On the Internet, seekers investigate anonymous manifestos that focus on the findings of brilliant scientists said to have discovered pathways into alternate realities. Gathering on web forums, researchers not only share their observations, but also report having anomalous experiences, which they believe come from their online involvement with these veiled documents. Seeming logic combines with wild twists of lost Moorish science and pseudo-string theory. Enthusiasts insist any obstacle to revelation is a sure sign of great and wide-reaching efforts by consensus powers wishing to suppress all the liberating truths in the Incunabula Papers (included here in complete form).

In "Legend-Tripping Online," Michael Kinsella explores these and other extraordinary pursuits. This is the first book dedicated to legend-tripping, ritual quests in which people strive to explore and find manifest the very events described by supernatural legends. Through collective performances, legend-trippers harness the interpretive frameworks these stories provide and often claim incredible, out-of-this-world experiences that in turn perpetuate supernatural legends.

Legends and legend-tripping are assuming tremendous prominence in a world confronting new speeds of diversification, connection, and increasing cognitive load. As guardians of tradition as well as agents of change, legends and the ordeals they inspire contextualize ancient and emergent ideas, behaviors, and technologies that challenge familiar realities. This book analyzes supernatural legends and the ways in which the sharing spirit of the internet collectivizes, codifies, and makes folklore of fantastic speculation.

What's in a name? Using the example of a famous monster from Greek myth, this book challenges the dominant view that a mythical symbol denotes a single, clear-cut 'figure' and proposes instead to define the name 'Scylla' as a combination of three concepts - sea, dog and woman - whose articulation changes over time. While archaic and classical Greek versions usually emphasize the metaphorical coherence of Scylla's components, the name is increasingly treated as a well-defined but also paradoxical construct from the late fourth century BCE onward. Proceeding through detailed analyses of Greek and Roman texts and images, Professor Hopman shows how the same name can variously express anxieties about the sea, dogs, aggressive women and shy maidens, thus offering an empirical response to the semiotic puzzle raised by non-referential proper names.

From Ritual to Romance is a 1920 landmark study of anthropology and folklore that examines the roots of the King Arthur-Holy Grail legends. Jessie Weston's revolutionary theory holds that most elements of the Grail story are actually the remnants of incredibly old fertility rites -- with the lance and the cup serving as sexual symbols.Drawing on James George Frazer's seminal works on folklore, magic, and religion, Weston seeks to make connections between the legend's early pagan elements and its later Christian influences, uniting the quest for fertility with the striving for mystical oneness with God. T.S. Elliot cited this work as a major influence for his famous epic poem, "The Waste Land." JESSIE LAIDLAY WESTON (1850-1928) was an independent scholar and folklorist who specialized in mediaeval Arthurian texts.

This collection of Japanese fairy tales is the outcome of a suggestion made to me indirectly through a friend by Mr. Andrew Lang. They have been translated from the modern version written by Sadanami Sanjin. These stories are not literal translations, and though the Japanese story and all quaint Japanese expressions have been faithfully preserved, they have been told more with the view to interest young readers of the West than the technical student of folk - lore. Grateful acknowledgment is due to Mr. Y. Yasuoka, Miss Fusa Okamoto, my brother Nobumori Ozaki, Dr. Yoshihiro Takaki, and Miss Kameko Yamao, who have helped me with translations.

Children have their own games, stories, riddles, and so forth. This book gives students and general readers an introduction to children's folklore. Included are chapters on the definition and classification of children's folklore, the presence of children's folklore in literature and popular culture, and the scholarly interpretation of children's folklore. The volume also includes a wide range of examples and texts demonstrating the variety of children's folklore around the world.

Children have always had their own games, stories, riddles, jokes, and so forth. Many times, children's folklore differs significantly from the folklore of the adult world, as it reflects the particular concerns and experiences of childhood. In the late 19th century, children's folklore began receiving growing amounts of scholarly attention, and it is now one of the most popular topics among folklorists, general readers, and students. This book is a convenient and authoritative introduction to children's folklore for nonspecialists.

The volume begins with a discussion of how children's folklore is defined, and how various types of children's folklore are classified. This is followed by a generous selection of examples and texts illustrating the variety of children's folklore from around the world. The book then looks at how scholars have responded to children's folklore since the 19th century, and how children's folklore has become prominent in popular culture. A glossary and bibliography round out the volume.

