Customer Reviews

Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Books of this type are nothing new. There are probably dozens of encyclopedia-style texts out there dealing with magical creatures and mythical beings, but this one is easily one of the more enjoyable volumes I've had the pleasure of reading. As has been pointed out in another review, this is not a book for those who are longing for visuals over text. This is not one of Froud's Fairy books or one of the Gnome texts. As fun as those books are, there is a heavy if not predominate focus on their original illustrations. Carol Rose's book is focused instead on textual descriptions and summaries. There are plenty of great illustrations in the book, mostly woodcuts from Rose's own private collection, but these are not the key focus of the book. But I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a good, searchable reference guide to creatures of myth and magic.

Carol Rose has done it again! The companion to her much-acclaimed Spirits, Faeries, Gnomes, and Goblins: an Encyclopedia of the Little People, Giants, Monsters, and Dragons provides the same thorough lexicon of the fantastic. More of less everything her previous book left out (ie. the large mythical creatures) that I complained about in my review of the said book, this book covers. Got a question on Qanekelak? Wondering about Wendigo? Tired of asking about Asipatra? Just plain curious about the Cockatrice? Well this well-documented book provides all the answers to the questions you might ask (and even answers to wuestions you might NOT have asked).

Not only does it include the traditional monsters, Griffins, Dragons, Ettins, etc. but it also includes folklore monsters from the American Old West (Fearsome Critters). Also, some of the more popularized monsters like Werewolves and vampires are carefully restrained within the pages of this book.

Anyone who's had bad experiences with so-called encyclopedias of beasts-that-aren't, need not fear this book. It is not, repeat, NOT a re-telling of old folktales. This book states the physical description of each creature, in a clear, concise manner, and goes about with helpful information about it. If your trying to find their countries of origin, simply turn to the back for a thorogh cross-index of all the creatures.

So why does it recieve four-stars from me? The artwork is sub-par. Rather than original pictures, which, I admit, can rapidly become tacky, she has chosen to reprint old drawings and wood-prints from ancient texts and her private collection. Not that I'm against old-school pictures, but I prefer a more modern-touch. Maybe I'm just being picky. Before this book, I had just purchased a Monster Manual, mistakenly believing that it was a serious encyclopedia of monsters. Carol Rose's book certainly throws the Dungeons and Dragons book on their tails in the way of sheer informative value, but falls rather short in the visual department.

This is a well written book, which focuses on just about every monster from ancient history to modern times - and from just about every culture from the Far East to the Americas. On a few of the more odd or unusual entries there is a short synopsis of the specific legend associated with it, or an explanation of the creature's probable origins - for instance, St. Christopher, who is sometimes depicted as a giant with a dog's head got that way because of a spelling error in the early church - he was designated as a "Canine" rather than a "Canaanite". These and other facts are sure to entertain and delight anyone looking into monsters and the like.

This book will not entertain; instead, it is like manna from heaven for anyone taking their research into the mythical beasts seriously.

A GIANT of a volume, this encyclopedia offers exactly what the title suggests - a refreshing change from some other books claiming to offer reference material.

All the monsters are listed alphabetically. Furthermore, everything is cross-referenced several times over. Want to find mythological beasts on regional basis? Or based on the type of monster? This is your book. One of the best parts is the bibliography section, should you wish to follow in the footsteps of the author and expand your reserach.

Hats off to the exhaustive research, but thumbs down for lack of elaboration in some instances. Most of the information acts merely as a pointer to the right direction, the extracts of folklore, legend and myth are very lean indeed. This is understandable for an encyclopedia - the book could have spanned several volumes if the author had decided to include more material.

I would strongly recommend this title as the best reference guide of it's kind.

This is one for both the scholar who needs a quick reference and the casual enthusiast looking to impress friends with mythical trivia (not that many people have friends who are so easily impressed).

If you have any interest, academic or casual, in the mythical beasts of yore, I highly recommend Rose's encyclopedias (this, and the "sequel," which contains more benign beings). It's fascinating to see icons from ancient Mesopotamian myth, Japanese legend, Native American religion and contemporary American folklore all on the same page.

