Download or read book Egyptian Myth and Legend written by Donald Alexander Mackenzie and published by Library of Alexandria. This book was released on 2020-09-28 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume the myths and legends of ancient Egypt are embraced in a historical narrative which begins with the rise of the great Nilotic civilization and ends with the Graeco-Roman Age. The principal deities are dealt with chiefly at the various periods in which they came into prominence, while the legends are so arranged as to throw light on the beliefs and manners and customs of the ancient people. Metrical renderings are given of such of the representative folk songs and poems as can be appreciated at the present day. Egyptian mythology is of highly complex character, and cannot be considered apart from its racial and historical aspects. The Egyptians were, as a Hebrew prophet has declared, a "mingled people", and this view has been confirmed by recent ethnological research: "the process; of racial fusion begun in the Delta at the dawn of history", says Professor Elliot Smith, "spread through the whole land of Egypt". In localities the early Nilotic inhabitants accepted the religious beliefs of settlers, and fused these with their own. They also clung tenaciously to the crude and primitive tribal beliefs of their remote ancestors, and never abandoned an archaic conception even when they acquired new and more enlightened ideas; they accepted myths literally, and regarded with great sanctity ancient ceremonies and usages. They even showed a tendency to multiply rather than to reduce the number of their gods and goddesses, by symbolizing their attributes. As a result, we find it necessary to deal with a bewildering number of deities and a confused mass of beliefs, many of which are obscure and contradictory. But the average Egyptian was never dismayed by inconsistencies in religious matters: he seemed rather to be fascinated by them. There was, strictly speaking, no orthodox creed in Egypt; each provincial centre had its own distinctive theological system, and the religion of an individual appears to have depended mainly on his habits of life. "The Egyptian", as Professor Wiedemann has said, "never attempted to systematize his conceptions of the different divinities into a homogeneous religion. It is open to us to speak of the religious ideas of the Egyptians, but not of an Egyptian religion."Ê

Download or read book American Myths Legends and Tall Tales 3 volumes written by Christopher R. Fee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2016-08-29 with total page 1842 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating survey of the entire history of tall tales, folklore, and mythology in the United States from earliest times to the present, including stories and myths from the modern era that have become an essential part of contemporary popular culture. Folklore has been a part of American culture for as long as humans have inhabited North America, and increasingly formed an intrinsic part of American culture as diverse peoples from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania arrived. In modern times, folklore and tall tales experienced a rejuvenation with the emergence of urban legends and the growing popularity of science fiction and conspiracy theories, with mass media such as comic books, television, and films contributing to the retelling of old myths. This multi-volume encyclopedia will teach readers the central myths and legends that have formed American culture since its earliest years of settlement. Its entries provide a fascinating glimpse into the collective American imagination over the past 400 years through the stories that have shaped it. Organized alphabetically, the coverage includes Native American creation myths, "tall tales" like George Washington chopping down his father's cherry tree and the adventures of "King of the Wild Frontier" Davy Crockett, through to today's "urban myths." Each entry explains the myth or legend and its importance and provides detailed information about the people and events involved. Each entry also includes a short bibliography that will direct students or interested general readers toward other sources for further investigation. Special attention is paid to African American folklore, Asian American folklore, and the folklore of other traditions that are often overlooked or marginalized in other studies of the topic.

Download or read book Shakespeare s Friends written by Kate Emery Pogue and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2006-01-30 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking seriously the commonplace that a man is known by the company he keeps—and particularly by the company he keeps over his lifetime—one can learn more about just about anyone by learning more about his friends. By applying this notion to Shakespeare, this book offers insight into the life of the most famous playwright in history, and one of the most elusive figures in literature. The book consists of sketches of Shakespeare's contact and relationships with the people known to have been close friends or acquaintances, revealing aspects of the poet's life by emphasizing ways in which his life was intertwined with theirs. Though it is difficult to get to know this most famous of playwrights, through this work readers can gain insight into aspects of his life and personality that may otherwise have been hidden. Shakespeare, more than any other writer in the western world, based much of his work on the consequences of friendship. Given the value placed on friends in his writing, many readers have wondered about the role friendship played in his own life. This work gives readers the chance to learn more about Shakespeare's friends, who they were and what they can tell us about Shakespeare and his times. For instance, Richard Field was a boyhood friend with whom Shakespeare went to school in Stratford. Field became a well-known London printer. The details of Field's life illuminate both the details of Shakespeare's boyhood education and the poet's relationship with the printing, publishing, and book-selling world in London. Francis Collins, a lawyer who represented Shakespeare in a number of legal dealings, drafted both versions of Shakespeare's will. This life-long friend was one of the last men eve to see Shakespeare pick up a pen to write. Through these vivid and animated sketches, readers will come to know about Shakespeare's life and times. While the book has a lively, accessible narrative tone within chapters, its organization and features make it highly useful to the school library market as well as the academic world. It contains cross references, a detailed Table of Contents and a highly organized structure with uniformity across sections and chapters. The writing is accessible and could be easily used by upper-level high school students looking to augment school assignments.

