A moving account of Hawaii's most culturally significant stories, presented by King David Kalakaua. The Legends and Myths of Hawaii introduces readers to the social, historical, and religious customs of native Hawaiians, revealing the history of a culture that, for many years, functioned without outside influence. Chapters on leaders such as "Hina, the Helen of Hawaii," "Hua, King of Hana," and "Kelea, the Surf-Rider of Maui" illustrate Hawaii's most important tales and traditions. Originally published in 1888, King David Kalakaua's book remains a compelling and enduring collection of the archipelago's most memorable tales. With an eye-catching new cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Legends and Myths of Hawaii is specially designed for modern readers.

Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods (1915) is a collection of Hawaiian folktales and myths by W. D. Westervelt. Connecting the origin story of Hawaii to the traditions of other Polynesian cultures, Westervelt provides an invaluable resource for understanding the historical and geographical scope of Hawaiian culture. Drawing on the work of David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander, Westervelt, originally from Ohio, became a leading authority on the Hawaiian Islands, publishing extensively on their legends, religious beliefs, and folk tales. "The legends of the Hawaiian Islands are as diverse as those of any country in the world. They are also entirely distinct in form and thought from the fairy-tales which excite the interest and wonder of the English and German children. The mythology of Hawaii follows the laws upon which all myths are constructed." Part ethnography, part geological description, Westervelt's work is a powerful celebration of the cultural traditions of the Hawaiian Islands. In these legends, ghosts and gods interact with the environment and the daily lives of islanders, shaping human society and the land itself. Highlights include the story of the Wauhaula heiau, or temple, the legend of the enraged Hau-pu and the Rock of Kauai, and the tale of Nanaue, the shark-man of Waipio Valley. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W. D. Westervelt's Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods is a classic of Hawaiian literature reimagined for modern readers.

Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods (1915) is a collection of Hawaiian folktales and myths by W. D. Westervelt. Connecting the origin story of Hawaii to the traditions of other Polynesian cultures, Westervelt provides an invaluable resource for understanding the historical and geographical scope of Hawaiian culture. Drawing on the work of David Malo, Samuel Kamakau, and Abraham Fornander, Westervelt, originally from Ohio, became a leading authority on the Hawaiian Islands, publishing extensively on their legends, religious beliefs, and folk tales. "The legends of the Hawaiian Islands are as diverse as those of any country in the world. They are also entirely distinct in form and thought from the fairy-tales which excite the interest and wonder of the English and German children. The mythology of Hawaii follows the laws upon which all myths are constructed." Part ethnography, part geological description, Westervelt's work is a powerful celebration of the cultural traditions of the Hawaiian Islands. In these legends, ghosts and gods interact with the environment and the daily lives of islanders, shaping human society and the land itself. Highlights include the story of the Wauhaula heiau, or temple, the legend of the enraged Hau-pu and the Rock of Kauai, and the tale of Nanaue, the shark-man of Waipio Valley. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W. D. Westervelt's Hawaiian Legends of Ghosts and Ghost-Gods is a classic of Hawaiian literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Celtic Twilight (1893) is a collection of stories written and edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, The Celtic Twilight captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Belief and Unbelief," a story is shared about a village at the foot of Ben Bulben. One day, a young girl disappears while walking through a local field. Fearful that the faeries have gotten her, the townspeople conduct a search of the village, checking every home while burning ragweed and reciting spells to ward off the mischievous spirits. "Mortal Help" discusses the interdependence of humans and faeries, who require the presence of the living in order to play games in the physical world. As evidence, an old ditch digger tells a story from his youth, when he witnessed a group of faeries playing the game of hurling not far from the field where he was working. In "A Knight of the Sheep," an old farmer faces off with the local tax collector, and both struggle to maintain respect for one another while trading shrewdly concealed insults. "The Devil" discusses several demonic sightings among Irish peasants, who claim to have met Lucifer by the side of the road by day and under the bed at night. The Celtic Twilight captures the collision of ancient and modern Ireland, preserving its legends while ensuring their mystery remains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's The Celtic Twilight is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Celtic Twilight (1893) is a collection of stories written and edited by W.B. Yeats. Compiled at the height of the Celtic Twilight, a movement to revive the myths and traditions of Ancient Ireland, The Celtic Twilight captures a wide range of stories, songs, poems, and firsthand accounts from artists and storytellers dedicated to the preservation of Irish culture. In "Belief and Unbelief," a story is shared about a village at the foot of Ben Bulben. One day, a young girl disappears while walking through a local field. Fearful that the faeries have gotten her, the townspeople conduct a search of the village, checking every home while burning ragweed and reciting spells to ward off the mischievous spirits. "Mortal Help" discusses the interdependence of humans and faeries, who require the presence of the living in order to play games in the physical world. As evidence, an old ditch digger tells a story from his youth, when he witnessed a group of faeries playing the game of hurling not far from the field where he was working. In "A Knight of the Sheep," an old farmer faces off with the local tax collector, and both struggle to maintain respect for one another while trading shrewdly concealed insults. "The Devil" discusses several demonic sightings among Irish peasants, who claim to have met Lucifer by the side of the road by day and under the bed at night. The Celtic Twilight captures the collision of ancient and modern Ireland, preserving its legends while ensuring their mystery remains. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of W.B. Yeats's The Celtic Twilight is a classic of Irish literature reimagined for modern readers.