In addition to thorough explanations of the origins and significance of each beastie, Rose goes one step further by explaining parallels to other cultural icons, common heritages and even manifestations in modern popular culture (for instance, there are numerous entries about creatures from J.R.R. Tolkien's world, which, while not strictly mythical themselves, do draw their inspiration from real-world mythology).

There are a number of similar cyclopedic works available, but this one differs from the masses in that it is both thoroughly academic (unlike many of the recent pop-culture anthologies), -and- thoroughly enjoyable. Highly recommended.

Much like her earlier written Encyclopedia this one once again hits the nail right on the head, giving great refference to thousands of mythological beings at one's fingertips. From the Greek Titans to American Indian tribal spirits, from nursery bogies to humorous antiquities of history this book has it all. A great smorgasbord of the monsters and deiteis of almost every civilization on Earth all convienintly located in one direct and enjoyable resource is both amazing and extreemly entertaining. This book is one that can be both read continously page to page or simply as a refference either way it is fun and interesting to turn from page to page from Appolyon to Garm to Scylla to Baba Yaga and to any other entity that ruminates in these pages of this glorious encylopedia.

I would highly recomend getting her first encylopedia "Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia" as well as looking at such books as "Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 764", "The Book of Fabulous Beasts", "On Monsters and Marvels", and "The Book of Imaginary Beings". although all these books are slightly more informational and less refference and encyclopedia like they are just as enjoyable and do a great job on further investigating monsters and myth.

I was surprised with the extensive amount of listings within the book. There is a lot of otherwise hard to find information. I would have given this book 5 stars if it weren't for one thing; there is no index. A book like this should really contain an index for those looking for particular traits, or words within a creature's definition. However there are listings in the back based on different characteristics it is not as exhaustive or all around helpful as a simple index would be. Don't get me wrong though, this book is still well worth the purchase. Besides you can search through the book for keywords on this webpage by clicking "Search Inside".

I enjoyed this book immensely, but have one issue. I have to be skeptical as to the accuracy of many of the entries because the few entries about which I know something are very badly wrong. I refer to the various entries for creatures from the mythology of J.R.R. Tolkien. Every single one of these entries is wrong in several obvious (to Tolkien fans) ways.

An example: the entry for Ents includes the following:

"...at the end of the Second Age of the Sun the Entwives and Entings were suddenly no more when the Orcs destroyed their gardens and rampaged through the forest with their steel weapons. The Ents' wrath was terrible to behold, and they marched on Isengard fortress and tore it to pieces and destroyed the Orcish forces completely. But with the loss of the Entwives and Entings their lives changed, and slowly they dwindled, peacefully living in the Entwood."

This is wrong at virtually every point. There was no "Second Age of the Sun" - I've no idea where the author got the "of the Sun" bit, but I've never seen it in any of Tolkien's works. He wrote of three ages - the First Age, Second Age, and Third Age (the Fourth Age started after the War of the Ring). No "of the Sun". The Entwives did not disappear due to Orcs' rampages - they wandered off looking for better places to garden. The Ents did indeed attack Isengard, but it had nothing to do with the Entwives. They attacked it, at Treebeard's urging, because of the treachery of Saruman. They didn't destroy any Orcish forces completely - they routed those that were in Isengard, but plenty remained to fight in the War of the Ring. They did, indeed, live in the Entwood (at the time of The Lord Of The Rings) but, again, it had nothing to do with the disappearance of the Entwives - and I wouldn't call it 'peacefully', either, since it was from the Entwood that they launched their assault on Isengard.

I could point out similar errors in virtually every entry on Tolkien's creations. If the author is so blatantly wrong on such simple to verify facts, I am concerned at the accuracy in other areas about which I know far less.

Carol Rose has produced an amazing book with loads of fun information, however, it is an encyclopedia as it says. Although very helpful, it can be a tedious read at times.

This book is a pretty good reference for Dragons, Monsters, and Folklore. I would recommend to a serious studier any day. :-)