Jerrilyn McGregory explores sacred music and spiritual activism in a little-known region of the South, the Wiregrass Country of Georgia, Alabama, and North Florida. She examines African American sacred music outside of Sunday church-related activities, showing that singing conventions and anniversary programs fortify spiritual as well as social needs. In this region African Americans maintain a social world of their own creation. Their cultural performances embrace some of the most pervasive forms of African American sacred music--spirituals, common meter, Sacred Harp, shape-note, traditional, and contemporary gospel. Moreover, the contexts in which they sing include present-day observations such as the Twentieth of May (Emancipation Day), Burial League Turnouts, and Fifth Sunday.

Rather than tracing the evolution of African American sacred music, this ethnographic study focuses on contemporary cultural performances, almost all by women, which embrace all forms. These women promote a female-centered theology to ensure the survival of their communities and personal networks. They function in leadership roles that withstand the test of time. Their spiritual activism presents itself as a way of life.

In Wiregrass Country, "You don't have to sing like an angel" is a frequently expressed sentiment. To these women, "good" music is God's music regardless of the manner delivered. Therefore, "Downhome Gospel" presents gospel music as being more than a transcendent sound. It is local spiritual activism that is writ large. Gospel means joy, hope, expectation, and the good news that makes the soul glad.

This comprehensive collection of folk hero tales builds on the success of the first edition by providing readers with expanded contextual information on story characters from the Americas to Zanzibar. Despite the tremendous differences between cultures and ethnicities across the world, all of them have folk heroes and heroines-real and imagined-that have been represented in tales, legends, songs, and verse. These stories persist through time and space, over generations, even through migrations to new countries and languages. This encyclopedia is a one-stop source for broad coverage of the world's folk hero tales. Geared toward high school and early college readers, the book opens with an overview of folk heroes and heroines that provides invaluable context and then presents a chronology. The book is divided into two main sections: the first provides entries on the major types and themes; the second addresses specific folk tale characters organized by continent with folk hero entries organized alphabetically. Each entry provides cross references as well as a list of further readings. Continent sections include a bibliography for additional research. The book concludes with an alphabetical list of heroes and an index of hero types. Supplies entries on folk tale characters worldwide that identify related heroes and heroines and provide additional contextual information Features a geographical organization that enables readers to research a specific region's folk characters Provides an alphabetical index as well as an index of heroic character types to facilitate cross-cultural and historical comparisons Includes sidebars with passages from the folk tales, popular culture, and other items of interest

German scholars were early pioneers in folklore and historical linguistics. As the Nazis rose to power, however, these disciplines were distorted into racist pseudoscience. Under the direction of Heinrich Himmler's SS-Ahnenerbe (Ancestral Inheritance), folklore became a tool for constructing a unified German realm and a manufactured lineage from ancient and ""pure"" Germanic and Nordic blood. Drawing on extensive research in public and private archives and interviews with family members of fieldworkers, James R. Dow uncovers both details of the SS cultural commissions' work and the continuing vestiges of the materials they assembled. Teams of poorly qualified and ideologically motivated collectors were sent to South Tyrol in Italy and Gottschee in Slovenian Yugoslavia, from which ethnically German communities were to be resettled in the German Reich. Although a mass of information on narratives, songs and dances, beliefs, customs, local clothing and architecture, and folk speech was collected, the research was deeply tainted and skewed by racialist and nationalist preconditions. Dow sharply critiques the continued use of these ersatz archives.

This is a fully annotated edition of selected letters by (and in some cases to) Sir J. G. Frazer (1854-1941), the eminent anthropologist, classicist, and historian of religion. Frazer was read by virtually everyone working in those fields in the first third of the twentieth century. His great work, The Golden Bough, offered a grand vision of humanity's mental and spiritual evolution - from vain attempts to compel the gods to do our bidding (which Frazer called magic) through equally vain attempts to propitiate the gods through prayer and sacrifice (his characterization of religion) to rationality and science. His richly varied correspondence with prominent figures such as Edmund Gosse, A. E. Housman, and Bronislaw Malinowski, among others, offers an unparalleled insight into British intellectual life of the time, and also throws light upon the composition of The Golden Bough itself.

Enjoy a rich collection of folktales, myths and legends from all over Africa and the Caribbean, re-told for young readers. From the trickster tales of Anansi the spider, to the story of how the leopard got his spots; from the tale of the king who wanted to touch the moon, to Aunt Misery's magical starfruit tree. This book includes traditional favourites and classic folktales and mythology.