The growing economic and political influence of Native American tribes has brought religious issues, once little noted, increasingly to the fore. Timeless in their basic structures, the continent's principal myths are now emerging as sacred histories that have contemporary significance.

In this wide-ranging volume, John Bierhorst carefully delineates eleven mythological regions--from the Arctic to the Southwest and from California to the East Coast--presenting the gods, heroes, and primary myths of each area. First published in 1985, this indispensable guide has been updated to reflect the latest scholarship in Native studies. In a new Afterword, Bierhorst describes the recent impact of ancient myths in the arena of American Indian affairs and shows how Native Americans have successfully used mythology as oral evidence to reclaim land rights and to repatriate grave goods. Citing specific cases, he shows how new legislation and changing attitudes "have provided a basis for bringing myth to the negotiating table and into the courtroom."

Detailed maps show tribal locations and the distribution of key stories. Indian artworks illustrate the texts and samples of differing narrative styles add enrichment, as some of the world's purest and most powerful myths are made more accessible--and more meaningful--than ever before.

Originally published by Morrow in 1985 with sales of 29 000, this book has been out of print for three years. This new edition includes an engaging new afterword by folklore anthropologist John Bierhorst looking at the practical power of native myths. Native Americans have successfully used myths as evidence to reclaim land rights and repatriate grave goods. Mythology of North America is a survey, and not a collection of myths, which outlines the most important myths, figures and themes of 11 regions from the Arctic to the Southwest. Bierhorst offers a lucid short history of how, when, why and by whom these oral literatures were written down and translated. The book includes notes, index, maps, and photos, and detailed maps show tribal locations, and the distribution of key mythological stories in each region.

More than any other continent, South America "has preserved the conditions that allow mythology to be freely produced." Dividing the continent into seven carefully mapped regions, John Bierhorst shows how South America's principal myths can be traced from tribe to tribe and how each region has developed its own unique oral tradition. Generous samples from the stories themselves introduce the female creators of the northern Andes, the male gods of the ancient Incas, and the Brazilian tricksters Sun and Moon. Originally published in 1988, Bierhorst has updated the text to reflect the abundance of new information that has become available since the mid 80s and written a new Afterword in which he emphasizes the durability of Indian mythology. Illustrations of native artwork and chapters devoted to special topics--including the connections between myths and politics--help to provide a well-rounded overview of this fascinating and little-known lore.

Detailed maps show tribal locations and the distribution of key stories and samples of differing narrative styles add enrichment, as some of the world's purest and most powerful myths are made more accessible--and more meaningful--than ever before.

Bierhorst traces the principle myths from tribe to tribe in seven carefully mapped regions of South America. This book includes samples from mythological stories, and some chapters are devoted to special topics such as myth and politics. Bierhorst introduces readers to the female creators of the northern Andes, the male gods of the Ancient Incas, and the shameless tricksters Sun and Moon. The book includes notes, a pronunciation guide, index, maps, and photos. The new afterword focuses on the durability of Indian mythology, and the abundant material increasingly available since the mid 80s. Bierhorst offers new information on previously obscure tribes on the mythological map.

Bierhorst introduces readers to the gods and heroes of Mexico and Central America, from the Aztec and Maya of pre-Columbian times to the Indian groups that survive today. In a framework different from the other two mythology volumes, the Mexico and Central American edition provides complete translations of the twenty 'basic myths' of this region, and shows how they have influenced the artistic, literary, and political life of modern Mesoamerica. In a new afterword, Bierhorst discusses how in the late 1980s and 1990s, native mythology has been recast to shed light on themes placed in the foreground of public consciousness. The book includes a glossary, pronunciation guide, notes, bibliography, index, maps, and photos.

In this expansive volume, John Bierhorst brings to light the gods and heroes of pre-Columbian times--and demonstrates that they are very much alive today. The book provides translations of twenty "basic myths," showing how these have influenced the artistic, literary, and political life of modern Mexico and Central America. Originally published in 1990, the text has been updated to reflect recent advances in Mesoamerican studies. In addition, a new Afterword describes how these native mythologies--since the late 1980s--have begun incorporating issues of international significance, including cultural pluralism, religious freedom, and environmentalism.

Detailed maps show tribal locations and the distribution of key stories. Indian artworks illustrate the texts and samples of differing narrative styles add enrichment, as some of the world's purest and most powerful myths are made more accessible--and more meaningful--than ever before.

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In this companion volume to "History and Mythology of the Aztecs, " John Bierhorst provides specialists with a transcription of the Nahuatl text, keyed to the translation, and a linguistic apparatus to help elucidate it. The Glossary offers definitions for all unusual usages in the codex, as well as careful treatment of many of the commonest (and most semantically flexible) verbs, adverbs, and particles. Detailed discussions of selected features appears in the Grammatical Notes, which complete the work.

