Customer Reviews

Forests of the Vampires: Slavic Myth (Myth and Mankind)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is intended for those interested in old Slavic beliefs, and it is well illustrated with photos and artwork. The book begins with information on history and culture, then delves into gods and goddesses, nature spirits, demons, folktales, and sorcery. Most of these nature spirits are described as dangerous, which can be disappointing. This book is NOT about vampires, as these get just 2 pages. The book is generally more fun than academic. If it is your kind of thing, you should get it. You will be happy with the many illustrations.

First of all, the title is very misleading to provide wider appeal especially with the vampire lore trend bs. The book has very little dealings with vampire myth, but it focuses well on some areas of paganism and other things throughout eastern europe. A decent book and very much worth the price. If it will ever be re-printed, they should deffinately change the title and remove Vlad photo from the cover, a non-slav by the way, it shouldn't be there.

This book does a superb job of providing enjoyable as well as a pleasurable amount of varied Slavic myths.I have found this book to be interesting as well as intriging and just enjoyable to read. Although many people may comment on the title "Forests of The Vampire" I must warn you that this book is only brief on Vampires, but should not be downgraded because of this; The book still provides many other interesting myths and folktales that many would find interesting throughout the Slavic cultures.

Just like all other "Myth And Mankind" books this one does a great job of providing cultural and religious connections throughout World Cultures. As well the book works contains a good amount of historical refference and as well includes little facts that emphasize the importance as well as meaning that these myths had to their cultures.The book as well does a magnificent job of providing amazing pictures of actual historical items as well as pictures and paintings that lend to the historical as well as cultural aspects of the myths.

A very good book that can be read again and again; I highly recommend this book as well as the others books in the "Myth and Mankind" series.

This is a great look into the pre-Christian history of the Slavic people and the religion before and after the arrival of the Christians and how it molded itself around the new monotheistic tradition forced upon them, morphing it into an amalgamation of what some would call 'pagan' and Christian tradition.

It should be noted that this book is not greatly about vampires, so if that's what you're looking for then you came to the wrong place (but it is still a great collection of history and stories).

There is not much left of pre-Christian Slavic religions since most of it was methodically destroyed, and most of it was not written down (they say that Cyrillic was their first writing system, which was created by St. Cyril and St. Methodius. However, there have been some arguments of an older system, however this is inconclusive).

I would say this is a great book to read if you want to become better acquainted with your Slavic heritage and where some of the family traditions came from. It has beautiful images inside and helps to explain the gods/goddesses and folklore and how they influenced the artwork.

In conclusion, it's a great book and I totally recommend it.

This is the corrected title for my review, below.