Download or read book The Latin American Story Finder written by Sharon Barcan Elswit and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-10-07 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anything is possible in the world of Latin American folklore, where Aunt Misery can trap Death in a pear tree; Amazonian dolphins lure young girls to their underwater city; and the Feathered Snake brings the first musicians to Earth. One in a series of folklore reference guides ("...an invaluable resource..."--School Library Journal), this book features summaries and sources of 470 tales told in Mexico, Central America and South America, a region underrepresented in collections of world folklore. The volume sends users to the best stories retold in English from the Inca, Maya, and Aztec civilizations, Spanish and Portuguese missionaries and colonists, African slave cultures, indentured servants from India, and more than 75 indigenous tribes from 21 countries. The tales are grouped into themed sections with a detailed subject index.

Download or read book The Stars Undying written by Emery Robin and published by Orbit. This book was released on 2022-11-08 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A "dazzling" tale of empire and betrayal set among the stars (#1 New York Times bestselling author Casey McQuiston), this queer, spectacular space opera draws inspiration from Roman and Egyptian empires—and the lives and loves of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar. Princess Altagracia has lost everything. After a bloody civil war, her twin sister has claimed both the crown of their planet, Szayet, and the Pearl of its prophecy: a computer that contains the immortal soul of Szayet’s god. So when the interstellar Empire of Ceiao turns its conquering eye toward Szayet, Gracia sees an opportunity. To regain her planet, Gracia places herself in the hands of the empire and its dangerous commander, Matheus Ceirran. But winning over Matheus, to say nothing of his mercurial and compelling captain Anita, is no easy feat. And in trying to secure her planet’s sovereignty and future, Gracia will find herself torn between Matheus’s ambitions, Anita’s unpredictable desires, and the demands of the Pearl that whispers in her ear. For Szayet’s sake and her own, she will need to become more than a princess with a silver tongue. She will have to become a queen as history has never seen before. "A glittering triumph of a book that weaves together history and tragedy into a star-spanning epic." —Everina Maxwell, author of Winter’s Orbit

Download or read book A Man of Many Talents written by Deborah Simmons and published by Bennett Street Books. This book was released on 2012-08-27 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An age-old mystery. An inconvenient spirit. An unlikely romance. Abigail Parkinson is anxious to rid her inherited home of its troublesome specter. When she can't convince any scientist or scholar to investigate, she turns to the one man she doesn't want to ask for help: Lord Moreland. Viscount Moreland isn't a scientist or a scholar. The blood of pirates runs in his veins. But he’s known for debunking a haunted house, and when summoned to Sibel Hall he vows to solve all of its secrets—including how to woo the intriguing Miss Parkinson. Book #1 of The Regency Collection: Witty Regencies with a Touch of Mystery “Readers looking for a light, funny, and smart story can find it here.” – All About Romance “Deborah Simmons presents a charming Regency "Ghostbusters" with a little mystery twist and a sweet confection of a love story." – Romantic Times Two-time RITA Finalist Deborah Simmons is a USA Today bestselling author of historical romances originally published by Avon, Harlequin, and Berkley, as well as a romantic comedy. Key Themes: Regency romp, Regency romance mystery, beta hero, spinster, historical romance, strong heroine, inheritance, viscount, romantic suspense, romance series, independent heroine, romantic comedy, ghostbuster, witty romance, haunted house, reunion, stories with humor, happily ever after, historical romance, romance fiction books, love stories

Download or read book Robin Hood Handbook written by Mike Dixon-Kennedy and published by The History Press. This book was released on 1997-09-11 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robin Hood, whether riding through the glen, robbing the rich to pay the poor or giving the Sheriff of Nottingham his come-uppance, is one of the most captivating and controversial legendary figures. Was there a historical figure behind the legends? Did Robin and his Merry Men rampage through Sherwood Forest? Or did he spend most of his time in Barnsdale Wood in Yorkshire? And is the story of the freedom-loving Saxons refusing to be put under the Norman yoke, as portrayed in the Errol Flynn films, true?Mike Dixon-Kennedy ranges far and wide in his quest to present a complete picture of the exploits of this indestructible hero, drawing on ballads, poems, proverbs, films, novels, folklore, musicals and place-names.

