There are very few accounts of the afterlife across the period from Homer to Dante. Most traditional studies approach the classical afterlife from the point of view of its "evolution" towards the Christian afterlife. This book tries to do something different: to explore afterlife narratives in spatial terms and to situate this tradition within the ambit of a fundamental need in human psychology for the synthesis of soul (or "self") and universe. Drawing on the works of Homer, Plato, Cicero, Virgil, and Dante, among others, as well as on modern works on psychology, cartography, and music theory, Mapping the Afterlife argues that the topography of the afterlife in the Greek and Roman tradition, and in Dante, reflects the state of "scientific" knowledge at the time of the various contexts in which we find it. The book posits that there is a dominant spatial idiom in afterlife landscapes, a "journey-vision paradigm"-the horizontal journey of the soul across the afterlife landscape, and a synoptic vision of the universe. Many scholars have argued that the vision of the universe is out of place in the underworld landscape. However, looking across the entire tradition, we find that afterlife landscapes, almost without exception, contain these two kinds of space in one form or another. This double vision of space brings the underworld, as the landscape of the soul, into contact with the "scientific" universe; and brings humanity into line with the cosmos.

This book explores Icelandic spirit work, known as andleg mal, which features trance and healing practices that span earth and spirit realms, historical eras, and scientific and supernatural worldviews. Based on years of fieldwork conducted in the northern Icelandic town of Akureyri, this book excavates andleg mal's roots in layers of Icelandic history, and examines how the practice mixes modern science with the supernatural and even occasionally crosses the Atlantic Ocean. Weaving personal stories and anecdotes with accessibly written accounts of Icelandic religious and cultural traditions, Corinne Dempsey humanizes spirit practices that are usually demonized or romanticized. While andleg mal may appear remote and exotic, those who practice it are not. Having endured extremely harsh conditions until recent decades, Icelanders today are among the most highly educated people on the planet, well-connected to global technologies and economies. Andleg mal practitioners are no exception, as many of them are members of mainstream society who work day jobs and keep their spirit involvement under wraps. For those who claim the "gift" of openness to the spirit world, andleg mal even offers a means of daily spiritual support, helping to diminish fear and self-doubt and providing benefits to those on both sides of the divide.

A retelling of Disney Encanto featuring stunning development art from the original Disney Studio artists. Since its release, Encanto has become an instant classic thanks to its magical story, relatable characters and catchy songs from Tony (R), Grammy (R) and Pulitzer Prize-winner, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Encanto won Best Animated Feature Film at the 2022 Academy Awards (R). Enjoy the hit movie through this retelling of the story, accompanied by concept art from the original Walt Disney Animation Studios artists. Alongside the art, fascinating facts about each piece of art give an insight into the design process behind the iconic movie. Also featured is a foreword from Yvett Merino, Producer at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. The beautiful hardback features a textured finish, stunning foil and illustrated endpapers to ensure this is a book to treasure for years to come. This is the perfect gift for all those who have been enchanted by the magic of Encanto!

Wonderful catalog real and fanciful beasts: manticore, griffin, phoenix, amphivius, jaculus, many more. White's witty erudite commentary on scientific, historical aspects enhances fascinating glimpse of medieval mind. 128 black-and-white illustrations.

Featuring nearly 500 samples of folklore, including stories, artifacts, rituals, and beliefs, New World Witchery is one of the most comprehensive collections of witchcraft and folk magic ever written. This treasure trove of witchery is designed to help you integrate folk traditions into your life and deepen your understanding of magic. Folklore expert Cory Thomas Hutcheson guides you to the crossroads of folk magic, where you ll learn about different practices and try them for yourself. Explore chapters on magical heritage, divination, flying, familiars, magical protection, spirit communication, and more. This in-depth, accessible book also provides brief profiles of significant folk magicians, healers, and seers, so you can both meet the practitioners and experience their craft.

In Hans Christian Andersen in American Literary Criticism of the Nineteenth Century, Herbert Rowland argues that the literary criticism accompanying the publication of Hans Christian Andersen's works in the United States compares favorably in scope, perceptiveness, and chronological coverage with the few other national receptions of Andersen outside of Denmark. Rowland contends that American commentators made it abundantly evident that, in addition to his fairy tales, Andersen wrote several novels, travelogues, and an autobiography which were all of more than common interest. In the process, Rowland shows that American commentators "naturalized" Andersen in the United States by confronting the sensationalism in the journalism and literature of the time with the perceived wholesomeness of Andersen's writing, deploying his long fiction on both sides of the debate over the nature and relative value of the romance and the novel, and drawing on two of his works to support their positions on slavery, the Civil War, and Reconstruction.

