This is a study of the manner in which certain mythical notions of the world become accepted as fact. Dathorne shows how particular European concepts such as El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth, a race of Amazons, and monster (including cannibal) images were first associated with the Orient. After the New World encounter they were repositioned to North and South America. The book examines the way in which Arabs and Africans are conscripted into the view of the world and takes an unusual, non-Eurocentric viewpoint of how Africans journeyed to the New World and Europe, participating in, what may be considered, an early stage of world exploration and discovery. The study concludes by looking at European travel literature from the early journeys of St. Brendan, through the Viking voyages and up to Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville. In all these instances, the encounters seem to justify mythical belief. Dathorne's interest in the subject is both intellectual and passionate since, coming from Guyana, he was very much part of this malformed Weltschmerz.

People have been attracted to the lure of distant, exotic places throughout the ages, and over the centuries a vast store of legends and lore relating to travel have grown up. This encyclopedia represents a complilation of travel legends and lore of civilizations throughout the world.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

The ten chapters of "Proverbs Speak Louder Than Words" present a composite picture of the richness of proverbs as significant expressions of folk wisdom as is manifest from their appearance in art, culture, folklore, history, literature, and the mass media. The first chapter surveys the multifaceted aspects of paremiology (the study of proverbs), with the second chapter illustrating the paremiological work by the American folklorist Alan Dundes. The next two chapters look at the effective role that proverbs play in the mass media, where they are cited in their traditional wording or as innovative anti-proverbs. The fifth chapter discusses proverbs as expressions of the worldview of New England. This is followed by two chapters on the proverbial prowess of American presidents, to wit the proverbial style in the correspondence between John and Abigail Adams and a discussion of Abraham Lincoln's apocryphal proverb "Don't swap horses in the middle of the stream." The eighth chapter traces the tradition of proverb iconography from medieval woodcuts to Pieter Bruegel the Elder and on to modern caricatures, cartoons, and comic strips. The last two chapters deal with the origin and history of the proverbial expression "to tilt at windmills" as an allusion to Cervantes' Don Quixote and the many proverbial utterances in Mozart's letters. The book draws attention to the fact that proverbs as metaphorical signs continue to play an important role in oral and written communication. Proverbs as socalled monumenta humana are omnipresent in all facets of life, and while they are neither sacrosanct nor saccharine, they usually offer much common sense or wisdom based on recurrent experiences and observations.

Orature and Yoruba Riddles takes readers into the hitherto unexplored undercurrents of riddles in Africa. Because of its oral and all too often ephemeral nature, riddles have escaped close scrutiny from scholars. The strength of the Yoruba as the focus of this study is impressive indeed: a major ethnic group in Africa, with established connections with the black diaspora in North America and the Caribean; a rich oral and written culture; a large and diverse population; and an integrated rural-urban society. The book is divided into six chapters for readers' convenience. When read in sequence, the book provides a comprehensive, holistic sense of Yoruba creativity where riddles are concerned. At the same time, the book is conceived in a way that each chapter could be read individually. Therefore, those readers seeking understanding of a specific type of riddle may target a single chapter appearing most relevant to her/his curiosity.

Wily, raunchy, and heroic. A trickster, lecher, and supreme survivor. Such is the magical Coyote, that mythic Native American figure whose various roles are recounted here in a wonderful selection of poetry and stories.
Anthropological linguist William Bright brings together diverse portraits of Coyote from American Indian texts and modern American writing. Because Native American myths have been recited and transmitted orally, Bright addresses the special problem of converting them into written stories. His familiarity with the native languages gives his retranslations a liveliness that conveys their original vitality.
The collection also includes poetic translations and original works by important contemporary writers Leslie Silko, Gary Snyder, Wendy Rose, Peter Blue Cloud, and Simon Ortiz, along with the voice of an earlier American author--Mark Twain.
We see how the figure of Coyote serves both to entertain and to instruct and, by his similarities to the actual biological coyote, provides a link between culture and nature. At the same time, since he embodies distinctive characteristics of "Homo sapiens," Coyote also reflects many aspects of "human" nature.
Bright places each tale in relation to the larger Native American context and shows Coyote's affinities with classic mythological figures and popular cultural images such as Bugs Bunny. Filled with humor and at times disturbing, Coyote's tales mirror the human condition across time and cultures.