Download or read book Discovering Dylan Thomas written by John Goodby and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2017-03-31 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discovering Dylan Thomas is a companion to Dylan Thomas’s published and notebook poems. It includes hitherto-unseen material contained in the recently-discovered fifth notebook, alongside poems, drafts and critical material including summaries of the critical reception of individual poems. The introductory essay considers the task of editing and annotating Thomas, the reception of the Collected Poems and the state of the Dylan Thomas industry, and the nature of Thomas’s reading, ‘influences’, allusions and intertextuality. It is followed by supplementary poems, including juvenilia and the notebook poems ‘The Woman Speaks’, original versions of ‘Grief thief of time’ and ‘I fellowed sleep’, and ‘Jack of Christ’, all of which were omitted from the Collected Poems. These are followed by annotations beginning with a discussion of Thomas’s juvenilia, and the relationship between plagiarism and parody in his work; poem-by-poem entries offer glosses, new material from the fifth notebook, critical histories for each poem, and variants of poems such as ‘Holy Spring’ and ‘On a Wedding Anniversary’ (including a magnificent, previously unpublished first draft of ‘A Refusal to Mourn’). The closing appendices deal with text and publication details for the collections Thomas published in his lifetime, the provenance and contents of the fifth notebook, and errata for the hardback edition of the Collected Poems.

Download or read book Hockey Legend Myth and Verse written by Artica Burr and published by Trafford Publishing. This book was released on 2007-08 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A captivating collection of short reads for hockey fans centered around the trials, tribulations and joys of growing up ice hockey. Told with wit and wisdom and contrived to verse, this engaging collection is sure to become a hockey fiction cult classic. Written to delight players young and old, parents, coaches, or anyone who has participated in, or experienced the wonderful world of youth hockey in any way. The driving force, power and pace of the fantasy hockey poetry flows through the metered verse, forming an electric undercurrent to the game as seen through the eyes of the players. The short read format lends itself to both the hockey commute and the warm room. As the title implies, the book is divided into three sections: Verses: presented with simplicity for youth reading enjoyment, these offerings span player attributes, attitudes and offer encouragement to young players; Myths: Short metrical stories based on a shred of truth, but spun to yarns, most written in an easy read format. Legends: A hat trick of pulsing hockey entertainment. My Antarctica is the initial adventure of the young hockey Goalie King to a special slumber land. He successfully lures the Buffalo Sabres to a quest for his Frozen Cup against his rollicking Penguins team. No, not those Pens from Pittsburgh... real ones, the Arctic Burrs. A sequel finds the King seeking NHL quality training by bringing his now mature Burrs to Buffalo to engage both the Sabres and the Niagara University Purple Eagles in another dream adventure. A third legend opens the door on a stick-on-stick tale of a small-town teen street hockey tournament contrived to win the local sports bar's paper replica of the Stanley Cup.

Download or read book Dreaming and Historical Consciousness in Island Greece written by Charles Stewart and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-04-06 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On publication in 2012, Dreaming and Historical Consciousness in Island Greece quickly met wide acclaim as a gripping work that, according to the Times Literary Supplement, “offers a wholly new way of thinking about dreams in their social contexts.” It tells an extraordinary story of spiritual fervor, prophecy, and the ghosts of the distant past coming alive in the present. This new affordable paperback brings it to the wider audience that it deserves. Charles Stewart tells the story of the inhabitants of Kóronos, on the Greek island of Naxos, who, in the 1830s, began experiencing dreams in which the Virgin Mary instructed them to search for buried Christian icons nearby and build a church to house the ones they found. Miraculously, they dug and found several icons and human remains, and at night the ancient owners of them would speak to them in dreams. The inhabitants built the church and in the years since have experienced further waves of dreams and startling prophesies that shaped their understanding of the past and future and often put them at odds with state authorities. Today, Kóronos is the site of one of the largest annual pilgrimages in the Mediterranean. Telling this fascinating story, Stewart draws on his long-term fieldwork and original historical sources to explore dreaming as a mediator of historical change, while widening the understanding of historical consciousness and history itself.

Download or read book That Fiend in Hell written by Catherine Holder Spude and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the Klondike gold rush peaked in spring 1898, adventurers and gamblers rubbed shoulders with town-builders and gold-panners in Skagway, Alaska. The flow of riches lured confidence men, too—among them Jefferson Randolph “Soapy” Smith (1860–98), who with an entourage of “bunco-men” conned and robbed the stampeders. Soapy, though, a common enough criminal, would go down in legend as the Robin Hood of Alaska, the “uncrowned king of Skagway,” remembered for his charm and generosity, even for calming a lynch mob. When the Fourth of July was celebrated in ’98, he supposedly led the parade. Then, a few days later, he was dead, killed in a shootout over a card game. With Smith’s death, Skagway rid itself of crime forever. Or at least, so the story goes. Journalists immediately cast him as a martyr whose death redeemed a violent town. In fact, he was just a petty criminal and card shark, as Catherine Holder Spude proves definitively in “That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend, a tour de force of historical debunking that documents Smith’s elevation to western hero. In sorting out the facts about this man and his death from fiction, Spude concludes that the actual Soapy was not the legendary “boss of Skagway,” nor was he killed by Frank Reid, as early historians supposed. She shows that even eyewitnesses who knew the truth later changed their stories to fit the myth. But why? Tracking down some hundred retellings of the Soapy Smith story, Spude traces the efforts of Skagway’s boosters to reinforce a morality tale at the expense of a complex story of town-building and government formation. The idea that Smith’s death had made a lawless town safe served Skagway’s economic interests. Spude’s engaging deconstruction of Soapy’s story models deep research and skepticism crucial to understanding the history of the American frontier.