Jamaica Anansi Stories is a collection of folklore by Martha Warren Beckwith. Having studied under famed ethnographer Franz Boas at Columbia University, Beckwith dedicated her career to recording and contextualizing the traditions of people from around the world. Specializing in Jamaican, Hawaiian, Sioux, and Mandan-Hidatsa cultures, Beckwith published widely acclaimed works of folklore and ethnography through her interviews with native storytellers around the world. "One great hungry time. Anansi couldn't get anyt'ing to eat, so he take up his hand-basket an' a big pot an' went down to the sea-side to catch fish. When he reach there, he make up a large fire and put the pot on the fire, an' say, 'Come, big fish!'" Opening her collection with the lighthearted and instructional "Animal Stories," many of which record the conflicts between Anansi and the Tiger, Beckwith introduces her reader to one of central figures of Jamaican folklore. Associated with resistance, play, and resourcefulness, Anansi was a symbol of hope for a people subjected to centuries of slavery. Situated alongside similar tales from Europe, popular songs, riddles, and jokes, the Anansi stories form an invaluable part of Jamaican culture and of other Caribbean and American cultures who trace their origins to West Africa. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Martha Warren Beckwith's Jamaica Anansi Stories is a classic of anthropological literature reimagined for modern readers.

The Mythology of Venus is a collection of essays that summarizes the archaeoastronomy, calendar associations, religious and cultural icons, and myths identified with the planet Venus. The book concentrates on Western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the East from the Paleolithic Age to the Iron Age. It reveals the archetype of a goddess associated with the planet Venus who is identified with transformation, spiritual resurrection, and enlightenment. The characteristics of the goddess are steeped in sexual metaphors which contain images of birth and re-birth, and they reveal a pattern of symbols that follows the journey of the planet Venus through its cycles in the night sky. Moreover, the journey of Venus and the corresponding icons associated with the goddess are part of an intricate pattern of symbolic language that is seen on ancient monuments and on the ancient calendars of several cultures. Temples from France and Ireland to Greece and Malta trace the journey of the planet Venus and the story of the goddess of Venus.

Myths & Mysteries of Alaska explores unusual phenomena, strange events, and mysteries in the Last Frontier'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 Alaska history.

National myths are now seriously questioned in a number of societies. In the West, for instance, a number of factors have combined to destabilise the symbolic foundation of nations and collective identities. As a result, the diagnosis of a deep cultural crisis has become commonplace. Indeed, who today has not heard about the erosion of common values or the undermining of social cohesion? But to efficiently address this issue, do we know enough about the nature and role of myths in modern and postmodern societies? Against this background, National Myths: Constructed Pasts, Contested Presents relies on a sample of nations from around the world and seeks to highlight the functioning of national myths, both as representations that make sense of a collectivity, and as socially grounded tools used in a web of power relations. The collection draws together contributions from international experts to examine the present state of national myths, and their fate in today's rapidly-changing society. Can - or must - nations do without the sort of overarching symbolic configurations that national myths provide? If so, how to rethink the fabrics and the future of our societies? This book will appeal to students and scholars interested in sociology, national, identity and memory studies, myths, shared beliefs, or collective imaginaries.

Swifts live almost entirely in the air. They eat, drink, sleep, mate and gather their nesting materials on the wing, fly thousands of miles across the world, navigating their way around storms, never lighting on tree, cliff or ground, until they return home with the summer. Sarah Gibson has written a fascinating story of discovery, exploring what is known about these mysterious birds, their ancient ancestry and how they have been regarded through history. But the swifts are in real danger: often unintentionally, we are sealing our homes against wildlife of any kind. Cracks, gaps and crevices which for thousands of years have offered nesting space in buildings, are being closed off, while new housing rarely offers entry holes for nesting birds. Loss of breeding places is considered to be a significant factor in the steep decline of these birds over the last twenty years. Thankfully, there are people in the UK and across Europe striving to ensure a future for swifts. Their actions and stories are woven into the narrative, demonstrating how change is brought about by passionate, determined individuals, whose actions show that everyone can do something to keep these superb birds screaming through our skies.

