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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Adventures of Robin Hood
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Paul Creswick, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
1991 Edition from Reader's Digest
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Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, Isaac Bashevis Singer
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Aesop's Fables
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Aesop's Fables
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Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 1st-Adult
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Aesop's Fables
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Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
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Annotated Brothers Grimm
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Arabian Nights
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Arabian Nights
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Arabian Nights
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Children of Odin
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Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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Classic Fairy Tales
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Classic Tales of Oscar Wilde
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Complete Illustrated Stories of the Brothers Grimm
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Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
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Animal Fantasy for 7th-Adult
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Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
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Animal Fantasy for 7th-Adult
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$50.00
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 Norse Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from New York Review of Books
Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
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$29.95
Diamond Path
Time-Life Myth & Mankind
from Time-Life Books
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Don't Count Your Chicks
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Doubleday & Company
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ECL: Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Brigitte Bryan
from Classic Press
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by Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Wayne Brown
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Egypt: Gods, Myths and Religion
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Egyptian Myths
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Emperor's New Clothes RPG
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Enchanted Book
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Enchantment Tales for Children
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English Fairy Tales
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Eternal Cycle
Time-Life Myth & Mankind
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Fables of Aesop
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Fairy Tales from the Arabian Nights
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Fairy Tales of Hans Christen Andersen
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Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
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Favorite Greek Myths
by Mary Pope Osborne, illustrated by Troy Howell
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Favourite Tales from Grimm and Andersen
by Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Jirí Trnka
1983 Printing from Paul Hamlyn
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Favourite Tales from Hans Christen Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova
from Floris Books
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Flying Trunk and Other Stories from Hans Christian Andersen
by Naomi Lewis retelling Hans Christian Andersen
from Simon and Schuster
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Forests of the Vampire
Time-Life Myth & Mankind
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Fox & the Cat
by Kevin Crossley-Holland, Susan Varley (Illustrator)
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God Beneath the Sea
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Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Maya
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Gods of Sun & Sacrifice
Time-Life Myth & Mankind
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Great Folktales of Old Ireland
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Greek Myths
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Greek Myths
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Greek Mythology for 4th-6th grade
Grimm's Fairy Tales
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by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Lucille Corcos
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Grimm's Fairy Tales
Children's Classics
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Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 3rd-8th grade
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by Grimm Brothers, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
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Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Grimm Brothers, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from SeaStar Books
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Grimm's Fairy Tales
Windermere Readers #4
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
1954 printing from Rand McNally
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Windermere Series 1
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by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
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Grimm's Fairy Tales
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Grimms' & Andersen's Fairy Tales Set
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Grimms' Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
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Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 3rd-8th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Sterling Classics
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Scott McKowen
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Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
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