Translated here into English for the first time, F. W. J. Schelling's 1842 lectures on the Philosophy of Mythology are an early example of interdisciplinary thinking. In seeking to show the development of the concept of the divine Godhead in and through various mythological systems (particularly of ancient Greece, Egypt, and the Near East), Schelling develops the idea that many philosophical concepts are born of religious-mythological notions. In so doing, he brings together the essential relatedness of the development of philosophical systems, human language, history, ancient art forms, and religious thought. Along the way, he engages in analyses of modern philosophical views about the origins of philosophy's conceptual abstractions, as well as literary and philological analyses of ancient literature and poetry.

Twenty-six haunting tales of Florida's ghosts, from a haunted schoolhouse in Micanopy to the many spirits lingering in St. Augustine, America's oldest city.

For generations, Central Asian Muslims have told legends of medieval rulers who waged war, died in battle, and achieved sainthood. Among the Uyghurs of East Turkistan (present-day Xinjiang, China), some of the most beloved legends tell of the warrior-saint Satuq Bughra Khan and his descendants, the rulers of the Qarakhanid dynasty. To this day, these tales are recited at the saints' shrines and retold on any occasion. Warrior Saints of the Silk Road introduces this rich literary tradition, presenting the first complete English translation of the Qarakhanid narrative cycle along with an accessible commentary. At once mesmerizing, moving, and disturbing, these legends are essential texts in Central Asia's religious heritage as well as fine, enduring works of mystical literature.

In the wake of the elegant master theories of Joseph Campbell, Mircea Eliade, Georges Dumezil, and Claude Levi-Strauss, how are mythology and the comparative study of religion to be understood? In Myth and Method, a leading team of scholars assesses the current state of the study of myth and explores the possibilities for charting a methodological middle course between the comparative and the contextual issues raised in the last ten years. In confronting these tension, they provide an outline of the most troubling questions in the field and offer a variety of responses to them.

Elves and elf-belief during the Anglo-Saxon period are reassessed in this lively and provocative study. Anglo-Saxon elves [Old English aelfe] are one of the best attested non-Christian beliefs in early medieval Europe, but current interpretations of the evidence derive directly from outdated nineteenth- and early twentieth-century scholarship. Integrating linguistic and textual approaches into an anthropologically-inspired framework, this book reassesses the full range of evidence. It traces continuities and changes in medieval non-Christian beliefs with a new degree of reliability, from pre-conversion times to the eleventh century and beyond, and uses comparative material from medieval Ireland and Scandinavia to argue for a dynamic relationship between beliefs and society. Inparticular, it interprets the cultural significance of elves as a cause of illness in medical texts, and provides new insights into the much-discussed Scandinavian magic of seidr. Elf-beliefs, moreover, were connected withAnglo-Saxon constructions of sex and gender; their changing nature provides a rare insight into a fascinating area of early medieval European culture. Shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2007 ALARIC HALL is a fellow of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

Dictionary of Chicano Folklore charts the rich religious, social, artistic, and cultural heritage of Mexican Americans, who continue to evolve the customs and rituals connected to their Spanish and indigenous roots and the Spanish language. Entries cover specific regions, genres of folk speech, folk narrative, cultural traditions, artifacts, foods, ceremonies, rites, and define contemporary Hispanic terms ranging from duendes, pintos, and las posadas to pachucos, low riders, and Zozobra. The Dictionary of Chicano Folklore is the perfect resource for high school and undergraduate students interested in Chicano culture or for scholars seeking bibliographic material. Over 200 A-Z entries defining historical and contemporary terms, customs, legends, and rituals 44 photos Extensive bibliography

In this wide-ranging and insightful analysis, Stephen Benson proposes a poetics of narrative for postmodernism by placing new emphasis on the folktale. Postmodernist fictions have evidenced a return to narrative -- to storytelling centered on a sequence of events, rather than a "spiraling" of events as found in modernism -- and recent theorists have described narrative as a "central instance of the human mind." By characterizing the folktale as a prime embodiment of narrative, Benson relates folktales to many of the theoretical concerns of postmodernism and provides new insights into the works of major writers who have used this genre, which includes the subgenre of the fairy tale, in opening narrative up to new possibilities.