For almost 200 years, since the publication of John Polidori's The Vampyre (1819), the vampire has been a mainstay of Western culture, appearing consistently in literature, art, music (notably opera), film, television, graphic novels and popular culture in general. Even before its entrance into the realm of arts and letters in the early 19th century, the vampire was a feared creature of Eastern European folklore and legend, rising from the grave at night to consume its living loved ones and neighbors, often converting them at the same time into fellow vampires. A major question exists within vampire scholarship: to what extent is this creature a product of European cultural forms, or is the vampire indeed a universal, perhaps even archetypal figure? In this collection of sixteen original essays, the editors shed light on this question. One essay traces the origins of the legend to the early medieval Norse draugr, an undead creature who reflects the underpinnings of Dracula, the latter first appearing as a vampire in Anglo-Irish Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, published in 1897.In addition to these investigations of the Western mythic, literary and historic traditions, other essays in this volume move outside Europe to explore vampire figures in Native American and Mesoamerican myth and ritual, as well as the existence of similar vampiric traditions in Japanese, Russian and Latin American art, theatre, literature, film and other cultural productions. The female vampire looms large, beginning with the Sumerian goddess Lilith, including the 19th-century Carmilla, and moving to vampiresses in 20th-century film, literature and television series. Scientific explanations for vampires and werewolves constitute another section of the book, including 18th-century accounts of unearthing, decapitation and cremation of suspected vampires in Eastern Europe. The vampire's beauty, attainment of immortality and eternal youth are all suggested as reasons for its continued success in contemporary popular culture.

Revealing the origins of the grail in Goddess religion, this title shows its continuance through Christianity down to modern times, with devotees of the Goddess still at work in the world today. It explains why it was adopted and used, how it existed on different levels to different people and shows what Grail Knowledge really was and is.

Anthropology from Asian Missiological Insights embraces and incorporates a combination of practical experiences, useful strategies, and grounded theories. Readers, regardless of their cultural background, will acquire new practical tools for missions. Man Soo (Abraham) Mok insightfully uses anthropological issues to examine folk beliefs, customs, and commitment. In addition, the author analyzes Korean culture to help readers grasp how the gospel took root in Korea - as it might have happened in any other culture.

Rosslyn Chapel, eight miles south of Edinburgh, has captured the imagination of many in recent years. This extraordinary building, dating from the fifteenth century, has long been a place of pilgrimage for people with widely differing interests, whether historical, architectural or spiritual. P.L. Snow has for many years been gathering the stories that are represented by the numerous carvings inside and outside the chapel building. Many of the carvings, eroded by the years or damaged by vandalism during the Reformation, have been lovingly restored over time. They are eloquent illustrations of the biblical, historical and legendary tales that they represent. This book traces themes of transformation and metamorphosis through inward endeavour, and will be fascinating for anyone interested in stories from the beginnings of the world, Ancient Egypt, the Holy Land, Celtic myth and Scottish history.

This book examines film versions of Irish myth, lore, and legend, concentrating particularly on stories which encompass the life journey of the hero, as proposed by Carl Jung and adapted by Joseph Campbell. After establishing the usefulness of film as cultural critique, the author provides intertextual and comparative readings of a number of films which follow a hero's journey. The stages of this journey include the child's struggle to achieve identity and become a responsible member of the community, the adult's ability to move beyond the self and fall in love with another, and the community member's willingness to sacrifice self in the service of Ireland. In addition, the study examines the lore of matchmaking and the communal uses of legend creation, as well as providing an ironic reading of the heroic journey through an exploration of the contemporary anti-hero. The films analysed include Into the West, The Secret of Roan Inish, In America, The Quiet Man, The Matchmaker, Michael Collins, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Veronica Guerin, and In Bruges.

In Greek mythology the beautiful Narcissus glimpsed his own reflection in the waters of a spring and fell in love. But his was an impossible passion and, filled with despair, he pined away. Over the years the myth has inspired painters, writers, and film directors, as well as philosophers and psychoanalysts. The tragic story of Narcissus, in love with himself, and of Echo, the nymph in love with him, lies at the heart of this collection of essays exploring the origins of the myth and some of its many cultural manifestations and meanings relating to the self and the self's relationship to the other. Through their discussion of the myth and its ramifications, the contributors to this volume broaden our understanding of one of the fundamental myths of Western culture.

Gloucestershire's stories go back to the days of Sabrina, spirit of the Severn, and the Nine Hags of Gloucester. Tales tell of sky-ships over Bristol, the silk-caped wraith of Dover's Hill, snow foresters on the Cotswolds, and Cirencester's dark-age drama of snake and nipple. They uncover the tragic secrets of Berkeley Castle and the Gaunts' Chapel, a lonely ghost haunting an ancient inn, and twenty-first-century beasts in the Forest of Dean. From the intrigue and romance of town and abbey to the faery magic of the wild, here are thirty of the county's most enchanting tales, brought imaginatively to life by a dynamic local storyteller.

