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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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Active Filters: 6th grade (Ages 11-12), Hardcover
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
for 6th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Adventures of Ulysses
World Landmark #40
by Gerald Gottlieb, illustrated by Steele Savage
from Random House
for 5th-9th grade
in World Landmark Books (Location: VIN-LAN)
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Macmillan
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 1st-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$12.74
Aesop's Fables and Life of Aesop
by Aesop, Mons. De Meziriac, R. Dodsley
from Rand McNally
for 6th-12th grade
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
Aladdin and Other Tales from the Arabian Nights
by Anonymous, illustrated by William Heath Robinson
from Everyman's Library
for 6th-9th grade
$17.00
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Leonard Vosburgh
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Troy Howell
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 3rd-6th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Kay Nielsen
from Viking Press
for 3rd-8th grade
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales for 3rd-6th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Readers #8
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Valdemar Paulsen and illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 1
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)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 1)
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)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 2)
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)
Andersen's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 3
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)
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)
Ardizzone's Hans Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
from Atheneum
for 3rd-8th grade
Atlantis Rising
by Robert Sullivan, drawings by Glenn Wolff
from Simon and Schuster
for 6th-12th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Babar the King / Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Jean de Brunhoff (Babar); Rose Dobbs (reteller, Grimm), Illustrated by Gertrude Elliott Espensheid
from Random House
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
Beautiful Stories of Life OSI
by Cynthia Rylant
1st edition from HMH Books for Young Readers
for 4th-7th grade
Children of Odin
by Padraic Colum, illustrated by Willy Pogany
from Macmillan
Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
$32.00 (1 in stock)
Classic Fairy Tales
by Peter Opie & Iona Opie
from Oxford University
for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Classic Tales of Oscar Wilde
by Oscar Wilde, illustrated by Charles Robinson
from Egmont
for 3rd-8th grade
D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from Doubleday Book For Young Readers
Greek Mythology for 4th-9th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$25.49
D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths
by Edgar & Ingri D'Aulaire
from New York Review of Books
Norse Mythology for 3rd-8th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$25.46
ECL: Andersen's Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Brigitte Bryan
from Classic Press
for 3rd-6th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Sleeping Beauty and other Tales
by Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Wayne Brown
from Classic Press
for 1st-6th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
Enchanted Book
by Janina Porazinska, translated by Bozena Smith, illustrated by Jan Brett
from Harcourt Brace Jovanich
for 2nd-6th grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Eyewitness Classics: King Arthur
by Rosalind Kerven
from DK Children
for 3rd-6th grade
Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Margaret Tarrant
from Gallery Books
for 4th-8th grade
Fairy Tales and Stories
by Hans Christian Andersen, Edited by Signe Toksvig, Illustrated by George and Doris Hauman
from Macmillan
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
Fairy Tales of Hans Christen Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Reginald Spink and illustrated by W. Heath Robinson
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$15.30
Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Kay Nielsen
from Viking Press
for 3rd-8th grade
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Favourite Tales from Grimm and Andersen
by Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Jirí Trnka
1983 Printing from Paul Hamlyn
for 4th-8th grade
$14.40 (1 in stock)
Favourite Tales from Hans Christen Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Anastasiya Archipova
from Floris Books
for 4th-6th grade
God Beneath the Sea
by Leon Garfield and Edward Blishen, illustrated by Zevi Blum
from Pantheon Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Greek Myths
by Geraldine McCaughrean, illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark
from Margaret K. McElderry Books
for 3rd-6th grade
Greek Myths
by Olivia Coolidge
from Houghton Mifflin
Greek Mythology for 4th-6th grade
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Junior Deluxe Editions
by Wilhelm & Jacob Grimm, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Lucille Corcos
from Heritage Press
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Children's Classics
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Noel Pocock
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 3rd-8th grade
Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Grimm Brothers, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Viking Press
for 4th-8th grade
Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Grimm Brothers, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from SeaStar Books
for 4th-8th grade
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Windermere Readers #4
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
1954 printing from Rand McNally
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 1
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
from Rand McNally
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 2
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
from Rand McNally
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 3
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
from Rand McNally
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
Windermere Series 4
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Hope Dunlap
from Rand McNally
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, selected & illustrated by Elenore Abbott
