Bronze Winner - Independent Publisher Book Awards Winner - 2013 USA Best Book Award If Death takes a man it is called fate, when Death leaves a man it is called destiny. Wounded in battle (900 A. D.), a near dead Celtic warrior is taken by Viken raiders and sold into a Baghdad slave market. He is dragged further East, through the desert, into the 'Middle Kingdom' where he is bought by a Taoist Priest and his beautiful daughter. Hazy images of silk, herbs, needles, potions and steel, can only lead to one thing, he has been purchased by a wizard and his witch. Arkthar fears for his soul. Death finds Arkthar's predicament interesting. I have heard the delirious ramblings of countless dying minds. I am amused by yours." Don't be afraid, I won't take you now. Your life sentence has just begun." Arkthar's 'owners' become his teachers and then his companions. The priest wizard and his witch daughter heal and teach Arkthar their Eastern ways of medicine, science, war and philosophy. Under the watchful eye of death, this journey unfolds, as a slave becomes a king, and new root of Arthurian legend takes hold.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, attitudes toward history and national identity fostered a romantic rediscovery of folk and fairy tales. This is the period of the Golden Age of folk and fairy tales, when European folklorists sought to understand and redefine the present through the common tales of the past, and long neglected stories became recognized as cultural treasures. In this rich collection, distinguished expert of fairy tales Jack Zipes continues his lifelong exploration of the story-telling tradition with a focus on the Golden Age. Included are one hundred eighty-two tales--many available in English for the first time--grouped into eighteen tale types. Zipes provides an engaging general Introduction that discusses the folk and fairy tale tradition, the impact of the Brothers Grimm, and the significance of categorizing tales into various types. Short introductions to each tale type that discuss its history, characteristics, and variants provide readers with important background information. Also included are annotations, short biographies of folklorists of the period, and a substantial bibliography. Eighteen original art works by students of the art department of Anglia Ruskin University not only illustrate the eighteen tale types, but also provide delightful-and sometimes astonishing-21st-century artistic interpretations of them.

Chinese proverbs offer invaluable insights into both the language and rich culture of China. Assembled here are proverbs that form the basic cultural tokens with which Chinese speakers communicate about issues of love, friendship, morality, life, and human nature. In this new edition, the authors have updated and reformatted their popular reference to 1,000 of the most illuminating and frequently used Chinese proverbs. Organized alphabetically by pinyin Romanization, the proverbs in this volume are not only translated into clear, idiomatic English, but also rendered into both traditional and simplified Chinese. The book is an indispensable tool for students interested in mastering the subtleties and nuances of the Chinese language. New features in this edition include: simplified and traditional character renderings of each proverb, a new introduction by the authors, an English index of key terms, and a concordance of key Chinese characters, for easy reference.

A collection of scholarship on monsters and their meaning-across genres, disciplines, methodologies, and time-from foundational texts to the most recent contributions Zombies and vampires, banshees and basilisks, demons and wendigos, goblins, gorgons, golems, and ghosts. From the mythical monstrous races of the ancient world to the murderous cyborgs of our day, monsters have haunted the human imagination, giving shape to the fears and desires of their time. And as long as there have been monsters, there have been attempts to make sense of them, to explain where they come from and what they mean. This book collects the best of what contemporary scholars have to say on the subject, in the process creating a map of the monstrous across the vast and complex terrain of the human psyche. Editor Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock prepares the way with a genealogy of monster theory, traveling from the earliest explanations of monsters through psychoanalysis, poststructuralism, and cultural studies, to the development of monster theory per se-and including Jeffrey Jerome Cohen's foundational essay "Monster Theory (Seven Theses)," reproduced here in its entirety. There follow sections devoted to the terminology and concepts used in talking about monstrosity; the relevance of race, religion, gender, class, sexuality, and physical appearance; the application of monster theory to contemporary cultural concerns such as ecology, religion, and terrorism; and finally the possibilities monsters present for envisioning a different future. Including the most interesting and important proponents of monster theory and its progenitors, from Sigmund Freud to Julia Kristeva to J. Halberstam, Donna Haraway, Barbara Creed, and Stephen T. Asma-as well as harder-to-find contributions such as Robin Wood's and Masahiro Mori's-this is the most extensive and comprehensive collection of scholarship on monsters and monstrosity across disciplines and methods ever to be assembled and will serve as an invaluable resource for students of the uncanny in all its guises. Contributors: Stephen T. Asma, Columbia College Chicago; Timothy K. Beal, Case Western Reserve U; Harry Benshoff, U of North Texas; Bettina Bildhauer, U of St. Andrews; Noel Carroll, The Graduate Center, CUNY; Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Arizona State U; Barbara Creed, U of Melbourne; Michael Dylan Foster, UC Davis; Sigmund Freud; Elizabeth Grosz, Duke U; J. Halberstam, Columbia U; Donna Haraway, UC Santa Cruz; Julia Kristeva, Paris Diderot U; Anthony Lioi, The Julliard School; Patricia MacCormack, Anglia Ruskin U; Masahiro Mori; Annalee Newitz; Jasbir K. Puar, Rutgers U; Amit A. Rai, Queen Mary U of London; Margrit Shildrick, Stockholm U; Jon Stratton, U of South Australia; Erin Suzuki, UC San Diego; Robin Wood, York U; Alexa Wright, U of Westminster.

