Books to deepen your appreciation of myth and fantasy

Discover the best books to deepen your appreciation of myth and fantasy. Explore timeless tales, legendary lore, and enchanting stories that bring magic to life.

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ID: 1587431335
(Type: books)
The Tolkien Reader Cover
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The Tolkien Reader

by J.R.R. Tolkien

An absorbing collection of stories, poems, and commentaries by the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Renowned around the world as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien was also a distinguished academic and professor whose writings and lectures expand beyond the scope of his beloved Middle-earth. From short stories of fantastical adventures to essays on imagination and the narrative form, The Tolkien Reader gathers some of these fascinating and hard-to-find works into one volume. Tree and Leaf: Professor Tolkien’s now-famous essay “On Fairy-stories” and the short story “Leaf by Niggle” examine and illustrate the form and treatment of fantasy narratives. The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm’s Son: A short play inspired by The Battle of Malden, an Old English poem with no ending and no beginning that describes a historical tenth-century battle between the English and Viking invaders. Farmer Giles of Ham: An imaginative history of the distant past that follows the unheroic Farmer Giles as he attempts to capture a somewhat untrustworthy dragon. The Adventures of Tom Bombadil: A delightful collection of verse in praise of Tom Bombadil, staunch friend of the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings.
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ID: 0156027674
(Type: books)
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ID: 0007202474
(Type: books)
Bulfinch's Mythology Cover
Book

Bulfinch's Mythology

by Thomas Bulfinch

For almost a century and a half, Bulfinch's Mythology has been the text by which the great tales of the gods and goddesses, Greek and Roman antiquity; Scandinavian, Celtic, and Oriental fables and myths; and the age of chivalry have been known. The stories are divided into three sections: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes (first published in 1855); The Age of Chivalry (1858), which contains King Arthur and His Knights, The Mabinogeon, and The Knights of English History; and Legends of Charlemagne or Romance of the Middle Ages (1863). For the Greek myths, Bulfinch drew on Ovid and Virgil, and for the sagas of the north, from Mallet's Northern Antiquities. He provides lively versions of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their cohorts on Mount Olympus; the love story of Pygmalion and Galatea; the legends of the Trojan War and the epic wanderings of Ulysses and Aeneas; the joys of Valhalla and the furies of Thor; and the tales of Beowulf and Robin Hood. The tales are eminently readable. As Bulfinch wrote, "Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated. . . . Our book is an attempt to solve this problem, by telling the stories of mythology in such a manner as to make them a source of amusement."
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ID: 159017125X
(Type: books)
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ID: 0253200369
(Type: books)
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ID: 0872207218
(Type: books)
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ID: 0872201791
(Type: books)