Benson begins by examining the key features of folktales: their emphasis on a chain of events rather than description or consciousness, their emphasis on a self-contained fictional environment rather than realism, the presence of a storyteller as a self-confessed fabricator, their oral and communal status, and their ever-changing state, which defies authoritative versions. He traces the interactions between the folktale and Italo Calvino's Fiabe Italiane, between selected fictions of John Barth and the Arabian Nights, between the work of Robert Coover and the subgenre of the fairy tale, and between the "Bluebeard" stories and recent feminist retellings by Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. The arguments presented will interest not only folklorists and scholars of narrative but also readers in fields ranging from comparative literature to feminist theory.

Nothing like some good ghost stories on a cool Florida evening around a campfire (or at home in your favorite reading chair). And nothing like a swamp as a good, scary setting, especially Florida's famous ones--from the Everglades to Mosquito Lagoon. Mysterious things just happen in swamps. Maybe it's because they are often wet, shadowy places of wild beauty where few people go. Where else but a swamp can you find a ghost who is obsessed with the ghost orchid? Throw in a skunk ape or two and you've got the ingredients for many entertaining hours. In writing tales for this book, Doug Alderson drew upon many years of entertaining young people as a summer camp counselor and storyteller, and also from decades as a swamp explorer. He is a former associate editor of Florida Wildlife magazine. To learn more about his writing and photography, log onto his website at www.dougalderson.net.

Come nose around in the creepier corners of the Grand Rapids of yesteryear. Discover why Hell's Bridge persists as such an oft-told urban legend and what horrific history earned Heritage Hill the title of Michigan's most haunted neighborhood. Mingle with the spooky inhabitants of the Phillips Mansion, Holmdene Manor, San Chez Restaurant and St. Cecilia Music Center. Meet the guests who never quite checked out of the Amway Grand. Read the true stories behind the Michigan Bell Building and the Ada Witch Legend. Nicole Bray, Robert Du Shane and Julie Rathsack illuminate the shadows of local sites you thought you knew.

This book offers an unusual yet effective approach to the subject of mythology by stressing the universal rather than national themes. Leeming collects a wide array of narrative texts from the Bible to English literature to interpretations by Joseph Campbell, C.G. Jung and others, which illustrate the stages of the universal hero. The arrangement of texts by themes such as "Childhood, Initiation and Divine Signs" and "The Descent to the Underworld" help readers strip mythic characters of their many national and cultural "masks" to reveal their archetypal aspects. Real figures such as Jesus and Mohammed are also included to underline the text theory that myths are real and can be applied to real life. Changes to the third edition include additional heroine myths (including Navajo, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese and African tales) and an updated bibliography.

Most of today's familiar fairy tales come from the stories of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Andersen, but this innovative study encourages us to explore the marvelous tales of authors from the early modern period Giovanni Straparola, Giambattista Basile, Madame Marie-Catherine D'Aulnoy, and others whose works enrich and expand the canon. As author Jo Eldridge Carney shows, the queen is omnipresent in these stories, as much a hallmark of the genre as other familiar characteristics such as the number three, magical objects, and happy endings. That queens occupy such space in early modern tales is not surprising given the profound influence of so many powerful queens in the political landscapes of early modern England and Europe. Carney makes a powerful argument for the historical relevance of fairy tales and, by exploring the dynamic intersection between fictional and actual queens, shows how history and folk literature mutually enrich our understanding of the period.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing many of these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.