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Classical mythology: a very short introduction (Very Short Introductions)
By Helen Morales. 2007
Explores the psychologically important stories of ancient Greeks and Romans, still wielding cultural influence today. Dispels notion of comparative inferiority…
of Roman mythology, and discusses differences beyond deities' name changes. Describes the role of the mythic hero, and relationships between classical mythology and philosophy, Christianity, psychoanalysis, and New Age spirituality. 2007Book of the Hopi
By Frank Waters. 1977
Thirty Hopi elders cooperated with the author to describe the Hopis' world view. They shared their legends and rituals and…
the beliefs underlying them. The result is a philosophy much different from those of European culturesKentucky folktales: revealing stories, truths, and outright lies
By Mary Hamilton. 2012
A collection of 26 stories, including folktales, legends, tall tales, and ghost stories. Professional storyteller Mary Hamilton ends each story…
with information on where she heard the story, where it takes place, and how the story has evolved over time. Winner of a 2013 Storytelling World award for storytelling collections and a 2013 Ann Izard Storyteller's Choice Award. 2012Twenty tellable tales: audience participation folktales for the beginning storyteller
By Margaret Read MacDonald, Roxane Murphy. 2005
Master storyteller shares twenty classic multicultural tales adapted to oral presentation with chants, songs, and repeating lines. Offers tips on…
memorization, rehearsal, and performance as well as suggestions for developing style, finding new tales, creating variations, and involving listeners. Stories include explanatory notes. 2005The Lakota way: stories and lessons for living
By Joseph M. Marshall, Joseph Marshall. 2001
Twelve traditional tales and allegories told by Lakota elders to impart tribal wisdom on ethics and character. Each story illustrates…
a virtue such as humility, respect, sacrifice, and honesty. In "The Story of the Thunders" a jealous first wife tells how foolishness can lead to wisdom. 2001Pete Seeger's storytelling book
By Pete Seeger, Paul DuBois Jacobs. 2000
Veteran folksinger Seeger and poet Jacobs offer advice on becoming a storyteller by embellishing old stories, historical tales, and songs,…
as well as anecdotes from one's own personal history. Includes examples from Seeger's vast repertoire. 2000Trickster makes this world: mischief, myth, and art
By Lewis Hyde. 1998
Explores the cultural archetype of the trickster--a mischievous, disruptive agent who is given to deceit and shamelessness, ignores social boundaries,…
and helps make the world the way it is. Recounts myths of ancient tricksters; cites examples of modern figures who fill the roleBest-loved stories told at the National Storytelling Festival
By National Association for the Preservation and Perpet. 1991
The National Storytelling Festi- val, annually commemorating the heritage and art of storytelling, has been held in Jonesborough, Tennessee, since…
1972. This volume honors the festival's twentieth anniversary. Included are thirty-seven tales that provide a wide variety of genres, sources, and colloquial voices. For junior and senior high and older readersTalk that talk: an anthology of African-American storytelling
By Linda Goss, Marian E. Barnes. 1989
The introduction states that stories preserve and pass on "the values that we cherish." This collection of black folklore presents…
animal stories, stories of family life, stories of historical figures and events, sermons, and supernatural stories. Each section includes scholarly commentary. For high school and older readersThe Soul of the Indian (Native American)
By Charles A Eastman, Charles Alexander Eastman, Charles Alexander. 2003
In The Soul of the Indian, Eastman brings to life the rich spirituality and morality of the Native Americans as…
they existed before contact with missionaries and other whites. This is a rare firsthand expression of native religion, without the filters imposed by translators or anthropologists. Rather than a scientific treatise, Eastman has written a book, "as true as I can make it to my childhood teaching and ancestral ideals, but from the human, not the ethnological standpoint." His discussions of the forms of ceremonial and symbolic worship, the unwritten scriptures, and the spirit world emphasize the universal quality and personal appeal of Native American religion. Adult. UnratedMedusa's gaze and vampire's bite: the science of monsters
By Matt Kaplan. 2012
Science journalist examines ancient and modern myths of monsters, from the Nemean Lion of ancient Greece to King Kong and…
the Terminator. Uses archaeology and other disciplines to theorize on the sources of these tales and the reasons they fascinate us. Young adult appeal. Some violence. 2012On monsters: an unnatural history of our worst fears
By Stephen T. Asma. 2009
Philosophy professor probes Western perceptions, phobias, and self-preservation instincts to examine the cultural and conceptual history of monsters. Describes strange…
animal encounters and manifestations in ancient and medieval times, and expounds on the biblical and scientific explanations of these creatures. Includes observations of humankind's psychological demons. 2009The mythology of grimm: the fairy tale and folklore roots of the popular tv show
