Gods, Heroes & Kings

Gods, Heroes & Kings PDF Author: Christopher R. Fee
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195174038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Annotation - A fascinating account of Britain's mythic traditions.

Gods, Heroes & Kings

Gods, Heroes & Kings PDF Author: Christopher R. Fee
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195174038
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Get Book Here

Book Description
Annotation - A fascinating account of Britain's mythic traditions.

Gods, Heroes, & Kings

Gods, Heroes, & Kings PDF Author: Christopher R. Fee
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198038788
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
The islands of Britain have been a crossroads of gods, heroes, and kings-those of flesh as well as those of myth-for thousands of years. Successive waves of invasion brought distinctive legends, rites, and beliefs. The ancient Celts displaced earlier indigenous peoples, only to find themselves displaced in turn by the Romans, who then abandoned the islands to Germanic tribes, a people themselves nearly overcome in time by an influx of Scandinavians. With each wave of invaders came a battle for the mythic mind of the Isles as the newcomer's belief system met with the existing systems of gods, legends, and myths. In Gods, Heroes, and Kings, medievalist Christopher Fee and veteran myth scholar David Leeming unearth the layers of the British Isles' unique folkloric tradition to discover how this body of seemingly disparate tales developed. The authors find a virtual battlefield of myths in which pagan and Judeo-Christian beliefs fought for dominance, and classical, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Celtic narrative threads became tangled together. The resulting body of legends became a strange but coherent hybrid, so that by the time Chaucer wrote "The Wife of Bath's Tale" in the fourteenth century, a Christian theme of redemption fought for prominence with a tripartite Celtic goddess and the Arthurian legends of Sir Gawain-itself a hybrid mythology. Without a guide, the corpus of British mythology can seem impenetrable. Taking advantage of the latest research, Fee and Leeming employ a unique comparative approach to map the origins and development of one of the richest folkloric traditions. Copiously illustrated with excerpts in translation from the original sources,Gods, Heroes, and Kings provides a fascinating and accessible new perspective on the history of British mythology.

British Mythology

British Mythology PDF Author: Don Nardo
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1420510371
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 115

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Book Description
This fascinating book explores Great Britain's culture and myths, as well as the beliefs, values, and experiences represented in its stories and mythological figures. Readers discover the settlement of Britain by the Celts and the influence of the Roman invasion; pre-Christian myths, such as Beowulf; the Arthurian cycle; the adventures of Robin Hood; and the survival of British myth in literary tradition.

The Druids and King Arthur

The Druids and King Arthur PDF Author: Robin Melrose
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786460059
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
An exploration into the beliefs and origins of the Druids, this book examines the role the Druids may have played in the story of King Arthur and the founding of Britain. It explains how the Druids originated in eastern Europe around 850 B.C., bringing to early Britain a cult of an underworld deity, a belief in reincarnation, and a keen interest in astronomy. The work concludes that Arthur was originally a Druid cult figure and that the descendants of the Druids may have founded the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The research draws upon a number of sources, including medieval Welsh tales, the archaeology of Stonehenge's Salisbury Plain, the legends surrounding the founding of Britain, the cult of the Thracian Horseman, the oracle of Dodona, popular Arthurian mythology, and the basic principles of prehistoric astronomy.

Heroes and Heroism in British Fiction Since 1800

Heroes and Heroism in British Fiction Since 1800 PDF Author: Barbara Korte
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331933557X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This book is about the manifestations and explorations of the heroic in narrative literature since around 1800. It traces the most important stages of this representation but also includes strands that have been marginalised or silenced in a dominant masculine and higher-class framework - the studies include explorations of female versions of the heroic, and they consider working-class and ethnic perspectives. The chapters in this volume each focus on a prominent conjuncture of texts, histories and approaches to the heroic. Taken together, they present an overview of the ‘literary heroic’ in fiction since the late eighteenth century.

