Folklore & Mythology

Religion and Hopi Life tells the story of Hopi religious life in a way that makes sense to both Hopis and outsiders. In his interpretation of Hopi religion, Loftin does not subject religious meaning to secular analysis. While not the Hopi's own story, his account attempts to honor and do justice to the way in which the Hopi embody religious meaning through the living of their lives. more...

Price: $12.75

For almost a century and a half, Bulfinch's Mythology has been the text by which the great tales of the gods and goddesses, Greek and Roman antiquity, Scandinavian, Celtic, and Oriental fables and myths, and the age of chivalry have been known. The forerunner of such interpreters as Edith Hamilton and Robert Graves, Thomas Bulfinch wanted to make these stories available to the general reader. A series of private notes to himself grew into one of the single most useful and concise guides to literature and mythology. more...

Price: $4.95

This beautifully presented book offers a stimulating approach to the timeless, universal stories that are central to every culture. More than 50 compelling myths and legends from around the world are explained through stunning works of art and ancient artefacts, each supported by informative text and comprehensive annotation. Presented country by country, the book offers a fascinating guide to the amazing characters of world mythology and to the cultures that created them. The fantastic world of fables and sagas this book discusses will delight enthusiasts and general readers alike. more...

Price: $15.00

The Twins of the Tylwyth Teg is based on a well known story in Welsh folklore about a herd boy who marries a faery from under the lake. Before her father will allow her to marry him however, he has to choose between her and her identical twin sister. Taliesin and Avagddu is based on the tale from the Welsh Mabinogion. Ceridwen brews up a cauldron of magic to give her misshapen son Avagddu extraordinary wisdom, but the village boy who is employed to stir the cauldron sips it instead and becomes the greatest prophet and bard Wales has ever known -- Taliesin. Bran, Branwen and Evnissyen is based on a story from the Welsh Mabinogion about the war between mainland Britain and Ireland in mythic times. Evnissyen, the bitter and disgruntled half-brother of Bran, the Blessed, stirs up trouble in which both nations are almost destroyed. more...

Price: $3.99

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop (620–560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece. Aesop's Fables have become a blanket term for collections of brief fables, usually involving personified animals. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" was derived), The Tortoise and the Hare , The North Wind and the Sun and The Boy Who Cried Wolf , are well-known throughout the world. Apollonius of Tyana, the 1st century AD philosopher, is recorded as having said about Aesop:. ...like those who dine well off the plainest dishes, he made use of humble incidents to teach great truths, and after serving up a story he adds to it the advice to do a thing or not to do it. Then, too, he was really more attached to truth than the poets are; for the latter do violence to their own stories in order to make them probable; but he by announcing a story which everyone knows not to be true, told the truth by the very fact that he did not claim to be relating real events. And there is another charm about him, namely, that he puts animals in a pleasing light and makes them interesting to mankind. For after being brought up from childhood with these stories, and after being as it were nursed by them from babyhood, we acquire certain opinions of the several animals and think of some of them as royal animals, of others as silly, of others as witty, and others as innocent. (Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana , Book V:14). [Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop%27s_Fables under the terms of the GNU-FDL] more...

Price: $3.99