Folklore Mythology category: 2054 books

The English countryside was full of customs and superstitions relating to the animals that were seen in every day life. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

What unsettling vision startled a truck driver on Detling Hill one snowy night? What is a wallaby doing on the motorway? And is there really a leaf man that resides in Spinney Woods? Urban legends are the funny and frightening and folklore people share today. Just like the early folk tales that came...

A familiar, beloved, and yet misunderstood character in the Japanese folktale tradition is the animal-woman, an earthly animal that assumes the form of a female human. In order to articulate the characteristics that make Japanese Animal-Wife tales unique, this trailblazing book Japanese Animal-Wife...

China is an immense land with a history spanning thousands of years, and its needs and problems are perhaps too many for a single deity to watch over. This book begins to explore the veritable army of gods, immortals, and deities to whom the Chinese have turned for help, support, and intervention--not...

The history of tarot cards and card reading has a long and unexpected history. From ancient Egypt to the fashionable salons and backrooms of 1800's Paris. This fascinating book has something for the newcomer to tarot as well as the already initiated. Many of the earliest books, particularly those...

Beasts of the Deep: Sea Creatures and Popular Culture offers its readers an in-depth and interdisciplinary engagement with the sea and its monstrous inhabitants; through critical readings of folklore, weird fiction, film, music, radio and digital games. Within the text there are a multitude...

Part of the successful county folklore series - this book is packed full of superstitions, customs and old wives tales. A great book for anybody in or around Yorkshire, or with an interest in the rich folklore of the United Kingdom. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the...

From the earliest days of oral history to the present, the vampire myth persists among mankind’s deeply-rooted fears. This encyclopedia, with entries ranging from “Abchanchu” to “Zmeus,” includes nearly 600 different species of historical and mythological vampires, fully described and detailed.

The powerful gods of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, the more mystical deities of Buddhist and Hindu India, and the stern spirits of the African and American continents all reflect very different civilizations, yet they also demonstrate the unity of mankind in its fundamental need for explanations...

From their beginnings, campuses emerged as hotbeds of traditions and folklore. American college students inhabit a culture with its own slang, stories, humor, beliefs, rituals, and pranks. Simon J. Bronner takes a long, engaging look at American campus life and how it is shaped by students and at...

The Ainu people of Japan are very little known and where treated as savages when discovered by western travellers. Their religion was rich and cultured and this book opens the eyes of the reader to a culture that so few people know of. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to...

Greek drama is fascinating and the real beginning of modern drama as we know it today. This well researched and concise book is a must for anybody studying the history of drama. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly...

In Practically Joking, the first full-length study of the practical joke, Moira Marsh examines the value, artistry, and social significance of this ancient and pervasive form of vernacular expression. Though they are sometimes dismissed as the lowest form of humor, practical jokes come from...

Bird cults have existed in almost every culture from the ancient Egyptians to the Polynesians of Easter Island. This book looks at one of the worlds least known but most fascinating cultures, the Ainu people of Japan. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900's and before,...