In recent years, there has been a noticeable and enthusiastic increase of interest in Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. The legends of these temples and shrines are recorded in many historical manuscripts and these genealogies have such great significance that some of them have been registered as national treasures of Japan. They are indispensable to elucidate the history of these temples and shrines, in addition to the formation process of the ancient Japanese nation. This book provides a comprehensive examination of the genealogies and legends of ancient Japanese clans. It advances the study of ancient Japanese history by utilizing new analytical perspective from not only the well-known historical manuscripts relied upon by previous researchers, but also valuable genealogies and legends that previous researchers largely neglected.

Enchanting tales of the gods, kings, and monsters that populated the Anglo-Saxon world. An atmospheric collection of 30 folk tales exploring stories of cosmology, monsters, conflicts and courtship from the Seven Kingdoms to Middle Earth. This is an entertaining portal into a world overflowing with mythology, magic and all manner of beguiling creatures, which has inspired everything from the Lord of the Rings to Game of Thrones. The book is divided into 3 parts: * Scop is a set of stories told by the Anglo-Saxon storyteller Scop, from the creation to the destruction of the world. It explores what remains of the gods and monsters of the Anglo-Saxon cosmology. * Wreccan is pagan stories exploring self-discovery and development through exile. Variations of these tales would have told by the Anglo-Saxons themselves, including Sigemund's rebellion and the trials of Beowulf. * Bretwalda stories revolve around Bretwalda the chief Anglo-Saxon king who ruled over the majority of the Seven Kingdoms. These stories reflect a period when both the old gods and Christianity existed simultaneously. Remarkable illustrations by Jesus Sotes breathe new life into these tales of the past.

The Truth of Myth is a thorough and accessible introduction to the study of myth, surveying the intellectual history of the topic, methods for studying myth cross-culturally, and emerging trends. Readers will encounter insightful commentaries on such questions as: What is the relation of mythology to religion? To science? To popular culture? Did the events recounted in myths actually occur? Why does the term "myth" have so many contradictory definitions and connotations? Offering serious students with an intellectual "toolkit" for launching into this fascinating field, the book is especially useful in conjunction with case studies of individual mythological traditions.

This book chronicles the rise of goddess worship in the region of Bengal from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. Focusing on the goddesses Kali and Uma, McDermott examines lyrical poems written by devotees from Ramprasad Sen (ca. 1718-1775) to Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976).

Werewolf Histories is the first academic book in English to address European werewolf history and folklore from antiquity to the twentieth century. It covers the most important werewolf territories, ranging from Scandinavia to Germany, France and Italy, and from Croatia to Estonia.

Folklore is the cultural expression of a people, and it makes up key elements of the stories they tell. Using easily accessible language, this book defines, separates, and gracefully weaves together story and folklore. From the ancient world of traveling bards in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America, to the contemporary world of storytelling festivals, fan fiction, and digital story conferences, this reference unravels confusion between concepts of folklore and story, and demonstrates how they are linked. Included are numerous examples and texts, a review of critical approaches, and a discussion of story in literature and popular culture. Story informs folklore, and folklore informs story. The complex relationship between them is compounded by many definitions and points of view generated by scholars over time. Humans construct their sense of the world through story, vernacular transmission, and folklore. Folklore is the cultural expression of people, and it makes up the key elements of the stories they tell. Written for high school students and general readers, this reference conveniently overviews story as a folklore genre.

Mythology flows like a subterranean stream throughout Hawai'i. Rita Knipe has selected a number of characteristic myths and mythological figures from the rich pantheon of Hawaiian deities. As she retells their stories, illustrated by Hawaii artist Dietrich Varez, the transposition of such primal drama to the pages of this book becomes poetic theater. The dramatic plots are myths and legends chosen from the oral traditions of unique island people, but the underlying themes and symbols are archetypal and eternal. Drawing parallels between Hawaiian mythology, universal patterns, and individual behavior, the author illustrates certain basic Jungian concepts and explains how we express them in the drama of our own lives.

Robinson Crusoe explores Defoe's story, the legend it captured, the universal desire which underlies the myth and a range of modern re-writings which reveal a continued fascination with the problematic character of this narrative. Whether envisaged as an heroic rejection of the old world order, a piece of pre-colonialist propaganda or a tale raising archetypal problems of 'otherness' and 'inequality', the mythic value of Crusoe has become a pretext over many centuries for an examination of some of the fundamental problems of existence. This collection of essays examines, from a wide range of critical and philosophical perspectives, the cultural manifestations of Robinson Crusoe in different centuries, in different media, in different genres.

