The story of King Solomon has fascinated spiritual and religious writers for millennia - this book advances a theory that Solomon was infact a Magi who created many of the rituals, spells and symbols important to occultists. Although the idea that Solomon carried some sort of mystical powers is not new, this book purports to be written in the ancient king of the Jews' own hand. The magical symbols and diagrams which are situated alongside the various rituals and incantations are intricate, containing pentacles and other shapes. Towards the end of the book a large table is appended, detailing a selection of mystical alphabets and their English. For his investigation, Mathers delved deep into the archives of the British Museum, unearthing an old French manuscript of the text which he duly translated into English. He also replicated the diagrams and symbols; these efforts resulted in this modern English version of the old Solomon manuscripts, and an increase in interest toward writings hitherto obscure.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

The Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould (1834 - 1924) was an English hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist and eclectic scholar. His folkloric studies resulted in The Book of Werewolves, one of the most frequently cited studies of lycanthropy.

The Druids and the Arthurian legends are all most of us know about early Britain, from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (4500 BC-AD 43). Drawing on archaeological discoveries and medieval Welsh texts like the Mabinogion, this book explores the religious beliefs of the ancient Britons before the coming of Christianity, beginning with the megaliths-structures like Stonehenge-and the role they played in prehistoric astronomy. Topics include the mysterious Beaker people of the Early Bronze Age, Iron Age evidence of the Druids, the Roman period and the Dark Ages. The author discusses the myths of King Arthur and what they tell us about paganism, as well as what early churches and monasteries reveal about the enigmatic Druids.

This unique and fascinating volume features every type of deity from every culture in all regions of the world, from prehistory to the present. Guide to the Gods features the familiar gods and goddesses of the ancient Near East, as well as those of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas: deities associated with creation, with the heavens, with the earth, with the weather, and with nearly every aspect of human life-from love, sex, marriage, and economic endeavors to prophecy, ritual, magic, and healing. The deities are categorized by function and attribute, and entries are alphabetized within each category. Every entry includes at least one citation to a printed primary or secondary source. Guide to the Gods represents a major contribution to the fields of anthropology, religious studies, and folklore. Students, scholars, researchers, and writers will find it an invaluable research tool. This work is an entertaining and important reference source that will be a necessary addition to public, academic, and school library collections. A-Z entries in each category that include at least one citation to a printed primary or secondary source

Ever since the Middle Ages the Otherworld of Faerie has been the object of serious intellectual scrutiny. What science in the end dismissed as airy nothings was given a local habitation and a name by art. This book presents some of the main chapters from the history and tradition of otherworldly spirits and fairies in the folklore and literature of the British Isles and Northern Europe. In eleven contributions different experts deal with some of the main problems posed by the scholarly and artistic confrontation with the Otherworld, which not only fuelled the imagination, but also led to the ultimate redundancy of learned perceptions of that Otherworld as it was finally obfuscated by the clarity of an enlightened age. Contributors include: Henk Dragstra, John Flood, Julian Goodare, Tette Hofstra, Robert Maslen, Richard North, Karin E. Olsen, David J. Parkinson, Rudolf Suntrup, Jan R. Veenstra, and Helen Wilcox.

A pioneer in the strange art and ambiguous science of zophagy-that is, of studying animals by eating them-British natural historian FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND (1826-1880) was a wildly popular speaker and writer of the Victorian era. In his classic four-volume Curiosities of Natural History, published between 1857 and 1872, he shared his love of creatures exotic and mysterious with readers who devoured his charming and erudite essays much in the same way he devoured his animal subjects. If there is one person that I would have expected to have captured a sea serpent in the 19th century for the sole purpose of eating it, it would be Frank Buckland, writes cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in his new introduction to Buckland's series. One of the founding grandfathers of cryptozoology, the discipline that investigates animal mysteries, Buckland was not a wild-eyed 'true believer' in anything strange, insists Coleman, but brought, instead, a skeptical, open-minded approach to his work. Indeed, here, in the first series of Curiosities of Natural History, Buckland's erudition is clear in his animated discussions of, among many other things, the stupidity of newts, French sailors eating rats, skinning a boa constrictor, how a fish might drown, and the cunning of monkeys. This new edition, a replica of the original 1858 third edition, is part of Cosimo's Loren Coleman Presents series. LOREN COLEMAN is author of numerous books of cryptozoology, including Bigfoot : The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters.

