marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Abbey Lubbers, Banshees, & Boggarts: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies by Katharine M. Briggs

A cut-down version of her Encyclopedia of Fairies, for "all ages." The language is a bit simplified, and some of the tales are also cut down. It makes a reasonable introduction for anyone interested in the folklore and put off by the size of the original work. Also good for children, who may be interested to find the entry for "Dobby."
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Queens of the Wild: Pagan Goddesses in Christian Europe: An Investigation by Ronald Hutton

After an opening discussing the difference between the survival of paganism and a pagan survival, he dices up five images held to be pagan survivals. Only four of them female, actually.

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert W. Lebling

An extensive look at the lore.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn by Amira El-Zein

A discussion of jinn.

What is taught in Islam, and believed in folklore. Connections with pre-Islamic beliefs and analogs about the world. Their relations to and differences from angels. Divination, animals, human-jinn love matches, and poetry. Quite a bit of detail.
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Trolls: An Unnatural History by John Lindow

An overview of trolls from the oldest records to the current day.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore by Michael Dylan Foster

An intriguing discussion of the multitude of yokai in Japanese folklore -- and pop culture.

Covering such things as their liminal natures, myths and legends of heroes (even gods) fighting them, folklorists who collected and theorized abou them, spooky tales, the various terms that have been used to describe the basic concept, and a lengthy discussion of some types. Includes the big ones -- kitsune, oni,etc -- and some odd and lesser known ones.  I found it particularly fun that two of the tales were "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids" -- recognizable despite the variations -- and "Hop O'My Thumb" -- the summary of the Japanese tale would serve for the French one, too.
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Volume II by Alice Bertha Gomme

The second half. Again ranging from ones where she could get no more than a mention of the name to ones with songs, music, and the rules of the game. Very extensive.
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland, Volume 1 by Alice Bertha Gomme

A fairly exhaustive work.  Some are nothing more than the mention of a name of something that was known to be a game.  Some are pages and pages of variant songs, followed by pages of directions for complex games and their variants.  Some speculation about origins, which sometimes delves into some of the wilder Victorian theories.  
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Waltz the Hall: The American Play Party by Alan L. Spurgeon

An American pastime in rural places where -- gasp -- dancing was considered a sin. So the young people of courting age got together to play games instead. Which might involve music. And pairing off the girls and boys. And moving about in rhythmic patterns. But it's a game, not dancing.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness by Carole G. Silver

This is not about the -- ehem -- Good Folk and associated folklore, though there's quite a bit about them. (Such as vampiric fairy ladies, with a goblin child, who asked to warm their hands at a peasant woman's fire, and being invited in, would feed the goblin with the youngest peasant child's blood, fatally for the child, or the danger of telling strangers your name.)

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Book of Chinese Beliefs by Frena Bloomfield

A book that includes every day religious practices and like beliefs, and also some information on other everyday practices.
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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Mermaid and Other Water Spirit Tales from Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner

An enormous collection.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard

An exhaustive look at the historical record.
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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends by Katharine Mary Briggs

A book on the themes in northern European -- British, German, Scandinavian -- folklore, with some bits roving farther afield on some themes.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Morphology of the Folktale by Vladimir Propp

An incredibly academic analysis of fairy tales.  If you're not merely interested in fairy tales but also variants and things like that, you are very likely to like it.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Personnel of Fairyland by Katharine Mary Briggs

A book written so that the children of her day could hear more variety in their folklore, and rather more native folklore than foreign.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale by Betsy Hearne

Being not a retelling or an anthology thereof, but an analysis.

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marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature by Katharine Mary Briggs

An overview.  Assumes your basic knowledge of the facts, like the fluttery flower fairies are not the original conception.  Indeed, she is careful to point out that the tiny fairies are indeed part of the tradition, as one of the oldest recorded accounts, of beings called Portunes, make them an inch high.  Not that that size was commonplace.

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Robin Hood

Aug. 9th, 2012 07:56 pm
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
Robin Hood by J. C. Holt

An extensive look at the sources and development of the legend of Robin Hood.  Up to the Romantic Era.  The Child ballads are in the chapter "Later Tradition."

Read more... )
marycatelli: (Golden Hair)
The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales edited by Paul Delarue

French fairy tales are some of the hardest because Perrault dominates the field so much.  Even international collections of fairy tales often use his when they use no other literary tales.

Read more... )

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