Richard B. Seager excavated the Minoan town and cemetery at Pseira in 1906-1907, but the work was not fully published. The Temple University excavations (1985-1994) under the direction of Philip P. Betancourt and Costis Davaras conducted an intensive surface survey of the island. The results of the survey on the small island off the northeast coast of Crete are published in two volumes. Pseira IX presents the results from the intensive surface survey.

This book of 85 stories from medieval Iceland illustrates a variety of supernatural beliefs concerning elves, gigantic trolls, water monsters, ghosts, wizards, and black magic rites, buried treasure, and religious tales. The stories are intimately linked to the landscape and reflect the hopes, fears, hardships, and preoccupations of everyday life. The translation of each tale is accompanied by an explanatory introduction and notes.

This dictionary is part of the Oxford Reference Collection: using sustainable print-on-demand technology to make the acclaimed backlist of the Oxford Reference programme perennially available in hardback format. An engrossing guide to English folklore and traditions, with over 1,250 entries. Folklore is connected to virtually every aspect of life, part of the country, age group, and occupation. From the bizarre to the seemingly mundane, it is as much a feature of the modern technological age as of the ancient world. BL Oral and Performance genres-Cheese rolling, Morris dancing, Well-dressingEL BL Superstitions-Charms, Rainbows, WishbonesEL BL Characters-Cinderella, Father Christmas, Robin Hood, Dick WhittingtonEL BL Supernatural Beliefs-Devil's hoofprints, Fairy rings, Frog showersEL BL Calendar Customs-April Fool's Day, Helston Furry Day, Valentine's DayEL

Terry Pratchett joins up with a leading folklorist to reveal the legends, myths and customs of Discworld, together with helpful hints from Planet Earth.
Most of us grew up having always known when to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly some of these things are beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, and fairy tales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got here. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings, which on Earth are creatures of the imagination -- like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods -- are real, alive and, in some cases kicking, on the Disc.
In The Folklore of Discworld, Terry Pratchett teams up with leading British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson to take an irreverent yet illuminating look at the living myths and folklore that are reflected, celebrated and affectionately libelled in the uniquely imaginative universe of Discworld.

Sussex, though near London and nowadays extensively urbanized, has a rich heritage of traditional local stories, customs, and beliefs. Among many topics explored here are tales linked to landscape features and ancient churches which involve such colorful themes as lost bells, buried treasures, dragons, fairies, and the devil. There are also traditions relating to ghosts, graves, and gibbets, and the strange powers of witches. This book, when it was first published in 1973, was the first to be entirely devoted to Sussex folklore. This new edition contains information collected over the last 30 years, updated accounts of county customs and, alongside the original line drawings, is illustrated with photographs and printed ephemera relating to Sussex lore.

In 1987 horrific tales of organ theft that had been circulating in Central and South America for years caught the attention of the international media. Soon reports came from all over the planet, rising to a crescendo in the late 1990s. Veronique Campion-Vincent describes these narratives in detail and classifies them as three basic types: the Baby Parts Story, Eye Thieves, and Kidney Heists. She then recounts the social problems that seemed to make these awful legends plausible--trade in human organs bought from the living poor; advances in modern medicine which seemed to blur the lines between life and death; the ills of poverty in the developing world and its consequences; international adoption and real human trafficking.

Religious and moral authorities, political campaigners, propagandists, and the media all exploited the legends of organ theft according to their specific agendas. Campion-Vincent reviews the explanations offered by authorities, reporters, and anthropologists and offers her own folklore analysis pointing out the similarities between organ theft stories and the perennial tale of the Slaughter of the Innocents. Noting the real trials of everyday life in much of the Third World and documented cases of illegal trafficking in organs, corpses, and children, Campion-Vincent does not dismiss these tales as just another example of urban legends run amok. Instead, she offers a nuanced analysis of the connections between traditional horror tales, modern trends, and real events to show how complicated it can be to know the truth of any particular story.

These legends still circulate, and variations remain commonplace throughout the world. Campion-Vincent notes, sadly, that the social problems that paralleled the rise of organ theft narratives persist today.

Veronique Campion-Vincent of Paris, France, works at the Maison des Sciences de L'Homme. She has published numerous books in French and articles in French and English on contemporary legends.