UPDATED, WITH NEW MATERIAL BY THE AUTHOR"WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows."--Alice WalkerWithin every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature of women. But she is an endangered species. In WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES, Dr. Estés unfolds rich intercultural myths, fairy tales, and stories, many from her own family, in order to help women reconnect with the fierce, healthy, visionary attributes of this instinctual nature. Through the stories and commentaries in this remarkable book, we retrieve, examine, love, and understand the Wild Woman and hold her against our deep psyches as one who is both magic and medicine. Dr. Estés has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul."This volume reminds us that we are nature for all our sophistication, that we are still wild, and the recovery of that vitality will itself set us right in the world."--Thomas Moore Author of Care of the Soul"I am grateful to WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES and to Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés. The work shows the reader how glorious it is to be daring, to be caring, and to be women. Everyone who can read should read this book."--Maya Angelou"An inspiring book, the 'vitamins for the soul' [for] women who are cut off from their intuitive nature."--San Francisco Chronicle"Stands out from the pack . . . A joy and sparkle in [the] prose . . . This book will become a bible for women interested in doing deep work. . . . It is a road map of all the pitfalls, those familiar and those horrifically unexpected, that a woman encounters on the way back to her instinctual self. Wolves . . . is a gift."--Los Angeles Times"A mesmerizing voice . . . Dramatic storytelling she learned at the knees of her [immigrant] aunts."--Newsweek

"Scottish Myths and Legends" is an entertaining taste of the feast of stories that Scotland has to offer. Fairy folk, witches, giants, monsters, tales of heroic princes, magic and miraculous feats - all are the stuff of the myths and legends of Scotland. Scotland is a nation made up of many peoples and cultures. This diversity of cultural influence is reflected in Scotland's vast store of myths and legends. This book contains a fascinating selection of these; some recent, some ancient, some obscure in origin and others based (however loosely) on fact. We invite you to revel in engaging tales of selkies, kelpies, glaistigs, fairy queens and changelings; wonder at the mysteries that may be hidden in the depths of Scottish lochs; and, shiver at tales of supernatural disappearances, deadly creatures and grisly deeds, and if you ever meet someone called Sawney Bean, who lived in a cave with his family and ate people - run for your life!

This book is an interdisciplinary synthesis and interpretation about the experience of light as revealed in a wide range of art and literature from Paleolithic to Roman times. Humanistic in spirit and in its handling of facts, it marshals a substantial body of scholarship to develop an explication of light as a central, even dramatic, reality of human existence and experience in diverse cultural settings. David S. Herrstrom underscores our intimacy with light-not only its constant presence in our life but its insinuating character. Focusing on our encounters with light and ways of making sense of these, this book is concerned with the personal and cultural impact of light, exploring our resistance to and acceptance of light. Its approach is unique. The book's true subject is the individual's relationship with light, rather than the investigation of light's essential nature. It tells the story of light seducing individuals down through the ages. Consequently, it is not concerned with the "progress" of scientific inquiries into the physical properties and behavior of light (optical science), but rather with subjective reactions to it as reflected in art (Paleolithic through Roman), architecture (Egyptian, Grecian, Roman), mythology and religion (Paleolithic, Egyptian), and literature (e.g., Akhenaten, Plato, Aeschylus, Lucretius, John the Evangelist, Plotinus, and Augustine). This book celebrates the complexity of our relation to light's character. No individual experience of light is "truer" than any other; none improves on any previous experience of light's "tidal pull" on us. And the wondrous variety of these encounters has yielded a richly layered tapestry of human experience. By its broad scope and interdisciplinary approach, this pioneering book is without precedent.

Despite the homogenization of American life, areas of strong regional consciousness still persist in the United States, and there is a growing interest in regionalism among the public and among academics. In response to that interest ten folklorists here describe and interpret a variety of American regional cultures in the twentieth century. Their book is the first to deal specifically with regional culture and the first to employ the perspective of folklore in the study of regional identity and consciousness. The authors range widely over the United States, from the Eastern Shore to the Pacific Northwest, from the Southern Mountains to the Great Plains. They look at a variety of cultural expressions and practices -- legends, anecdotes, songs, foodways, architecture, and crafts. Tying their work together is a common consideration of how regional culture shapes and is shaped by the consciousness of living in a special place. In exploring this dimension of regional culture the authors consider the influence of natural environment and historical experience on the development of regional culture, the role of ethnicity in regional consciousness, the tensions between insiders and outsiders that stem from a sense of regional identity, and the changes in culture in response to social and economic change. With its focus on cultural manifestations and its folkloristic perspective this book provides a fresh and needed contribution to regional studies. Written in a clear, readable style, it will appeal to general readers interested in American regions and their cultures. At the same time the research and analytical approach make it useful not only to folklorists but to cultural geographers, anthropologists, and other scholars of regional studies.