Cemetery Plots from Victoria to Verdun considers the rhetoric of burial reform, cemeterial customs, and epitaphic writing in Great Britain from the mid-nineteenth century through the Great War. The first half of the book studies mid- and late-Victorian responses to death and burial, including epitaph collections, burial reform documents, and fictional representations of burial and epitaph writing, especially in the novels of Charles Dickens. The second half studies the same discourse of burial, mourning, and epitaphs in select fiction, memoirs, diaries, correspondence, and poems produced in response to World War I in order to understand how writing about individual memorialization changed in post-war British literature and culture.

In Counterfeit Politics, David Kelman reassesses the political significance of conspiracy theory. Traditionally, political theory has sought to banish the "paranoid style" from the "proper" domain of politics. But if conspiracy theory lies outside the sphere of legitimate politics, why do these narratives continue to haunt political life? Counterfeit Politics accounts for the seemingly ineradicable nature of conspiracy theory by arguing that all political statements ultimately take the form of conspiracy theory. Through careful readings of works by Ernest Hemingway, Ricardo Piglia, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, Jorge Luis Borges, Ishmael Reed, Jorge Volpi, Rigoberta Menchu, and Angel Rama, Kelman demonstrates that conspiracy narratives bear witness to an illegitimate or "counterfeit" secret that cannot be fully recognized, understood, and controlled. Even though the secret is not authorized to speak, this "silence" is nevertheless precisely what gives the secret its force. Kelman goes on to suggest that all political statements-even those that do not seem "paranoid"-are constitutively illegitimate or counterfeit, since they always narrate this unresolved play of legitimacy between an official or authorized plot and an unofficial or unauthorized plot (a "complot"). In short, Counterfeit Politics argues that politics only takes place as "conspiracy theory."

There are many stories featuring the villainous hero Reynard the Fox in many languages told over many centuries, goingback as far as the early 12th century. All these stories are comic and much of the humour depends on parody and satire resulting in mockery, sometimes the subversion of certain kinds of serious literature, of political and religious institutions and practices, of scholarly argument and moralizing, and of popular beliefs and customs. The contributors to this volume, all of them experts in one or more of the Reynard stories and their backgrounds, focus on the transformation of these tales through various media and to what extent they reflect differences in the cultural, class, and generational background of their tellers.

The stories presented in Peninnah Schram's highly anticipated Stories within Stories: From the Jewish Oral Tradition are drawn primarily from talmudic and midrashic sources, medieval texts, and the Israel Folktale Archives. Each enchanting story-within-a-story is part of the Jewish oral tradition and continues to enlighten, educate, and entertain audiences as have all of the author's previous works. The types of stories found in this wonderful collection (described by Peninnah Schram as "frame and chain stories") have been widely popular in both Jewish and non-Jewish literary traditions. Since Jews have lived in so many places, they have been influenced by the stories told by their surrounding neighbors. For example, this genre of tales has been especially popular in the Jewish stories of the Middle East, having been influenced by the structure and contents of Arabic literature. Stories within Stories contains fifty stories, mostly made up of folktales. Various types of stories are interspersed so that a humorous story is followed by a romantic tale, which is followed by a religious tale, which is followed by a tall tale, and so on. The stories come from various ethnic communities represented in the Israel Folktale Archives including Morocco, Iraq, Kurdistan, Persia, Yemen, and Eastern Europe. Gifted and highly acclaimed storyteller Peninnah Schram contributes to the ever-growing library of Jewish folklore collections, thus actively helping to restore the rich treasures of Jewish oral tradition in our contemporary world.

Exploring issues of gender in Tang-dynasty literature and culture, Jowen R.Tung draws on a comprehensive range of historical, literary, and social texts to unravel the complex mechanisms of one of the world's oldest patriarchal systems. The author reveals the profound damage inflicted by the masculine state ideology on its subjects by illuminating the problematics of male sexuality under the hovering phallus of the emperor, the construct of male and female psyches within the pseudo-monogamous household, the logic of the collective unconscious in the literati's writings, and a female tradition desperately trapped inside the law of the father. Tung poses urgent questions about a civilization that builds itself upon the sacrifice of human lives and arrives at a rather dark interpretation of the Tang_for many the epitome of the Chinese empire. As such, the book moves beyond the confines of gender studies to propose a heightened agenda for feminist studies, which the author argues now stand at a critical conjecture.

This book contains 175 tales drawn equally from the ancient and modern periods of Korea, plus 16 further tales provided for comparative purposes. Nothing else on this scale or depth is available in any western language. Three broad classes of material are included: foundation myths of ancient states and clans, ancient folktales and legends, modern folktales. Each narrative contains information on its source and provenance, and on its folklore type, similarities to folklore types from China, Japan and elsewhere.