The Bathhouse at Midnight

The Bathhouse at Midnight PDF Author: William Francis Ryan
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271019673
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description
The title of this book refers to the classic time and place for magic, witchcraft, and divination in Russia. The Bathhouse at Midnight, by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, surveys all forms of magic, both learned and popular, in Russia from the fifth to the eighteenth century. While no book on the subject could be exhaustive, The Bathhouse at Midnight does describe and assess all the literary sources of magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy, and divination from Kiev Rus and Imperial Russia, and to some extent Ukraine and Belorussia. Where possible, Ryan identifies the sources of the texts (usually Greek, Arabic, or West European) and makes parallels to other cultures, ranging from classical antiquity to Finnic. He finds that Russia shares most of its magic and divination with the rest of Europe. Subjects covered include the Evil Eye, the Number of the Beast, omens, dreams, talismans and amulets, plants, gemstones, and other materials thought to possess magic properties. The first chapter gives a historical overview, and the final chapter summarizes the political, religious, and legal aspects of the history of magic in Russia. The author also provides translations of some key texts. The Bathhouse at Midnight will be invaluable for anyone&—student, teacher, or general reader&—with an interest in Russia, magic, or the occult. It is unique in its field and is set to become the definitive study of Russian magic.

The Bathhouse at Midnight

The Bathhouse at Midnight PDF Author: William Francis Ryan
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 9780271019673
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Get Book

Book Description
The title of this book refers to the classic time and place for magic, witchcraft, and divination in Russia. The Bathhouse at Midnight, by one of the world's foremost experts on the subject, surveys all forms of magic, both learned and popular, in Russia from the fifth to the eighteenth century. While no book on the subject could be exhaustive, The Bathhouse at Midnight does describe and assess all the literary sources of magic, witchcraft, astrology, alchemy, and divination from Kiev Rus and Imperial Russia, and to some extent Ukraine and Belorussia. Where possible, Ryan identifies the sources of the texts (usually Greek, Arabic, or West European) and makes parallels to other cultures, ranging from classical antiquity to Finnic. He finds that Russia shares most of its magic and divination with the rest of Europe. Subjects covered include the Evil Eye, the Number of the Beast, omens, dreams, talismans and amulets, plants, gemstones, and other materials thought to possess magic properties. The first chapter gives a historical overview, and the final chapter summarizes the political, religious, and legal aspects of the history of magic in Russia. The author also provides translations of some key texts. The Bathhouse at Midnight will be invaluable for anyone&—student, teacher, or general reader&—with an interest in Russia, magic, or the occult. It is unique in its field and is set to become the definitive study of Russian magic.

Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods

Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods PDF Author: T.D. Kokoszka
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
ISBN: 1803412860
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
T.D. Kokoszka grew up in Texas with a Jewish mother and a Polish-American father. While he was aware of roots going back to Eastern Europe from both families, he found it hard to learn very much about them. He knew that Polish people would whack one another with palm leaves around Easter, and he knew that his great-grandmother purportedly believed in forest spirits known as borowy. However, it wasn't until he was in his teens that he became vaguely aware of an ancient people known as the Slavs who gave rise to the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovakian, Slovene, and Czech languages. It quickly became clear to him that this was a family of cultures currently under-represented in popular culture, and even in western scholarship. Not simply a regurgitation of scholarship from the Soviet period - and presenting new analyses by using previously neglected resources - Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods offers one of the most painstaking scholarly reconstructions of Slavic paganism. These new resources include not only an overview of folklore from many different Slavic countries but also comparisons with Ossetian culture and Mordvin culture, as well as a series of Slavic folktales that Kokoszka analyzes in depth, often making the case that the narratives involved are mythological and shockingly ancient. Readers will recognize many European folktale types and possibly learn to look at these folktales differently after reading this book.

Siberia

Siberia PDF Author: Janet M. Hartley
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300206178
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Larger in area than the United States and Europe combined, Siberia is a land of extremes, not merely in terms of climate and expanse, but in the many kinds of lives its population has led over the course of four centuries. Janet M. Hartley explores the history of this vast Russian wasteland—whose very name is a common euphemism for remote bleakness and exile—through the lives of the people who settled there, either willingly, desperately, or as prisoners condemned to exile or forced labor in mines or the gulag. From the Cossack adventurers’ first incursions into “Sibir” in the late sixteenth century to the exiled criminals and political prisoners of the Soviet era to present-day impoverished Russians and entrepreneurs seeking opportunities in the oil-rich north, Hartley’s comprehensive history offers a vibrant, profoundly human account of Siberia’s development. One of the world’s most inhospitable regions is humanized through personal narratives and colorful case studies as ordinary—and extraordinary—everyday life in “the nothingness” is presented in rich and fascinating detail.

A Devil's Vaudeville

A Devil's Vaudeville PDF Author: William J. Leatherbarrow
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810120496
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
A study of the 'demonic markers' that run throughout Dostoevsky's fiction, this also explores the narrative and generic implications of the way Dostoevsky inscribed the demonic in his fictional works - implications that point to a new understanding of familiar concepts in the work of this Russian master.

Without the Banya We Would Perish

Without the Banya We Would Perish PDF Author: Ethan Pollock
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199911959
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
When so much in Russia has changed, the banya remains. For over one thousand years Russians of every economic class, political party, and social strata have treated bathing as a communal activity integrating personal hygiene and public health with rituals, relaxation, conversations, drinking, political intrigue, business, and sex. Communal steam baths have survived the Mongols, Peter the Great, and Soviet communism and remain a central and unifying national custom. Combining the ancient elements of earth, water, and fire, the banya paradoxically cleans bodies and spreads disease, purifies and defiles, creates community and underscores difference. Here, Ethan Pollock tells the history of this ubiquitous and enduring institution. He explores the bathhouse's role in Russian identity, following public figures (from Catherine the Great to Rasputin to Putin), writers (such as Chekhov and Dostoevsky), foreigners (including Mark Twain and Casanova), and countless other men and women into the banya to discover the meanings they have found there. The story comes up to the present, exploring the continued importance of banyas in Russia and their newfound popularity in cities across the globe. Drawing on sources as diverse as ancient chronicles, government reports, medical books, and popular culture, Pollock shows how the banya has persisted, adapted, and flourished in the everyday lives of Russians throughout wars, political ruptures, modernization, and urbanization. Through the communal bathhouse, Without the Banya We Would Perish provides a unique perspective on the history of the Russian people.

Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic

Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic PDF Author:
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271042419
Category : Magic
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description


Other Worlds

Other Worlds PDF Author: Teffi
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681375397
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
Stories about the occult, folk religions, superstition, and spiritual customs in Russia by one of the most essential twentieth-century writers of short fiction and essays. Though best known for her comic and satirical sketches of pre-Revolutionary Russia, Teffi was a writer of great range and human sympathy. The stories on otherworldly themes in this collection are some of her finest and most profound, displaying the acute psychological sensitivity beneath her characteristic wit and surface brilliance. Other Worlds presents stories from across the whole of Teffi’s long career, from her early days as a literary celebrity in Moscow to her post-Revolutionary years as an émigré in Paris. In the early story “A Quiet Backwater,” a laundress gives a long disquisition on the name days of the flora and fauna and on the Feast of the Holy Ghost, a day on which “no one dairnst disturb the earth.” The story “Wild Evening” is about the fear of the unknown; “The Kind That Walk,” a penetrating study of antisemitism and of xenophobia; and “Baba Yaga,” about the archetypal Russian witch and her longing for wildness and freedom. Teffi traces the persistent influence of the ancient Slavic gods in superstitions and customs, and the deep connection of the supernatural to everyday life in the provinces. In “Volya,” the autobiographical final story, the power and pain of Baba Yaga is Teffi’s own.