Boldly illustrated and superbly translated, Folk Legends from Tono captures the spirit of Japanese peasant culture undergoing rapid transformation into the modern era. This is the first time these 299 tales have been published in English. Morse's insightful interpretation of the tales, his rich cultural annotations, and the evocative original illustrations make this book unforgettable. In 2008, a companion volume of 118 tales was published by Rowman & Littlefield as the The Legends of Tono. Taken together, these two books have the same content (417 tales) as the Japanese language book Tono monogatari. Reminiscent of Japanese woodblocks, the ink illustrations commissioned for the Folk Legends from Tono, mirror the imagery that Japanese villagers envisioned as they listened to a storyteller recite the tales.The stories capture the extraordinary experiences of real people in a singular folk community. The tales read like fiction but touch the core of human emotion and social psychology. Thus, the reader is taken on a magical tour through the psychic landscape of the Japanese "spirit world" that was a part of its oral folk tradition for hundreds of years. All of this is made possible by the translator's insightful interpretation of the tales, his sensitive cultural annotations, and the visual charm of the book's illustrations. The cast of characters is rich and varied, as we encounter yokai monsters, shape-shifting foxes, witches, grave robbers, ghosts, heavenly princesses, roaming priests, shamans, quasi-human mountain spirits, murderers, and much more.

Wherever vampires existed in the imaginations of different peoples, they adapted themselves to the customs of the local culture. As a result, vampire lore is extremely diverse. So too, representations of the vampire in creative works have been marked by much originality. In "The Vampyre" (1819), John Polidori introduced Lord Ruthven and established the vampire craze of the 19th century that resulted in a flood of German vampire poetry, French vampire drama, and British vampire fiction. This tradition culminated in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (1897), which fixed the character of the Transylvanian nobleman as the archetypal vampire firmly in the public imagination. Numerous films drew from Stoker's novel to varying degrees, with each emphasizing different elements of his vampire character. And more recent writers have created works in which vampirism is used to explore contemporary social concerns.

The contributors to this volume discuss representations of the vampire in fiction, folklore, film, and popular culture. The first section includes chapters on Stoker and his works, with attention to such figures as Oscar Wilde and Edvard Munch. The second section explores the vampire in film and popular culture from Bela Lugosi to "Blacula." The volume then looks at such modern writers as Anne Rice and Chelsea Quinn Yarbro who have adapted the vampire legend to meet their artistic needs. A final section studies contemporary issues, such as vampirism as a metaphor for AIDS in ""Killing Zoe."

The Trojans were the most famous losers in Greek mythology. Yet according to tradition their descendants went on to found Rome, the most powerful city in the Mediterranean. Andrew Erskine explores the role and meaning of Troy in the changing relationship between Greeks and Romans.

Ever since Odysseus heard tales of his own exploits being retold among strangers, audiences and readers have been alive to the complications and questions arising from the translation of myth. How are myths taken and carried over into new languages, new civilizations, or new media? An international group of scholars is gathered in this volume to present diverse but connected case studies which address the artistic and political implications of the changing condition of myth - this most primal and malleable of forms. 'Translation' is treated broadly to encompass not only literary translation, but also the transfer of myth across cultures and epochs. In an age when the spiritual world is in crisis, Translating Myth constitutes a timely exploration of myth's endurance, and represents a consolidation of the status of myth studies as a discipline in its own right.

This is a collection of 251 proverbs (91 of them illustrated) from Kannada - a South Indian language with 2000 years of literary history and cultural heritage.

Hidden in the margins of history books, classical literature, and thousands of years of stories, myths and legends, through to contemporary literature, TV and film, there is a diverse and other-worldly super community of queer heroes to discover, learn from, and celebrate. Be captivated by stories of forbidden love like Patroclus & Achilles (explored in Madeleine Miller's bestseller Song of Achilles), join the cult of Antinous (inspiration for Oscar Wilde), get down with pansexual god Set in Egyptian myth, and fall for Zimbabwe's trans God Mawi. And from modern pop-culture, through Dan Jones's witty, upbeat style, learn more about 90s fan obsessions Xena: Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Neil Gaiman's American Gods and the BBC's Doctor Who. Queer Heroes of Myth & Legend brings to life characters who are romantic, brave, mysterious, and always fantastical. It is a magnificent celebration of queerness through the ages in all its legendary glory.

With 600 signed, alphabetically organized articles covering the entirety of folklore in South Asia, this new resource includes countries and regions, ethnic groups, religious concepts and practices, artistic genres, holidays and traditions, and many other concepts. A preface introduces the material, while a comprehensive index, cross-references, and black and white illustrations round out the work. The focus on south Asia includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with short survey articles on Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, and various diaspora communities. This unique reference will be invaluable for collections serving students, scholars, and the general public.

"Eve of the Festival" is a study of Homeric myth-making in the first and longest dialogue of Penelope and Odysseus ("Odyssey "19). This study makes a case for seeing virtuoso myth-making as an essential part of this conversation, a register of communication important for the interaction between the two speakers. At the core of the book is a detailed examination of several myths in the dialogue in an attempt to understand what is being said and how. The dialogue as a whole is interpreted as an exchange of performances that have the eve of Apollo's festival as their occasion and that amount to activating, and even enacting, the myth corresponding within the Odyssey to the ritual event of the festival.