Since the beginning of the nineteenth century folklorists, and the general public in their wake, have assumed the orality of fairy tales. Only lately have more and more specialists been arguing in favour of at least an interdependence between oral and printed distribution of stories. This book takes an extreme position in that debate: as far as Tales of magic is concerned, the initial transmission proceded exclusively through prints. From a historical perspective, this is the only viable approach; the opposite assumption of a vast unrecorded and thus inaccessible reservoir of oral stories, presents a horror vacui. Only in the course of the nineteenth century, when folklorists started collecting in the field and asked their informants for fairy tales, was this particular genre incorporated into a then feeble oral tradition. Even then story tellers regularly reverted to printed texts. Every recorded fairy tale can be shown to be dependent on previous publications, or to be a new composition, constructed on the basis of fragments of stories already in existence. Tales of magic, tales in print traces the textual history of a number of fairy tale clusters, linking the findings of literary historians on the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries to the material collected by nineteenth- and twentieth-century field workers. While it places fairy tales as a genre firmly in a European context, it also follows particular stories in their dispersion over the rest of the world. -- .

Tortoise proves he is a formidable opponent in this comic adaptation of a classic tale.

The myths and legends of the Fair Folk are the oldest in Britain and our Fairy lore is unique to this island. Meetings with Faery are well recorded. Here is a deep analysis of the traditional knowledge of the nature of Fairies, and their importance to us, combined with an examination of our interaction with Faery.

The wolf is tricked by Red Riding Hood into strangling her grandmother and is subsequently arrested. Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella do not live happily ever after. And the fairies are saucy, angry, and capricious. Fairy Tales for the Disillusioned collects thirty-six tales, many newly translated, by writers associated with the decadent literary movement, which flourished in France in the late nineteenth century. Written by such creative luminaries as Charles Baudelaire, Anatole France, and Guillaume Apollinaire, these enchanting yet troubling stories reflect the concerns and fascinations of a time of great political, social, and cultural change. Recasting well-known favorites from classic French fairy tales, as well as Arthurian legends and English and German tales, the updated interpretations in this collection allow for more perverse settings and disillusioned perspectives--a trademark style and ethos of the decadent tradition. In these stories, characters puncture the optimism of the naive, talismans don't work, and the most deserving don't always get the best rewards. The fairies are commonly victims of modern cynicism and technological advancement, but just as often are dangerous creatures corrupted by contemporary society. The collection underlines such decadent themes as the decline of civilization, the degeneration of magic and the unreal, gender confusion, and the incursion of the industrial. The volume editors provide an informative introduction, biographical notes for each author, and explanatory notes throughout. Subverting the conventions of the traditional fairy tale, these old tales made new will entertain and startle even the most disenchanted readers.

'The Voice of the People' presents a series of essays on literary aspects of the pan-European folk revival from the late eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. The essays discuss the purposes of the folk revival, as well as its various forms and genres. Several prominent European literary figures are studied, but most of the focus is placed on the anonymous authors of the European folk tradition.

Forty-one Alaskan Indian tales, transcribed in 1935 from the narrators' own words, are included in this collection beautifully illustrated with wood engravings by Alaska artist Dale DeArmond. The exploits of the roguish Crow and the intrepid Man Who Traveled Among All the Animals and People range from serious myths to slyly humorous misadventures.