By Nathan Robert Brown. 2014
The author explores the history, mythology, and folkloric traditions that come into play during Nick's incredible battles and investigations as…
a Portland Police detective on the supernatural drama series Grimm. Some violence and some strong language. 2014Cradle Book
By Craig Morgan Teicher. 2010
Timeless yet timely and hopeful with a dark underbelly, these fables revive a tradition running from Aesop to W.S. Merwin.…
With a poet's mastery, Craig Morgan Teicher creates strange worlds populated by animals fated for disaster and the people who interact with them, or simply act like them, including a very sad boy who wishes he had been raised by wolves. There are also a handful of badly behaving gods, a talking tree, and a shape-shifting room.Craig Morgan Teicher is poetry editor of Publishers Weekly and a vice president on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.The Tao and Mother Goose
By Robert Carter. 1988
Art instrutor Rober Carter's illustrated book is both enjoyable and informative, written in an engaging style. Rhymes of Mother Goose…
he suggests, frequently are spiritual parables. He compares many of the famous aphorisms from Lao Tsu's Tao The Ching, noting simitarities of viewpoints. Carter feels that teaching of the Chinese philosopher and even Mother Goose nursery rhymes are addresses to some deeper level within each one of us. Consequently, a simple word, phrase, or idea in this meditative picture book might spark something deep within the reader.The Tao and Mother Goose
By Robert Carter. 1988
Struwwelpeter
By Heinrich Hoffmann. 1999
The Disney Middle Ages
By Tison Pugh, Susan Aronstein. 2012
For many, the middle ages depicted in Walt Disney movies have come to figure as the middle ages, forming the…
earliest visions of the medieval past for much of the contemporary Western (and increasingly Eastern) imagination. The essayists of The Disney Middle Ages explore Disney's mediation and re-creation of a fairy-tale and fantasy past, not to lament its exploitation of the middle ages for corporate ends, but to examine how and why these medieval visions prove so readily adaptable to themed entertainments many centuries after their creation. What results is a scrupulous and comprehensive examination of the intersection between the products of the Disney Corporation and popular culture's fascination with the middle ages.The Story Is True: The Art and Meaning of Telling Stories
By Bruce Jackson. 2007
Making and experiencing stories, remembering and retelling them is something we all do. We tell stories over meals, at the…
water cooler, and to both friends and strangers. But how do stories work? What is it about telling and listening to stories that unites us? And, importantly, how do we change them-and how do they change us? InThe Story Is True, author, filmmaker, and photographer Bruce Jackson explores the ways we use the stories that become a central part of our public and private lives. He examines, as no one before has, how stories narrate and bring meaning to our lives, by describing and explaining how stories are made and used. The perspectives shared in this engaging book come from the tellers, writers, filmmakers, listeners, and watchers who create and consume stories. Jackson writes about his family and friends, acquaintances and experiences, focusing on more than a dozen personal stories, from oral histories, such as conversations the author had with poet Steven Spender, to public stories, such as what happened when Bob Dylan "went electric"at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Jackson also investigates how "words can kill," showing how diction can be an administrator of death, as in Nazi extermination camps. And finally, he considers the way lies come to resemble truth, showing how the stories we tell, whether true or not, resemble truth to the teller. Ultimately,The Story Is Trueis about the place of stories-fiction or real-and the impact they have on the lives of each one of us.Once a Peacock, Once an Actress: Twenty-Four Lives of the Bodhisattva from Haribhatta's "Jatakamala"
By Peter Khoroche, Haribhatta. 2017
Written in Kashmir around 400 CE, Haribhatta’s Jåtakamåla is a remarkable example of classical Sanskrit literature in a mixture of…
prose and verse that for centuries was known only in its Tibetan translation. But between 1973 and 2004 a large portion of the Sanskrit original was rediscovered in a number of anonymous manuscripts. With this volume Peter Khoroche offers the most complete translation to date, making almost 80 percent of the work available in English. Haribhatta’s Jåtakamålå is a sophisticated and personal adaptation of popular stories, mostly non-Buddhist in origin, all illustrating the future Buddha’s single-minded devotion to the good of all creatures, and his desire, no matter what his incarnation—man, woman, peacock, elephant, merchant, or king—to assist others on the path to nirvana. Haribhatta’s insight into human and animal behavior, his astonishing eye for the details of landscape, and his fine descriptive powers together make this a unique record of everyday life in ancient India as well as a powerful statement of Buddhist ethics. This translation will be a landmark in the study of Buddhism and of the culture of ancient India.