From Olympus to Camelot

From Olympus to Camelot PDF Author: David Leeming
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195143612
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
From stories suggested by the great cave paintings to the experiments by modern scientists, this is a sweeping and innovative look at the mythology of Europe. 21 illustrations.

Celtic Mythology

Celtic Mythology PDF Author: Q. L. Pearce
Publisher: Greenhaven Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1420509233
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
Introduce your readers to the mythology of the ancient Celts. This book describes how the Celtic myths came into being with particular focus on the myth of King Arthur. The book includes a family tree, a chart of gods and characters with brief descriptions and pronunciations, and a list of sources for further research.

War and Religion [3 volumes]

War and Religion [3 volumes] PDF Author: Jeffrey M. Shaw Ph.D.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1909

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Book Description
This three-volume reference provides a complete guide for readers investigating the crucial interplay between war and religion from ancient times until today, enabling a deeper understanding of the role of religious wars across cultures. Containing some 500 entries covering the interaction between war and religion from ancient times, the three-volume War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict provides students with an invaluable reference source for examining two of the most important phenomena impacting society today. This all-inclusive reference work will serve readers researching specific religious traditions, historical eras, wars, battles, or influential individuals across all time periods. The A–Z entries document ancient events and movements such as the First Crusade that began at the end of the 10th century as well as modern-day developments like ISIS and Al Qaeda. Subtopics throughout the encyclopedia include religious and military leaders or other key people, ideas, and weapons, and comprehensive examinations of each of the major religious traditions' views on war and violence are presented. The work also includes dozens of primary source documents—each introduced by a headnote—that enable readers to go directly to the source of information and better grasp its historical significance. The in-depth content of this set benefits high school and college students as well as scholars and general readers.

Mythology in the Middle Ages

Mythology in the Middle Ages PDF Author: Christopher R. Fee
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313027250
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Placing heroes from a wide range of medieval traditions shoulder to shoulder, this title provides the opportunity to examine what is common across medieval mythic, legendary, and folkloric traditions, as well as what seems unique. Myths of gods, legends of battles, and folktales of magic abound in the heroic narratives of the Middle Ages. Mythology in the Middle Ages: Heroic Tales of Monsters, Magic, and Might describes how Medieval heroes were developed from a variety of source materials: Early pagan gods become euhemerized through a Christian lens, and an older epic heroic sensibility was exchanged for a Christian typological and figural representation of saints. Most startlingly, the faces of Christian martyrs were refracted through a heroic lens in the battles between Christian standard-bearers and their opponents, who were at times explicitly described in demonic terms. The book treats readers to a fantastic adventure as author Christopher R. Fee guides them on the trail of some of the greatest heroes of medieval literature. Discussing the meanings of medieval mythology, legend, and folklore through a wide variety of fantastic episodes, themes, and motifs, the journey takes readers across centuries and through the mythic, legendary, and folkloric imaginations of different peoples. Coverage ranges from the Atlantic and Baltic coasts of Europe, south into the Holy Roman Empire, west through the Iberian peninsula, and into North Africa. From there, it is east to Byzantium, Russia, and even the far reaches of Persia.

Heads Will Roll

Heads Will Roll PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004222286
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
The decapitation motif recurs in nearly all medieval and early modern genres, from saints' lives and epics to comedies and romances, yet decollation is often little regarded, save as a marker of humanity (that is, as the moment mortality exits) or inhumanity (that is, as the moment the supernatural enters). However, as a seat of reason, wisdom, and even the soul, the head has long been afforded a special place in the body politic, even when separated from its body proper. Capitalizing upon the enduring fascination with decapitation in European culture, this collection examines--through a variety of critical lenses--the recurring "roles/rolls" of severed human heads in the medieval and early modern imagination. Contributors are Nicola Masciandaro, Mark Faulkner, Jay Paul Gates, Christine Cooper-Rompato, Dwayne Coleman, Mary Leech, Tina Boyer, Renée Ward, Andrew Fleck, Thomas Herron, Thea Cervone, and Asa Simon Mittman. Preface by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen.