Patrick Murtha
Reader
This is not my best-read area personally, but I see a thread gap, I fill it!
Teaching Greek mythology to high school students was always a blast; they really seemed to take to it. Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is a first-rate introduction.
I used to dip into Andrew Lang’s “color” fairy tale collections when I was a kid, and recently read the Yellow cover-to-cover. Fun, but honestly, one more king, queen, prince, or princess, and I was going to scream. Also, the “rules” of Faerie not only change considerably from story to story, as might be expected, but WITHIN stories as well, which is more disconcerting. One consistent lesson you do learn is to follow instructions precisely and literally - take just a smidge of leeway and you are in BIG trouble.
There is plenty of folklore and mythology in Edward Burnett Tylor’s two-volume Primitive Culture from 1871.
Zora Neale Hurston was an anthroplogist (student of the treat Franz Boas!) and folklore collector; her Mules and Men is a treat.
Finally, I am taking a stab at Hari Prasad Shastri’s complete prose translation of the Ramayana from 1952. Don’t mind saying that this is very challenging. So many names! Hundreds already, and I’m not even through with Volume I. Furthermore, as in a Russian novel, almost every entity has MULTIPLE names.
Teaching Greek mythology to high school students was always a blast; they really seemed to take to it. Edith Hamilton’s Mythology is a first-rate introduction.
I used to dip into Andrew Lang’s “color” fairy tale collections when I was a kid, and recently read the Yellow cover-to-cover. Fun, but honestly, one more king, queen, prince, or princess, and I was going to scream. Also, the “rules” of Faerie not only change considerably from story to story, as might be expected, but WITHIN stories as well, which is more disconcerting. One consistent lesson you do learn is to follow instructions precisely and literally - take just a smidge of leeway and you are in BIG trouble.
There is plenty of folklore and mythology in Edward Burnett Tylor’s two-volume Primitive Culture from 1871.
Zora Neale Hurston was an anthroplogist (student of the treat Franz Boas!) and folklore collector; her Mules and Men is a treat.
Finally, I am taking a stab at Hari Prasad Shastri’s complete prose translation of the Ramayana from 1952. Don’t mind saying that this is very challenging. So many names! Hundreds already, and I’m not even through with Volume I. Furthermore, as in a Russian novel, almost every entity has MULTIPLE names.