Lewis Island in Lambertville, New Jersey, is the site of the Lewis Fishery, the last haul seine American shad fishery on the nontidal Delaware River. The Lewis family has fished in the same spot since 1888 and operated the fishery through five generations. The extended Lewis family, its fishery's crew, and the Lambertville community connect with people throughout the region, including environmentalists concerned about the river. It was a Lewis who raised the alarm and helped resurrect a polluted river and its biosphere. While this once exclusively masculine activity is central to the tiny island, today men, women, and children fish, living out a sense of place, belonging, and sustainability. In Another Haul: Narrative Stewardship and Cultural Sustainability at the Lewis Family Fishery, author Charlie Groth highlights the traditional, vernacular, and everyday cultural expressions of the family and crew to understand how community, culture, and the environment intersect. Groth argues there is a system of narrative here that combines verbal activities and everyday activities. On the basis of over two decades of participation and observation, interviews, surveys, and a wide variety of published sources, Groth identifies a phenomenon she calls ""narrative stewardship."" This narrative system, emphasizing place, community, and commitment, in turn, encourages environmental and cultural stewardship, tradition, and community. Intricate and embedded, the system appears invisible, but careful study unpacks and untangles how people, often unconsciously, foster sustainability. Though an ethnography of an occupation, the volume encourages readers to consider what arises as special about all cultures and what needs to be seen and preserved.

A pioneer in the strange art and ambiguous science of zo phagy-that is, of studying animals by eating them-British natural historian FRANCIS TREVELYAN BUCKLAND (1826-1880) was a wildly popular speaker and writer of the Victorian era. In his classic four-volume Curiosities of Natural History, published between 1857 and 1872, he shared his love of creatures exotic and mysterious with readers who devoured his charming and erudite essays much in the same way he devoured his animal subjects. "If there is one person that I would have expected to have captured a sea serpent in the 19th century for the sole purpose of eating it, it would be Frank Buckland," writes cryptozoologist Loren Coleman in his new introduction to Buckland's series. One of the founding grandfathers of cryptozoology, the discipline that investigates animal mysteries, Buckland was not "a wild-eyed 'true believer' in anything strange," insists Coleman, but brought, instead, "a skeptical, open-minded approach" to his work. Indeed, here, in the "second series" of Curiosities of Natural History, Buckland's erudition is clear in his animated discussions of, among many other things, a dish of fossil fish, a gamekeeper's museum, the gypsy mode of cooking hedgehogs, and practical uses for whale bones. This new edition, a replica of the original 1871 seventh edition, is part of Cosimo's Loren Coleman Presents series. LOREN COLEMAN is author of numerous books of cryptozoology, including Bigfoot : The True Story of Apes in America and Mothman and Other Curious Encounters.

Mind-boggling Tales from the Old Dominion Part of our new and growing Myths, Mysteries and Legends series, Myths, Mysteries and Legends of Virginia explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Virginia's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Virginia history. Stories include the mystery of why the gentle giant Peter Francisco, the strongest man in the Revolution, was kidnapped as a child in his native land before being abandoned by a ship along the Appomattox River; the suspicious (or natural?) death of eighty-year-old George Wythe, a professor, patriot, and signer of the Declaration of Independence; and rumors of a vampire-caused tragedy in the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond on October 2, 1925.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, many perceived American Jewry to be in a state of crisis as traditions of faith faced modern sensibilities. Published beginning in 1909, Rabbi and Professor Louis Ginzberg's seven-volume The Legends of the Jews appeared at this crucial time and offered a landmark synthesis of aggadah from classical Rabbinic literature and ancient folk legends from a number of cultures. It remains a hugely influential work of scholarship from a man who shaped American Conservative Judaism. In Louis Ginzberg's Legends of the Jews: Ancient Jewish Folk Literature Reconsidered, editors Galit Hasan-Rokem and Ithamar Gruenwald present a range of reflections on the Legends, inspired by two plenary sessions devoted to its centennial at the Fifteenth Congress of the World Association of Jewish Studies in August 2009. In order to provide readers with the broadest possible view of Ginzberg's colossal project and its repercussions in contemporary scholarship, the editors present leading scholars to address it from a variety of historical, philological, philosophical, and methodological perspectives. Contributors give special regard to the academic expertise and professional identity of the author of the Legends as a folklore scholar and include discussions on the folkloristic underpinnings of The Legends of the Jews. They also investigate, each according to her or his disciplinary framework, the uniqueness, strengths, and weakness of the project. An introduction by Rebecca Schorsch and a preface by Galit Hasan-Rokem further highlight the folk narrative aspects of the work in addition to the articles themselves. The present volume makes clear the historical and scholarly context of Ginzberg's milestone work as well as the methodological and theoretical issues that emerge from studying it and other forms of aggadic literature. Scholars of Jewish folklore as well as of Talmudic-Midrashic literature will find this volume to be invaluable reading. Contributors Include: David Golinkin, Daniel Boyarin, Hillel I. Newman, Jacob Elbaum, Galit Hasan-Rokem, Johannes Sabel, Ithamar Gruenwald, Rebecca Schorsch.

