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Science of the magical: from the Holy Grail to love potions to superpowers
By Matt Kaplan. 2015
A science reporter for The Economist looks for the germ of truth behind myths. From Bible stories of the Flood…
and from Norse mythology to modern superhero comic books, Kaplan takes popular magical beliefs and shows how they might be grounded in scientific facts. 2015Blackfeet tales of Glacier National Park
By James Willard Schultz. 2002
In 1876 native New Yorker Schultz went to Montana for the summer to hunt buffalo. The 17-year old Schultz landed…
a job at the Fort Conrad Trading Post, which did not suit him. Soon, he was living outside the fort's wall with the Blackfeet. Speaking their language and using sign language, he absorbed hundreds of stories about the tribe, its history, and oral traditionFrom the beast to the blonde: on fairy tales and their tellers
By Marina Warner. 1995
Although most familiar fairy tales were documented by men, the author points out that it was women storytellers who passed…
down the "old wives' tales" and their morals. The cultural and historic roles of these storytellers are presented with a feminist perspective. The book also examines recurrent themes and symbolism in familiar tales, such as the beast/man and the damsel with blond hairSongs my mother sang to me: an oral history of Mexican American women
By Patricia Preciado Martin. 1992
The author recorded interviews with ten Mexican American women born near the beginning of the twentieth century, edited the results,…
and compiled them into this detailed narrative of life along the Arizona border. Their stories generally chronicle a rural start, steeped in family and religious traditions, followed by a move to an urban centerThe 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. 2012The witch of the Monongahela: folk magic in early Western Pennsylvania
By Thomas White. 2020
In the ancient hills and misty hollows of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, generations of locals have passed down stories of a…
woman with mysterious magical powers. People came from near and far to seek healing and protection through her strange rituals. Some even believed she could fly. Named Moll Derry and nicknamed the Witch of the Monongahela, her legend has been documented by writers and folklorists for more than two hundred years. She is intertwined in many regional tales, such as the Lost Children of the Alleghenies and Polly Williams and the White Rocks. Author Thomas White separates fact from fiction in the many versions of Moll Derry and recounts Western Pennsylvania's folk magic history along the way. 2020. Some violence