Women Writing Wonder: An Anthology of Subversive Nineteenth-Century British, French, and German Fairy Tales is a translation and critical edition that fills a current gap in fairy-tale scholarship by making accessible texts written by nineteenth-century British, French, and German women authors who used the genre of the fairy tale to address issues such as class, race, and female agency. These shared themes crossed national borders are due to both communication among these writers and changes in nineteenth-century European societies that similarly affected women in Western Europe. In effect, the combined texts reveal a common, transnational tradition of fairy tales by women writers who grapple with gender, sexual, social, and racial issues in a post-French Revolution Europe. The anthology provides insight into the ways the fairy tale served as a vehicle for women writers-often marginalized and excluded from more official or public genres-to engage in very serious debates. Women Writing Wonder, divided into three parts by country, features tales that depict relationships that cross class and racial divides, thus challenging normative marriage practices; critically examine traditional fairy-tale tropes, such as ""happily ever after"" and the need for a woman to marry; challenge the perception that fairy-tale collecting, editing, and creation was male work, associated particularly with the Grimms; and demonstrate the role of women in the development of the emerging field of children's literature and moral tales. Through their tales, these women question, among other issues, the genre of the fairy tale itself, playing with the conventional fairy-tale narrative to compose their proto-feminist tales. By bringing these tales together, editors and translators Julie L. J. Koehler, Shandi Lynne Wagner, Anne E. Duggan, and Adrion Dula hope both to foreground women writers' important contributions to the genre and to challenge common assumptions about what a fairy tale is for scholars, students, and general readers.

Featuring places such as Loch Ness, to the depths of the Devil's Sea of Japan, 'The World's Weirdest Places' reveals the sheer astonishing scale of strangeness that dominates our planet.

Meet the monsters in our midst, from bigfoot to Mothman and beyond! Welcome to the United States of Cryptids, where mysterious monsters lurk in the dark forests, deep lakes, and sticky swamps of all fifty states. From the infamous Jersey Devil to the obscure Snallygaster, travel writer and chronicler of the strange J. W. Ocker uncovers the bizarre stories of these creatures and investigates the ways in which communities embrace and celebrate their local cryptids. Readers will learn about: Batsquatch of Washington, a winged bigfoot that is said to have emerged from the eruption of Mount Saint Helens Nain Rouge of Michigan, a fierce red goblin that has been spotted before every major city disaster in Detroit Flatwoods Monster of West Virginia, a robotic extraterrestrial that crash-landed in rural Appalachia Lizard Man of South Carolina, a reptilian mutant that attacked a teenager in the summer of 1988 Glocester Ghoul of Rhode Island, a fire-breathing dragon that guards a hoard of pirate treasure And many more! Whether you believe in bigfoot or not, this fully illustrated compendium is a fun, frightening, fascinating tour through American folklore and history, exploring the stories we tell about monsters and what those stories say about us.

Breaking box office records around the globe, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has achieved an unparalleled level of success and gripped the imaginations of fans across the world, raising the films to a higher level of narrative: myth. Using the field of religious studies, this is the first book to analyze the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a modern myth, comparing it to epics, symbols, rituals, and stories from multiple world religious traditions. By exploring how the characters and events of the MCU resemble religious themes and ancient mythic stories, this book places the exploits of Iron Man, Captain America, Black Panther, and the other stars of the Marvel films, alongside the legends of Achilles, Gilgamesh, Arjuna, the Buddha, and many others. It examines their origin stories and rites of passage, the monsters, shadow-selves, and familial conflicts they contend with, and the symbols of death and the battle against it that stalk them at every turn. As a result, we can appreciate how the films deal with timeless human dilemmas and questions, evoking an enduring sense of adventure and wonder common across world mythic traditions.

Laurence Coupe offers students a comprehensive overview of the development of myth, showing how mythic themes, structures and symbols persist in literature and entertainment today. This introductory volume: illustrates the relation between myth, culture and literature with discussions of poetry, fiction, film and popular song explores uses made of the term 'myth' within the fields of literary criticism, anthropology, cultural studies, feminism, Marxism and psychoanalysis discusses the association between modernism, postmodernism, myth and history familiarizes the reader with themes such as the dying god, the quest for the Grail, the relation between 'chaos' and 'cosmos', and the vision of the end of time demonstrates the growing importance of the green dimension of myth. Fully updated and revised in this new edition, Myth is both a concise introduction and a useful tool to students first approaching the topic, while also a valuable contribution to the study of myth.