Download or read book An A Z of Hellraisers written by Robert Sellers and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-05-20 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An A-Z of Hellraisers is the last word on inebriated misbehaviour, and the miscreant mob in this whopper of a book constitute the most amazing grouping to see print: from Alexander the Great, whose drunken revelries once ended with the destruction of an entire city; to W. C. Fields, who passed critical judgement on a brass band by urinating over them from a hotel balcony; Dylan Thomas, who drove a sports car onto Charlie Chaplin's private tennis court; to Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, suffocating on his own vomit after consuming forty measures of vodka - what a night out that was! This hilarious volume makes for an ideal bedside companion or pub reading fodder, as it scrutinises and salutes these glorious individuals, from Winston Churchill to Keith Moon, George Best to Ernest Hemingway, Wild Bill Hickok to Sam Peckinpah, Ozzy Osbourne to Errol Flynn. Just thank God we didn't have to live next door to any of them.

Download or read book I Am Legend written by Richard Matheson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-10-30 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The one remaining human in a world populated with vampires struggles to survive.

Download or read book Shadowing the White Man s Burden written by Gretchen Murphy and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2010-05-01 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the height of 19th century imperialism, Rudyard Kipling published his famous poem “The White Man’s Burden.” While some of his American readers argued that the poem served as justification for imperialist practices, others saw Kipling’s satirical talents at work and read it as condemnation. Gretchen Murphy explores this tension embedded in the notion of the white man’s burden to create a new historical frame for understanding race and literature in America. Shadowing the White Man’s Burden maintains that literature symptomized and channeled anxiety about the racial components of the U.S. world mission, while also providing a potentially powerful medium for multiethnic authors interested in redrawing global color lines. Through a range of archival materials from literary reviews to diplomatic records to ethnological treatises, Murphy identifies a common theme in the writings of African-, Asian- and Native-American authors who exploited anxiety about race and national identity through narratives about a multiracial U.S. empire. Shadowing the White Man’s Burden situates American literature in the context of broader race relations, and provides a compelling analysis of the way in which literature came to define and shape racial attitudes for the next century.

Download or read book The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant written by Graham Phillips and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-09-13 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers compelling evidence that the Knights Templar may have taken the Ark of the Covenant to the British Isles • Presents scientific evidence affirming the powers attributed to the Ark • Traces the Ark and the Stones of Fire from Jerusalem to Jordan and finally to central England, where the Knights Templar hid them in the 14th century According to legend the Ark of the Covenant was an ornate golden chest that was both a means of communicating with God and a terrible weapon used against the enemies of the ancient Israelites. In order to use it the high priest had to wear a breastplate containing twelve sacred gemstones called the Stones of Fire. These objects were kept in the Great Temple of Jerusalem until they vanished following the Babylonian invasion in 597 B.C.E. At the ancient ruins of Petra in southern Jordan, Graham Phillips uncovered evidence that 13th-century Templars found the Ark and the Stones of Fire, and that they brought these treasures back to central England when they fled the persecution of French king Philip the Fair a century later. The author followed ciphered messages left by the Templars in church paintings, inscriptions, and stained glass windows to what may well be three of the Stones of Fire. When examined by Oxford University scientists these stones were found to possess odd physical properties that interfered with electronic equipment and produced a sphere of floating light similar to ball lightning. The Bible asserts that the Ark had the power to destroy armies and bring down the walls of cities. Now Graham Phillips provides scientific evidence that these claims may be true and offers compelling documentation that the Ark may be located in the English countryside, not far from the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Download or read book The Storyteller s Sourcebook written by Margaret Read MacDonald and published by Gale Cengage. This book was released on 2001 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first edition provides descriptions of folktales and references to more than 700 published sources of folktales. The new edition covers folktales from 1983-1999. Both editions include thorough indexing by subject, motif, title, ethnic group and country of origin and a comprehensive bibliography.

Download or read book The Arena written by Benjamin Orange Flower and published by . This book was released on 1897 with total page 1182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: