Covers legends and stories outside of the Bible, including
Apocrypha, Gnostic gospels, “lost books”, saints’ tales, and traditions. Evelyn
gave me this out of the trunk of her car one time when she and Mom went
visiting. I remember there is a page or two missing, apparently some apocryphal
sayings as I recall, but I can’t remember the page number.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: New Testament Legends. Hardback.
A Treasury of Jewish Folklore, Edited by Nathan Ausubel.
“Stories, Traditions, Legends, Humor, Wisdom and Folk Songs
of the Jewish People”.
An old book from 1949, no less, and still as full of “Jewish
salt” as the day it was published. A wonderful browser, a crammed reader of
short stories, wisdom tales, and jokes, gems of snap and pith. A little frail,
as most 70 year-olds are, but more than repays time spent in its company.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Anthology. Hardback.
Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis, by Robert Graves and
Raphael Patai.
“This exhaustive exploration of the Hebrew myths and the book
of Genesis resulted from a remarkable collaboration between one scholar raised
as a strict Protestant and one raised as a strict Jew. It goes beyond Christian
biblical and Judaic myth and incorporates midrashes, folk tales, apocryphal
texts, and other obscure sources to extend and complete the stories. An
intriguing view of the suppressed and censored pre-biblical accounts is the
result, along with a rich sense of a culture consisting of oral and literary
traditions, where the spiritual is deeply rooted in landscape and history.” –
Amazon. A little pinch of Graves’s cuckoo theories may have wandered in a bit
as well, but it is mostly interesting insights from traditions ‘supplementing’
the Bible. And remember, a ‘myth’ doesn’t necessarily mean a lie, but a story
meant to convey a truth by means of a story.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Myth. Hardback.
The Ingoldsby Legends, Volumes I and II, by Thomas Ingoldsby
(Richard Harris Barham).
“Fully Annotated. Complete with the Illustrations of John
Tenniel, George Cruikshank, John Leech and Others”. I bought this 2-volume
edition more or less on the advice and under the spell of Robertson Davies. “A
collection of myths, legends, ghost stories and poetry written supposedly
by Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, actually a pen-name of an English clergyman named Richard
Harris Barham … Although
based on real legends and mythology, chiefly Kentish, such as the "hand of glory", they are mostly deliberately
humorous parodies or pastiches of medieval folklore and poetry.” – Wikipedia. I’ve
seen some of the tales in other books and they can be amusing, but the poetry
is rather hard to take.
Ranking: Keepers.
File Code: Humor? Stories. Poems. Softcover.
America In Legend: Folklore from the Colonial Period to the
Present, by Richard M. Dorson.
The present being 1973, in this case, but you probably could
have guessed that from the quality of the paper and style of the illustration
enjambment. Very nice for research on my American Fantasies. Got it just a year
or two ago at a library sale.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Legend. America. Softcover.
Russian Myths, by Elizabeth Warner.
You’ve got to admit there’s not much Russian myth left, and
what there is of it has been very well hidden, but it seems all the more
mysteriously powerful for all that. Most of it is hero tales and legendary
figures like Baba Yaga and Koschei the Deathless, saint’s stories and tsar’s
daughters and dragons. This book gives a distant but clear glimpse of that lost
Russian world, as if seen in an icon.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Russia. Legend. Softcover.
Quality Paperback Book Treasury of North American Folktales,
Edited by Catherine Peek.
Illustrations by Rosemary Fox. An anthology of tales, from
Native American to Colonial to Tall Tales to modern. I think my favorite story
comes near the end, “La Llorona Teaches a Hippie a Lesson.” Some water damage;
bought that way at a garage sale.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Folktales. Treasury. Softcover.