SAYINGS OF TIME-HONORED TRUTH AND CONTEMPORARY WISDOM FROM THE NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES

Why will you take by force what you may obtain by love?

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave.

He who serves his fellows is the greatest of all.

If a man is as wise as a serpent, he can be as gentle as a dove.

The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.

A sin against a neighbor is an offense against the Great Spirit.

What cases are you engaged in at present?' 'Are you stopping many teeth just now?' 'What people have you converted lately?' Do ladies put these questions to the men - lawyers, dentists, clergymen, and so forth - who happen to sit next them at dinner parties? I do not know whether ladies thus indicate their interest in the occupations of their casual neighbours at the hospitable board. But if they do not know me, or do not know me well, they generally ask 'Are you writing anything now?' (as if they should ask a painter 'Are you painting anything now?' or a lawyer 'Have you any cases at present?'). Sometimes they are more definite and inquire 'What are you writing now?' as if I must be writing something - which, indeed, is the case, though I dislike being reminded of it. It is an awkward question, because the fair being does not care a bawbee what I am writing; nor would she be much enlightened if I replied 'Madam, I am engaged on a treatise intended to prove that Normal is prior to Conceptional Totemism' - though that answer would be as true in fact as obscure in significance. The best plan seems to be to answer that I have entirely abandoned mere literature, and am contemplating a book on 'The Causes of Early Blight in the Potato, ' a melancholy circumstance which threatens to deprive us of our chief esculent root.

A complete collection of much loved Irish fairy tales, myths and legends, bound into a beautiful new edition. Enjoy the rich mythical history of Ireland from the arrival of the Tuatha De Danann on the island and their great battles with the Fomorians right up to the modern day fairytales of Irish storytelling. Including the Ulster Cycle, and the Fenian Cycle, the book features heroes such as Cuchulainn and Fionn Mac Cumhaill, and many traditional favourites such as The Children of Lir. Bringing together 18 favourite Irish fairy tales, myths and legends Beautiful new edition of enduring and much-loved Celtic classics Lovely shiny foil highlights on the cover make this a perfect gift

This book, first published in 1990, is a thematic analysis of five tales of early vernacular Chinese literature. Interest in vernacular stories is increasing in the study of Chinese literature, as their importance is being recognised as a key part of the oral traditional narrative. From the analysis of the five Chinese tales in light of literary, historical, philological sources and folkloristic methodologies we may see to what extent tales of an intrinsically religious nature can offer meanings in the oral tradition.

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a prolific Scots man of letters, a poet, novelist, literary critic and contributor to anthropology. He now is best known as the collector of folk and fairy tales. He was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, St Andrews University and at Balliol College, Oxford. As a journalist, poet, critic and historian, he soon made a reputation as one of the ablest and most versatile writers of the day. Lang was one of the founders of the study of Psychical Research, and his other writings on anthropology include The Book of Dreams and Ghosts (1897), Magic and Religion (1901) and The Secret of the Totem (1905). He was a Homeric scholar of conservative views. Other works include Homer and the Epic (1893); a prose translation of The Homeric Hymns (1899), with literary and mythological essays in which he draws parallels between Greek myths and other mythologies; and Homer and his Age (1906). He also wrote Ballades in Blue China (1880) and Rhymes la Mode (1884).

An encyclopedic A-to-Z guide, this beautifully illustrated volume offers hundreds of rich, fascinating definitions of 700 major and minor characters, creatures, and places of classical mythology. Classical Mythology A-to-Z is a comprehensive and engrossing guide to Greek and Roman mythology. Written by Annette Giesecke, PhD, Professor of Classics and Chair of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Delaware, this brilliant reference offers clear explanations of every character and locale, and captures the essence of these timeless tales. From the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus and the heroes of the Trojan War to the nymphs, monsters, and other mythical creatures that populate these ancient stories, Giesecke recounts, with clarity and energy, the details of more than 700 characters and places. Each definition includes cross-references to related characters, locations, and myths, as well their equivalent in Roman mythology and cult. In addition to being an important standalone work, Classical Mythology A-to-Z is also written, designed, and illustrated to serve as an essential companion to the bestselling illustrated 75th-anniversary edition of Mythology by Edith Hamilton, including 10 full-color plates and 2-color illustrations throughout by artist Jim Tierney.