The Winter of the Witch

The Winter of the Witch PDF Author: Katherine Arden
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 1101886005
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Following their adventures in The Bear and the Nightingale and The Girl in the Tower, Vasya and Morozko return in this stunning conclusion to the bestselling Winternight Trilogy, battling enemies mortal and magical to save both Russias, the seen and the unseen. “A tale both intimate and epic, featuring a heroine whose harrowing and wondrous journey culminates in an emotionally resonant finale.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF THE DECADE Vasilisa Petrovna is an unforgettable heroine determined to forge her own path. Her gifts and her courage have drawn the attention of Morozko, the winter-king, but it is too soon to know if this connection will prove a blessing or a curse. Now Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers—and for someone to blame. Vasya finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself as she desperately tries to save Russia, Morozko, and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all. Praise for The Winter of the Witch “Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy isn’t just good—it’s hug-to-your-chest, straight-to-the-favorites-shelf, reread-immediately good, and each book just gets better. The Winter of the Witch plunges us back to fourteenth-century Moscow, where old gods and new vie for the soul of Russia and fate rests on a witch girl’s slender shoulders. Prepare to have your heart ripped out, loaned back to you full of snow and magic, and ripped out some more.”—Laini Taylor “Luxuriously detailed yet briskly suspenseful . . . a striking literary fantasy informed by Arden’s deep knowledge.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Midnight Reader

Midnight Reader PDF Author: Jeff Funk
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781478339090
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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Book Description
Midnight Reader (Twelve Erotic Tales) is the complete and unabridged collection of the first four books of the Midnight Reader series. Bad Boy. He's hot and knows it. In the first story, "Sex in the Streets," a twenty-something skateboarder punk encounters a forty-year-old shy guy who has a few tricks of his own to teach. Richard and Jim are workout buddies home on summer break, and tonight they're going to meet up with Jim's other buddy. Greg just got a new dorm roommate who's so handsome that Greg can't stop fantasizing about kissing this whiskery stud. Curious. Men have animal urges and sometimes they're looking for action, even if it's with another man. First a college boy with a fetish for sniffing jockstraps learns that he's not the only frat brother who's into dudes. A straight construction worker with a high sex drive gets seduced by Jake in "Leaving My Mark." A convention in Washington, D.C. brings together a pair of young businessmen who find pleasures at night in the city. Rascal. Some men are rascals and they're getting it on at every turn. At the leather bar, while the guys' shenanigans on stage are raising hell, an out-of-town stud winds up in some trouble of his own in "Den of Heathen Desires." It's blackout night at the bathhouse and passion awaits in room sixty-nine at the end of the hallway. Then the country boys are at it again at the Rusty Screw jeans and leather bar enjoying each other's hospitality. Stranger. For men who desire men, nothing matches the heat of a quick encounter with a stranger. Eric finds lust in the airport terminal in Miami before meeting an exotic hunk in Nicaragua. On a camping trip, a male couple discovers that they're not alone; someone is watching from the woods. Ahoy! Set sail on a cruise where desires between men take hold on ship and shore. Twelve o'clock. Twelve erotic tales intended for mature readers. LARGE PRINT EDITION: printed in 20 pt Garamond.

The Snow Maiden and Other Russian Tales

The Snow Maiden and Other Russian Tales PDF Author: Bonnie Marshall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313069948
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
In this delightful collection, you'll find more than 30 Russian tales—animal tales, fairy tales, tales of everyday life, and tales of spirits and the supernatural. You'll discover new renditions of familiar and beloved tales, as well as a number of obscure spirit tales, which were officially ignored by the Soviets. There are tales for all ages and tastes—funny stories, scary stories, and stories to make you think. In addition you'll find a fascinating overview of the country and its history, activity ideas and recipes, color photographs, and a list of recommended reading. An outstanding resource for educators, storytellers, and general readers, this is an essential addition to the folklore shelf in school and public libraries. Grades K-12.