Download or read book The Penguin Book of Dragons written by Scott G. Bruce and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two thousand years of legend and lore about the menace and majesty of dragons, which have breathed fire into our imaginations from ancient Rome to Game of Thrones A Penguin Classic The most popular mythological creature in the human imagination, dragons have provoked fear and fascination for their lethal venom and crushing coils, and as avatars of the Antichrist, servants of Satan, couriers of the damned to Hell, portents of disaster, and harbingers of the last days. Here are accounts spanning millennia and continents of these monsters that mark the boundary between the known and the unknown, including: their origins in the deserts of Africa; their struggles with their mortal enemies, elephants, in the jungles of South Asia; their fear of lightning; the world’s first dragon slayer, in an ancient collection of Sanskrit hymns; the colossal sea monster Leviathan; the seven-headed “great red dragon” of the Book of Revelation; the Loch Ness monster; the dragon in Beowulf, who inspired Smaug in Tolkien’s The Hobbit; the dragons in the prophecies of the wizard Merlin; a dragon saved from a centipede in Japan who gifts his human savior a magical bag of rice; the supernatural feathered serpent of ancient Mesoamerica; and a flatulent dragon the size of the Trojan Horse. From the dark halls of the Lonely Mountain to the blue skies of Westeros, we expect dragons to be gigantic, reptilian predators with massive, bat-like wings, who wreak havoc defending the gold they have hoarded in the deep places of the earth. But dragons are full of surprises, as is this book.
Download or read book The Penguin Book of Hell written by Scott G. Bruce and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the Bible through Dante and up to Treblinka and Guantánamo Bay, here is a rich source for nightmares." --The New York Times Book Review Three thousand years of visions of Hell, from the ancient Near East to modern America A Penguin Classic From the Hebrew Bible's shadowy realm of Sheol to twenty-first-century visions of Hell on earth, The Penguin Book of Hell takes us through three thousand years of eternal damnation. Along the way, you'll take a ferry ride with Aeneas to Hades, across the river Acheron; meet the Devil as imagined by a twelfth-century Irish monk--a monster with a thousand giant hands; wander the nine circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno, in which gluttons, liars, heretics, murderers, and hypocrites are made to endure crime-appropriate torture; and witness the debates that raged in Victorian England when new scientific advances cast doubt on the idea of an eternal hereafter. Drawing upon religious poetry, epics, theological treatises, stories of miracles, and accounts of saints' lives, this fascinating volume of hellscapes illuminates how Hell has long haunted us, in both life and death. For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book The Penguin Book of the Undead written by Scott G. Bruce and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-27 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The walking dead from 15 centuries haunt this compendium of ghostly visitations through the ages, exploring the history of our fascination with zombies and other restless souls. Since ancient times, accounts of supernatural activity have mystified us. Ghost stories as we know them did not develop until the late nineteenth century, but the restless dead haunted the premodern imagination in many forms, as recorded in historical narratives, theological texts, and personal letters. The Penguin Book of the Undead teems with roving hordes of dead warriors, corpses trailed by packs of barking dogs, moaning phantoms haunting deserted ruins, evil spirits emerging from burning carcasses in the form of crows, and zombies with pestilential breath. Spanning from the Hebrew scriptures to the Roman Empire, the Scandinavian sagas to medieval Europe, the Protestant Reformation to the Renaissance, this beguiling array of accounts charts our relationship with spirits and apparitions, wraiths and demons over fifteen hundred years, showing the evolution in our thinking about the ability of dead souls to return to the realm of the living—and to warn us about what awaits us in the afterlife. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book Dragon s Extraordinary Egg written by Debi Gliori and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dragon finds an abandoned egg and lovingly raises the hatchling as her own, although Little One is very different from the baby dragons, and when disaster strikes it is the small, feathered hatchling that saves the day.
Download or read book The Dragon Book written by Gardner Dozois and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nineteen fiery dragon stories from the world’s best fantasy writers Whether portrayed as fire-breathing reptilian beasts at war with humanity or as noble creatures capable of speech and mystically bonded to the warriors who ride them, dragons have been found in nearly every culture's mythology. In modern times, they can be found far from their medieval settings in locales as mundane as suburbia or as barren as post-apocalyptic landscapes - and in THE DRAGON BOOK, today's greatest fantasists reignite the fire with legendary tales that will consume readers' imaginations.With stories by NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors Jonathan Stroud, Gregory Maguire, Garth Nix, Diana Gabaldon, Tamora Pierce, Harry Turtledove, Sean Williams and Tad Williams as well as tales by Naomi Novik, Peter Beagle, Jane Yolen, Adam Stemple, Cecelia Holland, Kage Baker, Samuel Sykes, Diana Wynne Jones, Mary Rosenblum, Tanith Lee, Andy Duncan and Bruce Coville.