'When an afflicted person is believed to be a victim of nazar, or the glance of the evil eye, a particular kind of incense, which is made of seeds of the wild rue, mixed with myrtle and frankincense, is burned at sunset; and while the smoke is curling about the head of the victim the following incantation is repeated...' The Wild Rue is a unique study of magic, myth and folklore in Iran. In this classic work, Bess Donaldson records the beliefs and superstitions of the country at a time when they were increasingly threatened by the Shah's programme of modernisation. This earlier way of life, with its belief in angels and the evil eye, and with its age-old rituals surrounding childbirth and burial, is recounted in a highly readable text. Among the wide variety of topics covered are cosmology, dreams, names and numbers, talismans and signs, oaths and curses, childbirth, angels, trees and plants, the evil eye, and the calendar. Long unavailable, The Wild Rue is indispensable to any serious student of Iran and will be welcomed by all with an interest in the country's culture and history.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1959.

Georgia Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in Georgia's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in Georgia history. From the puzzle of lost confederate gold to a woman who mysteriously spent her life waving at more than 50,000 passing ships, this selection of stories from Georgia's past explores some of the Peach State's most compelling mysteries and debunks some of its most famous myths.

North Carolina Myths and Legends explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in North Carolina's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in North Carolina history. Read about the Cherokee legend of the Judaculla rock. Try to figure out if Tom Dula, subject of many a local myth and a popular folk song, really did murder his wife. Speculate as to what really caused the Carolina Bays indentations.

In the second haft of the nineteenth century, Jewish nationalism developed in Europe. One vital form of this nationalism that took root at the beginning of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe was the Yiddishist movement, which held that the Yiddish language and culture should be at the center of any Jewish nationalist efforts. As with most European concepts of folklore, the romantic-nationalist ideas of J. G. Herder on the volk were crucial in the formulation of the study and collection of Yiddish folklore.

Herder's volk, however, denoted the peasantry, whereas Polish Jewry were an urban population. This difference determined the focus and pioneering work that this group of collectors accomplished. Defining the Yiddish Nation examines how these folklorists sought to connect their identity with the Jewish past but simultaneously develop Yiddishism, a movement whose eventual outcome would be an autonomous Jewish national culture and a break with the biblical past.

Itzik Nakhmen Gottesman analyzes the evolution of Yiddish folklore and its role in the creation of Yiddish nationalism in Poland between the two world wars. Gottesman studies three important folklore circles in Poland: the Warsaw group led by Noyekh Prilutski, the S. Ansky Vilne Jewish Historic-Ethnographic Society, and the Ethnographic Commission d the Yivo Institute in Vilne.

This book is much more than a study of the evolution of one particular folklore tradition, it is a look into the formation of a nationalist movement. Defining the Yiddish Nation will prove invaluable for scholars of Jewish studies and Yiddish folklore.

Part of our new and growing Myths, Mysteries and Legends series, Myths, Mysteries and Legends of New Mexico explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in the Land of Enchantment's history. Each episode included in the book is a story unto itself, and the tone and style of the book is lively and easy to read for a general audience interested in New Mexico history. Stories include the mysterious disappearance of lawyer and civic leader Albert J. Fountain-a man known both for defending Billy the Kid and for taking on cattle rustlers-and his little boy, Henry; the near discovery of when humans first came to America by George McJunkin, a black cowboy, born a slave; and the unsolved murders of an old mining town that lies at the depths of Bonito Lake.