of Origins for the understanding of folk epics, ethnoecology, and ethnic relations.

This "Reader" collects 25 stories of heroes of all kinds from around the world. Included are both non-Western and Western, female and male, modern and ancient, young and adult, lowly and noble, comic and tragic, national and universal, and historical and fictional heroes. Failed as well as successful heroes are represented, as are anti-heroes as well as conventional heroes.

"Hero Myths" offers not only an array of kinds of hero myths but also a guide to understanding the myths selected. In a substantial introduction, Robert Segal, a leading authority on theories of myth, provides an overview of both the history of the study of heroes and the history of the study of hero myths from the fields of psychology, anthropology, folklore, literature, and religious studies.

Jean-Pierre Vernant delineates a compelling new vision of ancient Greece that takes us far from the calm and familiar images of Polykleitos and the Parthenon, and reveals a culture of slavery, of blood sacrifice, of perpetual and ritualized warfare, of ceremonial hunting and ecstasies.In his provocative discussions of various institutions and practices including war, marriage, and the city state, Vernant unveils a complex and previously unexplored intersection of the religious, social, and political structures of ancient Greece. He concludes with a genealogy of the study of myth from antiquity to the present, and offers a critique of structuralism.Jean-Pierre Vernant is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Study of Ancient Religions at the College de France in Paris.

In an illustrious career spanning over forty years, Americo Paredes has often set the standard for scholarship and writing in folklore and Chicano studies. In folklore, he has been in the vanguard of important theoretical and methodological movements. In Chicano studies, he stands as one of the premier exponents.

Paredes's books are widely known and easily available, but his scholarly articles are not so familiar or accessible. To bring them to a wider readership, Richard Bauman has selected eleven essays that eloquently represent the range and excellence of Paredes's work. The hardcover edition of Folklore and Culture was published in 1993. This paperback edition will make the book more accessible to the general public and more practical for classroom use.

Published through the Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The rich storytelling traditions of the Alto Perene Arawaks of eastern Peru are showcased in this bilingual collection of traditional narratives, ethnographic accounts, women's autobiographical stories, songs, chants, and ritual speeches. The Alto Perene speakers are located in the colonization frontier at the foot of the eastern Andes and the western fringe of the Amazonian jungle. Unfortunately, their language has a slim chance of surviving because only about three hundred fluent speakers remain. This volume collects and preserves the power and vitality of Alto Perene oral and linguistic traditions, as told by thirty members of the Native community. Upper Perene Arawak Narratives of History, Landscape, and Ritual covers a range of themes in the Alto Perene oral tradition, through genres such as myths, folk tales, autobiographical accounts, and ethnographic texts about customs and rituals, as well as songs, chants, and oratory. Transcribed and translated by Elena Mihas, a specialist in Northern Kampa language varieties, and grounded in the actual performances of Alto Perene speakers, this collection makes these stories available in English for the first time. Each original text in Alto Perene is accompanied by an English translation, and each theme is introduced with an essay providing biographical, cultural, and linguistic information. This collection of oral literature is masterful and authoritative as well as entertaining and provocative, testifying to the power of Alto Perene storytelling.

Thanks to these generous donors for making the publication of the books in this series possible: Lloyd E. Cotsen; the Maurice Amado Foundation; National Endowment for the Humanities; and the National Foundation for Jewish Culture. The second volume in a literary landmark Folktales from Eastern Europe presents 71 tales from Ashkenazic culture in the most important collection of Jewish folktales ever published. It is the second volume in Folktales of the Jews, the five-volume series to be released over the next several years, in the tradition of Louis Ginzberg's classic, Legends of the Jews. The tales here and the others in this series have been selected from the Israel Folktale Archives at The University of Haifa, Israel (IFA), a treasure house of Jewish lore that has remained largely unavailable to the entire world until now. Since the creation of the State of Israel, the IFA has collected more than 20,000 tales from newly arrived immigrants, long-lost stories shared by their families from around the world. The tales come from the major ethno-linguistic communities of the Jewish world and are representative of a wide variety of subjects and motifs, especially rich in Jewish content and context. Each of the tales is accompanied by in-depth commentary that explains the tale's cultural, historical, and literary background and its similarity to other tales in the IFA collection, and extensive scholarly notes. There is also an introduction that describes the Ashkenazic culture and its folk narrative tradition, a world map of the areas covered, illustrations, biographies of the collectors and narrators, tale type and motif indexes, a subject index, and a comprehensive bibliography. Until the establishment of the IFA, we had had only limited access to the wide range of Jewish folk narratives. Even in Israel, the gathering place of the most wide-ranging cross-section of world Jewry, these folktales have remained largely unknown. Many of the communities no longer exist as cohesive societies in their representative lands; the Holocaust, migration, and changes in living styles have made the continuation of these tales impossible. This series is a monument to a rich but vanishing oral tradition.