Download or read book Dragons in a Bag written by Zetta Elliott and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2018-10-23 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dragon's out of the bag in this diverse, young urban fantasy from an award-winning author! When Jaxon is sent to spend the day with a mean old lady his mother calls Ma, he finds out she's not his grandmother--but she is a witch! She needs his help delivering baby dragons to a magical world where they'll be safe. There are two rules when it comes to the dragons: don't let them out of the bag, and don't feed them anything sweet. Before he knows it, Jax and his friends Vikram and Kavita have broken both rules! Will Jax get the baby dragons delivered safe and sound? Or will they be lost in Brooklyn forever? AN ALA-ALSC NOTABLE CHILDREN'S BOOK AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR The Dragons in a Bag series continues! Don't miss The Dragon Thief, and coming in Spring 2022, The Witch's Apprentice.
Download or read book The Penguin Book of Witches written by Katherine Howe and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-09-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chilling real-life accounts of witches, from medieval Europe through colonial America, compiled by the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane and The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs From a manual for witch hunters written by King James himself in 1597, to court documents from the Salem witch trials of 1692, to newspaper coverage of a woman stoned to death on the streets of Philadelphia while the Continental Congress met, The Penguin Book of Witches is a treasury of historical accounts of accused witches that sheds light on the reality behind the legends. Bringing to life stories like that of Eunice Cole, tried for attacking a teenage girl with a rock and buried with a stake through her heart; Jane Jacobs, a Bostonian so often accused of witchcraft that she took her tormentors to court on charges of slander; and Increase Mather, an exorcism-performing minister famed for his knowledge of witches, this volume provides a unique tour through the darkest history of English and North American witchcraft. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Download or read book The Book of Dragons written by Jonathan Strahan and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R.F. Kuang, Kate Elliott, Ken Liu, Todd McCaffrey, Garth Nix, Peter S. Beagle, and other modern masters of fantasy and science fiction put their unique spin on the greatest of mythical beasts—the dragon—in never-before-seen works written exclusively for this fantasy anthology compiled by award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan and with art by Rovina Cai! Here there be dragons . . . From China to Europe, Africa to North America, dragons have long captured our imagination in myth and legend. Whether they are rampaging beasts awaiting a brave hero to slay or benevolent sages who have much to teach humanity, dragons are intrinsically connected to stories of creation, adventure, and struggle beloved for generations. Bringing together nearly thirty stories and poems from some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy writers working today— Garth Nix, Scott Lynch, R.F. Kuang, Ann Leckie & Rachel Swirsky, Daniel Abraham, Peter S. Beagle, Beth Cato, Zen Cho, C. S. E Cooney, Aliette de Bodard, Amal El-Mohtar, Kate Elliott, Theodora Goss, Ellen Klages, Ken Liu, Seanan Maguire, Patricia A McKillip, K. J. Parker, Kelly Robson, Michael Swanwick, Jo Walton, Elle Katharine White, Jane Yolen, Kelly Barnhill, Brooke Bolander, Sarah Gailey, and J. Y. Yang—and illustrated by award-nominated artist Rovina Cai with black-and-white line drawings specific to each entry throughout, this extraordinary collection vividly breathes fire and life into one of our most captivating and feared magical creatures as never before and is sure to become a treasured keepsake for fans of fantasy, science fiction, and fairy tales.
Download or read book Dragon written by Martin Arnold and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2018-06-15 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the fire-breathing beasts of North European myth and legend to the Book of Revelation’s Great Red Dragon of Hell, from those supernatural agencies of imperial authority in ancient China to the so-called dragon-women who threaten male authority, dragons are a global phenomenon, one that has troubled humanity for thousands of years. These often scaly beasts take a wide variety of forms and meanings, but there is one thing they all have in common: our fear of their formidable power and, as a consequence, our need either to overcome, appease, or in some way assume that power as our own. In this fiery cultural history, Martin Arnold asks how these unifying impulses can be explained. Are they owed to our need to impose order on chaos in the form of a dragon-slaying hero? Is it our terror of nature, writ large, unleashed in its most destructive form? Or is the dragon nothing less than an expression of that greatest and most disturbing mystery of all: our mortality? Tracing the history of ideas about dragons from the earliest of times to Game of Thrones, Arnold explores exactly what it might be that calls forth such creatures from the darkest corners of our collective imagination.
Download or read book The Book of Holding Dungeons Dragons written by Official Dungeons & Dragons Licensed and published by Clarkson Potter Publishers. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This officially licensed keepsake journal, lavishly designed with magnetic enclosure and a back pocket, is a must-have for Dungeons & Dragons fans of all levels and ages. Trust this multipurpose journal to stow all your ideas, notes, and to-dos. Highly customizable with five pieces of stunning full-color artwork, The Book of Holding is ideal for capturing character sketches, formulating campaigns, or organizing your everyday thoughts. Whether you're a die-hard dungeon master preparing for your next game session or a part-time player wanting to represent your favorite RPG, this journal is the ultimate companion to your quest.
