The Medieval Myths [Paperback]

Norma Lorre Goodrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0452011280 | ISBN-13: 978-0452011281

Offering nine brilliant readings of the great myths of the world, from Beowulf to The Cid, this is the first collection to compare national heroes at a time when their cultures were emerging from barbarism into civilization, demonstrating how their reverberations have deeply affected the ideals of the nations from which they came.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Plume (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452011280
• ISBN-13: 978-0452011281
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Making a mockery of medieval myths, June 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Medieval Myths (Paperback)

I am a professor of medieval literature, and have to say as a professional, that this book is just plain awful. It reduces huge epic stories, most originally composed in poetic form, to brief prose tales. Goodrich's word choices are poor, as are her deciions about which selections to "keep" and which ones to delete. Even seemingly small changes cause students problems in years to come. For instance, instead of using the standard English name for the great Frankish king (it is a translation, after all), that is Charlemagne, she translates the name awkwardly as "Carlemagne." Similarly, Roland is "Rollanz," Gueres is "Guenes," etc. These odd spelling choices make research difficult for students. Unfortunately, this book is completely worthless, and may even do damage if people read it and learn to hate medieval literature.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is overrated., December 12, 2000

By 

Derrick John (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Medieval Myths (Paperback)

Even though there were some interesting points in this book, it really just put me to sleep. Overall, this book is boring, and I couldn't even finish it. I'm sure there are some more interesting books about medieval myths that I would suggest people read. I gave this book a 2 star because 1 star means that I through it away.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre Book on Medieval Myths, October 11, 2000

By 

Jennifer Messer (Rock Springs, Wyoming United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Medieval Myths (Paperback)

This book was the only text used in my Medievial Myth class, and while I was at first very excited to read this compilation it soon became a burden. Goodrich has lofty aims - to bring the origional texts to the reader in her own way with a minimum of abridgement and interference. Unfortuntally the text through the whole book is just confusing. The stroy of Peredur, a distant begening of the Aurthur Legends, is so disjointed as to be unreadable. Stories are also in modern language and story form, so although Beowulf was originally a poem, it is not in this translation. It was very dissapointing to have such high hopes for a valid littery work only to be left confused by the translated text. A better work is H.A. Guerber's Middle Ages from the Myths and Legends Collection. At least that work mixes coherent modern story with noted original translation to bring home the point.