The wisdom and artistry of Latin America's storytellers preserve one of the world's richest folktale traditions--combining the lore of medieval Europe, the ancient Near East, and pre-Columbian America. Among the essential characters are the quiet man's wife who knew the Devil's secrets, the tree daughters who robbed their father's grave, and the wife in disguise who married her own husband--not to mention the Bear's son, the tricksters Fox and Monkey, the two compadres, and the classic rogue Pedro de Urdemalas.

Gathered from twenty countries, including the United States, the stories are here brought together in a core collection of one hundred tales arranged in the form of a velorio, or wake, the most frequent occasion for public storytelling. The tales are preceded by a selection of early Colonial legends foreshadowing the themes of Latino folklore and are followed by a carefully chosen group of modern Indian myths that replay the basic stories in a contrasting key. Riddles, chain riddles, and folk prayers, part and parcel of the velorio along with folktales, are introduced at appropriate junctures.

The collection is unprecedented in size and scope, and most of the tales have not been translated into English before. The result is the first panoramic anthology of Hispano-American folk narratives in any language--meant to be dipped into at random or read straight through from "Once and twice makes thrice upon a time" to "They were happy as the dickens and ate chickens."


From the Hardcover edition.

Compiled in 1582, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain is one of the two principal sources of Nahuatl song, as well as a poetical window into the mindset of the Aztec people some sixty years after the conquest of Mexico. Presented as a cancionero, or anthology, in the mode of New Spain, the ballads show a reordering-but not an abandonment-of classic Aztec values. In the careful reading of John Bierhorst, the ballads reveal in no uncertain terms the pre-conquest Aztec belief in the warrior's paradise and in the virtue of sacrifice. This volume contains an exact transcription of the thirty-six Nahuatl song texts, accompanied by authoritative English translations. Bierhorst includes all the numerals (which give interpretive clues) in the Nahuatl texts and also differentiates the text from scribal glosses. His translations are thoroughly annotated to help readers understand the imagery and allusions in the texts. The volume also includes a helpful introduction and a larger essay, "On the Translation of Aztec Poetry," that discusses many relevant historical and literary issues. In Bierhorst's expert translation and interpretation, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain emerges as a song of resistance by a conquered people and the recollection of a glorious past.

Extendiendo a veinte países y quinientos años, desde los mitos coloniales más tempranos hasta los cuentos orales coleccionados en el siglo veinte desde el sur de California, Florida, Texas y Nuevo México, EE.UU., Cuentos Folklóricos Latinoamericanos es la primera antología publicada en español representante de la tradición folklórico de América hispanohablante en su totalidad.

Incluido en ésta colección panorámica, hay relatos con origen en la Europa medieval, el Medio Oriente anciano, y la América precolombina. Los personajes esenciales del mundo de antigüedad son el hombre tranquilo cuya esposa conoce el diablo y las tres hijas que roban la tumba de su padre. También se encuentra el trágico informe Mexicano desde el siglo diez y seis sobre Moctezuma, el rey Azteca destinado a confrontar y ser destruido por la conquista, y un cuento moderno desde Los Angeles, sobre un esposo que realiza su promesa ser sepultado en vivo con su esposa.

Colocado en forma de un velorio, el más común foro público de contar cuentos, Cuentos Folklóricos Latinoamericanos conserva los matices y expresivos idiomáticos de esos narradores originales cuando nos proveen unos de los más provocativos e emotivos cuentos desde la tradición oral.

Traducción de José Lucas Badué

The Lenape, or Delaware, are an Eastern Algonquian people who originally lived in what is now the greater New York and Philadelphia metropolitan region and have since been dispersed across North America. While the Lenape have long attracted the attention of historians, ethnographers, and linguists, their oral literature has remained unexamined, and Lenape stories have been scattered and largely unpublished. This catalog of Lenape mythology, featuring synopses of all known Lenape tales, was assembled by folklorist John Bierhorst from historical sources and from material collected by linguists and ethnographers a difficult task in light of both the paucity of research done on Lenape mythology and the fragmentation of traditional Lenape culture over the past three centuries. Bierhorst here offers an unprecedented guide to the Lenape corpus with supporting texts. Part one of the ""Guide"" presents a thematic summary of the folkloric tale types and motifs found throughout the texts; part two presents a synopsis of each of the 218 Lenape narratives on record; part three lists stories of uncertain origin; and part four compares types and motifs occurring in Lenape myths with those found in myths of neighboring Algonquian and Iroquoian cultures. In the ""Texts"" section of the book, Bierhorst presents previously unpublished stories collected in the early twentieth century by ethnographers M. R. Harrington and Truman Michelson. Included are two versions of the Lenape trickster cycle, narratives accounting for dance origins, Lenape views of Europeans, and tales of such traditional figures as Mother Corn and the little man of the woods called Wemategunis. By gathering every available example of Lenape mythology, Bierhorst has produced a work that will long stand as a definitive reference. Perhaps more important, it restores to the land in which the Lenape once thrived a long-missing piece of its Native literary heritage.

"Bierhorst offers access to more than primary texts here: he maps a way of reading and the necessary apparatus for that reading (including pronunciation guides, reminding us they are oral performances)." -World Literature Today