Download or read book An Instinct for Dragons written by David E. Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-05-06 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Download or read book The Last of the Dragons written by Edith Nesbit and published by Carson-Dellosa Pub Llc. This book was released on 1980-01-01 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Relates what happens to the very last dragon in Cornwall when the local princess and her prince decide, in a departure from tradition, to tame the dragon rather than fight him.
Download or read book The Secret Dragon written by Ed Clarke and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2019-05-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The perfect tale of friendship and adventure for young explorers aged 8+, shortlisted for the 2020 Tir na n-Og Awards. 'So if you're not an animal that's alive today, and you're not an animal that's extinct either, what on earth are you?' Mari Jones is desperate to be a real scientist, even though she's only eleven. So when she discovers a tiny dragon while fossil hunting on the beach, she's sure she can find a good scientific explanation - as long as she can keep it hidden long enough to study it. Unfortunately for Mari, this is one secret that doesn't want to be kept. And as she starts to form a deeper bond with the mischievous dragon, she might have to admit that, when it comes to friendship, science might not have all the answers... 'A heart-warming story' - Guardian 'Utterly enchanting' - Cat Doyle, author of The Storm Keeper's Island 'Seamless storytelling interwoven with fascinating science . . . perfect for reading aloud!' - Piers Torday, author of The Lost Magician
Download or read book The Penguin Book of Mermaids written by Cristina Bacchilega and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dive into centuries of mermaid lore with these captivating tales from around the world. A Penguin Classic Among the oldest and most popular mythical beings, mermaids and other merfolk have captured the imagination since long before Ariel sold her voice to a sea witch in the beloved Disney film adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid." As far back as the eighth century B.C., sailors in Homer's Odyssey stuffed wax in their ears to resist the Sirens, who lured men to their watery deaths with song. More than two thousand years later, the gullible New York public lined up to witness a mummified "mermaid" specimen that the enterprising showman P. T. Barnum swore was real. The Penguin Book of Mermaids is a treasury of such tales about merfolk and water spirits from different cultures, ranging from Scottish selkies to Hindu water-serpents to Chilean sea fairies. A third of the selections are published here in English for the first time, and all are accompanied by commentary that explores their undercurrents, showing us how public perceptions of this popular mythical hybrid--at once a human and a fish--illuminate issues of gender, spirituality, ecology, and sexuality.
Download or read book Dragon World written by Tamara Macfarlane and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-03-16 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immerse yourself in the rich, fascinating history of dragons in this illustrated gift ebook. Meet the fire-breathing beasts of mythology in this beautifully illustrated ebook brimming with scaled behemoths. Lurking in every corner of the earth, from the deepest depths of the oceans, to the tips of the tallest mountains, even tucked beneath the very ground that you tread on, dragons watch and wait. They take many forms--sea monsters, serpents, wild cats, eagles, and they represent many different things; Gods to be revered, evil kings to be feared, wise friends, and fierce foes. So, when you accidentally step on a sinewy vine and it whips out from under your feet, or invisible forces gently fan warm air across your face, or the acrid smell of cinders pokes at the back of your throat, how will you know whether to stand and wonder, or run and hide? Dragons have breathed fire into our minds since we could first imagine, but why do they exist in stories from every land in the world? Come in and explore Dragon World. Look into their lairs while they make shape-shifting mischief, playing with the weather and protecting earthly treasures. Soar across continents into tales as old as time. Prowl through the pages to discover rare dragon species. Find clues to track them and master how to draw them. Behold the earthly dragons of today!
Download or read book Wizards Spells Dungeons Dragons written by Jim Zub and published by Ten Speed Press. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An immersive illustrated primer to the enchanted beings, magic users, and spells of Dungeons & Dragons, the leading fantasy role-playing game. This illustrated guide transports new players to the magical world of Dungeons & Dragons and presents a one-of-a-kind course on the wizards, sorcerers, and other magic-makers for which the game is known. Featuring easy-to-follow and entertaining explanations of how spells are created and used in the game, along with original illustrations of the game's essential magical characters, this book shines a spotlight on the mystical side of D&D. The perfect jumping-on point for young fans of fantasy looking to give D&D a try, Wizards and Spells also features prompts to encourage creative problem-solving skills in the dangerous situations that may be encountered in a Dungeons & Dragons adventure.
Download or read book Dragon Loves Penguin written by Debi Gliori and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-08-13 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's bedtime in the land of ice and snow. "Night, night,” says Bib's mummy. “Sleep tight,” says Bib's daddy. But Bib has a better plan. “Please,” says Bib, “can I have a story? The one about dragons.” And so begins the heartwarming tale of a dragon in need of an egg and an abandoned egg in need of a mummy. It seems like the perfect fit, but what happens when that egg hatches and the little baby doesn't look like all the other dragons (in fact, he looks remarkably like a penguin)? Of course, his mummy loves him no matter what. But the other babies aren't so sure. Little do they know that being different can be good and soon their little feathered friend is saving the day.
