Tag Archives: myth

Kath Filmer-Davies’s Fantasy Fiction and Welsh Myth: Tales of Belonging

Contemporary fantasy writers such as Susan Cooper and Jane Yolen are drawing more and more on ancient Welsh mythic tales and folklore as the basis of their stories. (See Grey Walker’s review of Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series.) … Continue reading

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Mike Ashley, editor’s, The Merlin Chronicles

A storm is coming, but the winds are still, And in the wild woods of Broceliande, Before an oak, so hollow and old It look’d a tower of ivied masonwork, At Merlin’s feet the wily Vivien lay… Tennyson’s “Idylls of … Continue reading

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John Matthews’s The Song of Taliesin: Tales from King Arthur’s Bard

Lisa Spangenberg wrote this review. The Song of Taliesin: Tales from King Arthur’s Bard is a collection of retellings, loosely based on medieval Welsh and Irish texts, that John Matthews sees as related to the myth of Taliesin. Green Man … Continue reading

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John Matthews’ Taliesin: The Last Celtic Shaman

Lisa Spangenberg wrote this review. John Matthews, like his wife Caitlin, is prominent in Neo-Pagan circles, and they have separately and together written an enormous number of books regarding Celtic, Arthurian, and spiritual subjects. You can find reviews here on … Continue reading

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John Matthews’ The Quest for The Green Man

John Matthews’ The Quest for The Green Man is one of the many books we’ve gotten that touch upon the green man motif. It is typical of the many books that John and Catlin Matthews have produced — lavishly illustrated, … Continue reading

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Anonymous’s Beowulf, translated and with commentary by Howard Chickering, Jr.

I first encountered the Beowulf saga while performing with my band at a local midwinter festival where a storyteller was doing the entire saga starting late in the evening around a roaring fire. This dual translation is good enough to … Continue reading

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Anonymous’ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, J.R.R. Tolkien, translator; audio, read by Terry Jones

Matthew Winslow wrote this for Folk Tales. Aside from writing the highly influential and most important fantasy work of the twentieth century, J.R.R. Tolkien was also a scholar and philologist. While his actual scholarly work was not too prodigious, much … Continue reading

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James Goldman’s Robin and Marian, Robin McKinley’s The Outlaws of Sherwood, Richard Kluger’s The Sheriff of Nottingham, Jane Yolen, editor’s Sherwood: A Collection of Original Robin Hood Stories

Take no scorn to wear the horn It was the crest when you were born Your father’s father wore it And your father wore it too Robin Hood and Little John Have both gone to the fair o and we … Continue reading

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Stephen Knight’s Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography

Robin Hood’s a myth, a fiction invented by countless storytellers down the centuries. Sure. Now go ahead explain why, according to the press release that came with this book, he is the only person of a fictitious nature in the … Continue reading

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J.C. Holt’s Robin Hood, and Stephen Knight’s Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw

Take no scorn to wear the horn It was the crest when you were born Your father’s father wore it And your father wore it to Robin Hood and Little John Have both gone to the fair o and we … Continue reading

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