Son, there's more treasure buried right here In Oklahoma than in the rest of the whole Southwest."" Those words from an old-timer launched Steve Wilson on a yearslong quest for the stones of Oklahoma's treasures. This book is the result.It is a book of stories-some true, some legendary- about fabulous caches of lost treasure: outlaw loot buried in the heat of pursuit, hoards of Spanish gold dud silver secreted for a later day, Frenchmen's gold ingots hidden amid massive cryptic symbols, Indian treasure concealed in caves, and lost mines- gold and silver and platinum. It tells about the earliest treasure seekers of the region and those who are still hunting today. Along the way it describes shootouts and massacres, trails whose routes are preserved in the countless legends of gold hidden alongside them, Mexicans' smelters, and mines hidden and sought over the centuries. Among the chapters: ''The Secrets Spanish Fort Tells,"" ""Quests for Red River's Silver Mines,"" ""Oklahoma's Forgotten Treasure Trail,'"" ""Ghosts of Devil's Canyon and Their Gold,"" ""Jesse James's Two-Million-Dollar Treasure,"" ""The Last Cave with the Iron Door,"" and, perhaps most intriguing of all, ""The Mystery of Cascorillo-A Lost"" City."" This is a book about quests over trails dim before the turn of the century. It is about early peoples, Mound Builders, Vikings, conquistadors, explorers, outlaw, gold seekers. The author has spent years tracking down the stories and hours listening to the old-timers' tales of their searches. Wilson has provided maps, both detailed modem ones and photographs of early treasure maps and has richly illustrated the book with pictures of the sites that gave rise to the tales. . For armchair travelers, never-say-die treasure hunters, historians, and chroniclers and aficionados of western lore, this is an absorbing and delightful book. And who knows? The reader may find gold!

Afghanistan in the 20th century was virtually unknown in Europe and America. At peace until the 1970s, the country was seen as a remote and exotic land, visited only by adventurous tourists or researchers. Afghan Village Voices is a testament to this little-known period of peace and captures a society and culture now lost. Prepared by two of the most accomplished and well-known anthropologists of the Middle East and Central Asia, Richard Tapper and Nancy Tapper-Lindisfarne, this is a book of stories told by the Piruzai, a rural Afghan community of some 200 families who farmed in northern Afghanistan and in summer took their flocks to the central Hazarajat mountains. The book comprises a collection of remarkable stories, folktales and conversations and provides unprecedented insight into the depth and colour of these people's lives. Recorded in the early 1970s, the stories range from memories of the Piruzai migration to the north a half century before, to the feuds, ethnic strife and the doings of powerful khans. There are also stories of falling in love, elopements, marriages, childbirth and the world of spirits. The book includes vignettes of the narrators, photographs, maps and a full glossary. It is a remarkable document of Afghanistan at peace, told by a people whose voices have rarely been heard.

Tama in Japanese Myth attempts to elucidate Japanese religious experiences by presenting a new interpretation of the oldest existing text of Japanese myth, the Kojiki. Informed by phenomenological hermeneutics, Iwasawa shows that the concept of tama lies at the core of Japanese religious experiences. Tama is often compared to spirit and soul in Western philosophy and religion and especially to the German concept of Geist. Tama develops in ways that do not assume a dichotomy between the ideational and the sensible, which is precisely the dichotomy informing Western theism and the Platonic tradition of metaphysics. Iwasawa argues that the Western concept of God, far from explaining all possible connections between the human and the divine, is less than satisfactory for analyzing Japanese religious experiences. Iwasawa proceeds by examining the Japanese notion of tama as an inquiry into the origin of values wholly unaffected by the Western idea of a moral God.

In this masterclass of mindfulness and spiritual awareness, Fiann O Nuallain brings old Irish proverbs to life for the present generation. Proverbs stand the test of time because, as we explore their meaning, we find they contain timeless wisdom that can help us lead happier, calmer and more meaningful lives. By Time is Everything Revealed contains fifty-two proverbs - one for every week of the year - each carefully chosen to speak directly to the worries and stresses that have become part of modern life. The author unlocks each proverb's meaning and combines it with a mindfulness exercise to offer a new set of tools for mindful living, psychological wellbeing and spiritual awareness.

In the early years of the thirteenth century the Danish writer Saxo Grammaticus provided his people with a History of the Danes, an account of their glorious past from the legendary kings and heroes of Denmark to the historical present. It is one of the major sources for the heroic and mythological traditions of northern Europe, though the complex Latin style and the wide range of material brought together from different sources have limited its use. Here Hilda Ellis Davidson, a specialist in Scandinavian mythology, together with the translator Peter Fisher, provides a full English edition; each of the first nine books is preceded by an introductory summary, and a detailed commentary follows on the folklore and life and customs of twelfth-century Denmark - including the sources of Hamlet, of which Saxo gives the earliest known account. HILDA ELLIS DAVIDSON's other books include The Sword in Anglo-Saxon England; PETER FISHER is also the translator of Olaus Magnus: A Description of the Northern Peoples. Both are available from Boydell & Brewer. In the early years of the 13th century the Danish writer Saxo Grammaticus provided his people with a dignified and ambitious Latin account of their glorious past from the mythical past to the historical present -(He) collected the legends of Scandinavian gods and heroes, and arranged their exploits in a series of biographies' which ostensibly formed an unbroken sequence. He took his tales from a variety of sources, and readers will find his collection of myths, folklore and fabulous history fascinating - An accurate and readable translation of the nine mythological books based on the best scholarly edition'. RUTH MORSE, BRITISH BOOK NEWS.