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 4th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimms' & Andersen's Fairy Tales Set
by Hans Christian Andersen & the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel and Arthur Szyk
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 3rd-8th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Sterling Classics
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
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
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 4th-7th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Calla Editions
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Calla ed from Dover Publications
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Companion Library
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Adele Werber
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-6th grade
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Fritz Kredel
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Folklore for 4th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-FIC)
Illustrated Bulfinch's Mythology: Age of Fable
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Macmillan
for 6th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Illustrated Bulfinch's Mythology: Legends of Charlemagne
by Thomas Bulfinch
from Macmillan
for 6th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Illustrated Treasury of Grimm's Fairy Tales
by Grimm Brothers, illustrated by Daniela Drescher
from Floris Books
for 4th-8th grade
$21.21
It's Perfectly True
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Paul Leyssac and illustrated by Richard Bennett
from Harcourt, Brace & World
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
King Arthur and the Round Table
Dent & Dutton Children's Illustrated Classics
by A. M. Hadfield, illustrated by Donald Seton Cammell
from J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
King of Men
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Ellen Raskin
from Houghton Mifflin
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
Kingdom Far and Clear
Calla Edition
by Mark Helprin
from Dover Publications
for 6th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Korean Children's Favorite Stories
by Kim So-un, illustrated by Jeong Kyoung-Sim
for 3rd-6th grade
Legends of the North
by Olivia Coolidge, illustrated by Edouard Sandoz
from Houghton Mifflin
Norse Myths for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Little Mermaid and Other Fairy Tales
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Neil Philip, illustrated by Isabelle Brent
from Little, Brown & Company
for 3rd-6th grade
Little Prince
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery, translated by Richard Howard
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Fantasy for 3rd-Adult
$15.30
Little Prince
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
from Harcourt
Fantasy for 3rd-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.50 (2 in stock)
Little Prince - Russian language edition
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
from Eksmodetstvo
Fantasy for 3rd-Adult
in Russian (Location: FL-GEN)
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Howard Pyle, illustrated by Lawrence Beall Smith
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 5th-8th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Howard Pyle, illustrated by Lawrence Beall Smith
from Grosset & Dunlap
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 5th-8th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Myths and Folk Tales Around the World
by Robert R. Potter
from Globe Book Company
for 6th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Nightingale
by Hans Christian Andersen; retold by Stephen Mitchell and illustrated by Bagram Ibatoulline
from Candlewick Press
for 2nd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Norse Myths
by Kevin Crossley-Holland
from Barnes & Noble
for 3rd-8th grade
Norse Myths
by Kevin Crossley-Holland
from Candlewick Press
for 3rd-8th grade
Odin's Family
by Neil Philip, illustrated by Maryclare Foa
from Orchard Books
for 3rd-6th grade
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Of Beasts, Birds and Men
by Anne Terry White, illustrated by Ted Schroeder
from Garrard Publishing Company
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Puppets of Spelhorst
by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Julie Morstad
from Candlewick Press
for 2nd-6th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$15.29
Random House Book of Fairy Tales
by Various Authors
from Random House
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 3rd-6th grade
in Picture Book Treasuries (Location: PIC-TRE)
$19.54
Robin Hood
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Paul Creswick, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Atheneum
for 6th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Robin Hood
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Paul Creswick, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
Reissue from Atheneum
for 6th-10th grade
in Scribner Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SCRIB)
$21.24
Robin Hood and the Men of the Greenwood
by Henry Gilbert, illustrated by Walter Crane
from Bracken Books
for 5th-9th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Scottish Fairy Tales
from Bracken Books
for 3rd-Adult
Seven Tales by H. C. Andersen
by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Eva Le Gallienne and illustrated by Maurice Sendak
from Harper & Row
for 3rd-6th grade
Sixty Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
by Brothers Grimm, translated by Mrs. Edgar Lucas and illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Weathervane Books
for 2nd-6th grade
Sleeping Beauty
by Charles Perrault & Madame d'Aulnoy, illustrated by Edmund Dulac, Gustaf Tenggren and William Robinson
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 1st-6th grade
Snow Queen
by Hans Christian Andersen, illustrated by Sally Holmes
from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Snow Queen OSI
by Hans Christian Andersen, retold by Neil Philip and illustrated by Sally Holmes
from Armadillo Books
for 3rd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Stories from Hans Christian Anderson
Calla Editions
by Hans Christian Anderson, illustrated by Edmund Dulac
from Dover Publications
for 4th-8th grade
Story of Siegfried
by James Baldwin, illustrated by Peter Hurd
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 5th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Story of Siegfried
by James Baldwin, illustrated by Peter Hurd
from Yesterday's Classics
for 5th-8th grade
$16.95
Swallowing the Golden Stone
by Walter Wangerin, Jr.
1st Ed. from Augsburg Fortress
for 4th-8th grade
$8.00 (1 in stock)
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