Mythology & Folklore

It's easy to dismiss myths simply as lies. After all, did Apollo really pull the Sun around in a chariot? Did Coyote really create the Indian tribes by flinging a defeated monster in several directions? Did Onamuji really die twice and have to be rescued by his mother? Who on earth is Onamuji? As children of the Enlightenment we have little patience for such absurd stories, condescendingly studying them (if we pay attention at all) as artifacts of primitive societies, or simply transforming them into comic book adventures.

Which is probably exactly what most of the originators of the myths would have wanted, at least the comic book part. As the great Roman poet Ovid demonstrated in his masterful Metamorphoses, myths aren't about telling what actually happened or describing the physical realities of the world so much as they're concerned with renewal, transfiguration and change.

There is a sense in which myths are intended to explain some perplexing aspect of the known world, as when the Scandinavians attributed lightning and thunder to Thor charging around in his goat-drawn chariot. But there's another sense in which it didn't really matter if they believed the stories they told at religious gatherings or by the fire at night; the mythologies of the Greeks, Chinese, Sioux tribes, Congolese and Slavs were all intended to impart to their listeners particular ideas about the world, about justice, about life and death, and about themselves.

Postmodernists like to call this sort of thing metanarrative, a universal story that imparts meaning on the chaos of existence. Men like G.K. Chesterton and J.R.R. Tolkien preferred to call it a search for truth. It was in this sense that Chesterton called the Christian Gospel a Myth—not because it was in any sense not true; quite the opposite, because it is perfectly true. Old mythologies worked hard to discover truth, while the Christian myth (the only completely true myth, as C.S. Lewis would say) is truth.

This is not to undermine the Christian narrative as found in the Bible, nor is it to apotheosize the ancient myths. There's plenty the old mythologists got wrong, and nothing untrue in the Word of God. Not only that, whereas the old myths are complete fabrications, the narrative of Scripture presents real historical events that actually transpired.

What is also true, however, and what is often ignored, is that what the Bible does for real, the myth-writers were trying to do. They wanted understanding, and the often bizarre stories they conjured weren't weird for the sake of weirdness: they were attempts at building a framework that would make sense of everything they knew existed, its origins, and its ultimate destiny.

Folklore shares a similar goal, though it's generally less universal, more homespun and culture-specific. Zeus is a mythic figure; Paul Bunyan is a folk hero. The folk hero is generally a national symbol, a human distillation of the peoples' spirit, someone they can identify with while looking up to them at the same time. Mythology and folklore often merge, especially in places with a long and deep heritage. The United States has no mythology, but its people have developed a rich folklore to make up for it.

At its best, mythology promotes noble conduct, self-sacrifice, and peacefulness. At its worst, it depicts a universe at the hands of capricious deities with appetites only different from ours in that they're bigger, more depraved, more destructive. We don't suggest building a worldview out of ancient myths, but if you have any desire to understand how people of the past thought and what motivated them, we do suggest starting with their stories.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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440 Items found Print
Adventures of Robin Hood
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1991 Edition from Reader's Digest
for 6th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
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from Signet Classics
Fairy Tales & Fables for 10th grade-adult
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by Aesop, Isaac Bashevis Singer
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 7th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
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Reprint from Puffin Books
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Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, illustrated by Michael Hague
from Henry Holt and Company
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 1st-5th grade
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from Gulliver Books
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Aesop's Fables and Life of Aesop
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by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
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by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
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1954 Edition from Rand McNally
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Andersen's Fairy Tales
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by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
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Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 4
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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Bicentennial from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 9th-Adult
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from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 8th-Adult
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Annotated Hans Christian Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen
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for 7th-Adult
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by Sir Richard Burton, trans.
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Scribner Illustrated Classics
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International Collectors Library
by Sir Richard Burton, illustrated by Steele Savage
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
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Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
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from Blackie & Son LTD.
for 9th-Adult
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by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
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by Sir Richard Burton (translator), illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Heritage Press
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by Richard Burton (Translator), Jack Zipes (Adapter)
from Signet Classics
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$9.95
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from Signet Classics
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$8.95
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by Samuli Paulaharju
1982 Edition from Finnish American Literary Heritage Foundation
for 7th-Adult
$12.00 (1 in stock)
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by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
from Atheneum
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from Frederick A. Stokes Company
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in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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from Classical Historian
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Clearance: History & Geography (Location: ZCLE-HIS)
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by Shirley Climo (reteller), illustrated by Alexander Koshkin
from Clarion Books
for Preschool-2nd grade
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by Karl Taube
from British Museum Press
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in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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Dover Thrift Editions
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Dover Publications
for 6th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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by Thomas Bulfinch
from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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by Thomas Bulfinch
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for 9th-Adult
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from Living Book Press
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for 9th-Adult
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from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
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from Macmillan
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from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
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by Peter Opie & Iona Opie
from Oxford University
for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Classic Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Brothers Grimm, retold by Louise Betts Egan, illustrated by Various
from Courage Books
for 1st-4th grade
Classic Tales of Oscar Wilde
by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Charles Robinson
from Egmont
for 3rd-8th grade
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Scandinavia Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen
from Word Inc.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
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for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
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Penguin Classics
by Aesop
from Penguin Classics
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in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
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Penguin Classics
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from Penguin Classics
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$17.00
Complete Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde
Signet Classics
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from Signet Classics
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes
3rd edition from Bantam Books
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$25.00
Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
from Bantam Books
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in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.50 (1 in stock)
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by Brothers Grimm, Josef Scharl
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for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
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for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
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from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$39.99
Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
by Joel Chandler Harris, retold by Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
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Animal Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$50.00
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Yearling
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$19.99
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Doubleday Book For Young Readers
Greek Mythology for 4th-9th grade
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$29.99
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths - Audio CD
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Yearling
Greek Mythology for 4th-8th grade
in Audio Books & Dramas (Location: CD-AUDIO)
$25.00
D'aulaires' Book of Greek Myths - Memoria Press Package
from Memoria Press
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by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from New York Review of Books
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Deirdre
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Diamond Path
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