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The Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings (Volume 14) (Mind Body Spirit Bibles) Paperback – Illustrated, March 3, 2009
| Brenda Rosen (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Additional Details
Fabulous animals, specters from the shadow world, nature spirits, and sacred beings: these are the monstrous, marvelous, and mythic creatures that have come down to us in folklore and legend. Some probably have their origins in reality; others spring completely from the imagination—and they are all here, in this stunningly illustrated bible. It’s rich in history and images, and international in scope, covering dragons and serpents; weird insects like the Aztec Itzpapalotl; zombies, golems, and banshees; the watery Undine; the Monkey King, Sun Wukong; and much, much more. A fascinating and informative work.
- Print length400 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherUnion Square & Co.
- Publication dateMarch 3, 2009
- Dimensions5.5 x 1.25 x 6.5 inches
- ISBN-101402765363
- ISBN-13978-1402765360
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Product details
- Publisher : Union Square & Co.; Illustrated edition (March 3, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 400 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1402765363
- ISBN-13 : 978-1402765360
- Item Weight : 1.38 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.5 x 1.25 x 6.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #45,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #16 in Mythology & Folklore Encyclopedias
- #39 in New Age Reference (Books)
- #102 in Folklore & Mythology Studies
- Customer Reviews:
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Top reviews from the United States
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-Covers a large range of mythical beasts
-The book goes into great detail about the "major" species. The "dragon" entries are fantastic. Describes Chinese dragons, in particular, in great detail. Also, the "vampire" entries are also very well done.
-Great book for anyone who is unfamiliar with mythical creatures. There will definitely be species that you have never heard of before.
-Wide breadth of species covered
-Full-page illustrations for some creatures
-High-quality, thick cardstock used for pages. Slight gloss. Durable.
-Very nicely covers the mythical beasts of Asia and Europe
-Goes into some very obscure creatures, such as Australian monsters
-Even includes beasts from the West, such as the Jackalope.
-Includes both humanoid and animal-like beasts.
Cons:
-The artwork is, indeed, a bit disappointing. The book contains colorful images that often fill the pages, but the sci-fi-esque artwork, the somewhat poor computer graphics, and the somewhat-off anatomy was displeasing. This was my biggest problem with the book.
-Native American and South American beings are marginalized and placed at the end of the book. I'm just putting this information out there for those of you who are particularly interested in figures such as Anasazi the Spider and the numerous spirit animals and shapeshifters of North and South America.
-If you are the kind of person who enjoys learning about mythical creatures from Wikipedia, and you've gone through as many of these articles as I have, you may be disappointed in the scope of this book. However, you will DEFINITELY learn something new, even about the species that you thought that you knew so well.
-It is a large small book, meaning that it is much smaller than, say, an encyclopedia, but great quality pages mean heavy pages.
Although this was a wonderful book, I can't help being disappointed as I found myself knowing most of the creatures presented in the book (and lacking interest in the too-weird species). I read extensively on mythology, and I think Wikipedia is the best thing that ever happened to the Internet community, so this is probably why I didn't find the information in this book to be as novel as I thought it would be. Definitely worth buying, though. I believe the original price of the books is approximately $14.42, and I got it for a few dollars less. High-quality printing, durable, and illustrated, definitely a nice addition to my bookshelf. I would recommend this book to readers and writers.
I personally would like to drop the rating maybe half a star, but I realize that this book is actually GREAT for anyone who is unfamiliar with mythical creatures. My biggest problem with the book has definitely been the artwork. It's far to sci-fi-esque, not quite fantasy-esque as it should be.
Now I'm not saying this is an inadequate book. It's FAR from that. There is a LOT of information in it's 400 pages, pretty good information and lots of nice pictures, and it will be very useful to an aspiring writer or the like, which was why I purchased it, or for someone who is just generally facinated by the subject. However, it's not very indepth, as I expected (only in some areas and on particular subjects, most entries only get a paragraph or two of description).
Before I purchased this book, I read through the reviews and was immediately convinced to buy it when I saw the mention of Hulder's in one of the reviews; I thought 'Finally! This one will have what I'm looking for!' Turns out Huldra was (once again) the only one of the folklore beings I was looking for that was mentioned in the pages.
While flipping through the pages, I saw various creatures that were given other sections with their counterparts from other regions. The Hulder/Huldra, however, only received two paragraphs. The Swedish fox-tailed counterpart, a Skogsrå, was mentioned in passing but not by name, and there was no mention of other variants, the Swedish Tallemaja (Pine tree Mary) or the Sami Ulda. No mention of the male counterpart, the Huldrekall. Also absent were the Nøkken/Nåcken, the Neck, Fossegrim, Strömkarl, the Nisser and the Tusser. Not even a whisper of a Lindworm. There was an absence of any Scandinavian figures in the Sacred Animals section as well, but various beings and Gods/Godesses were mentioned.
The way the book was divided into sections was nice IF you know what you're looking for before hand; otherwise it's a bit bothersome. Some of the creatures are categorized in odd sections, I never would have thought to look for Undines in the Nature Spirits section, under water elementals, as I've always associated them as Water Creatures (different section). Without the Index I would have been completely lost on what I tried to look up.
It would have been better if it had been Alphabetized as a whole like a dictionary or devided by Region. Or at the very least, it would have benifited from a seperate Index page in the back of the book that listed all the creatures A through Z or by Country of Origin with page numbers incase you needed quick access to ones from a specific region.
All that said, this is still a handy little book. And it will help give you ideas in the creative department or grab your intrest into looking more indepth into some of the creatures mentioned. I'm debating returning it, since I hate to waste money on something that doesn't have what I was specifically searching for, but I then I still kind of want to hang on to it as it may come in handy later.
- If anyone knows of a similar book, like an encyclopedia or dictionary of mythical creatures, with lots of entries on creatures of Scandinavian and Celtic folklore, drop me a comment and let me know! It would be greatly appreciated.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 15, 2019
Doch Stück für Stück...
Das Buch hier hat ein Softcover und umfast 400 Seiten, über alle möglichen bekannten und unbekannteren Kreaturen verschiedenster Mythologien und zieht gerne Verknüpfungen, wenn sich diese ähneln.
So handelt der Abschnitt über Vampire nicht nur von Graf Dracula, sondern auch von anderen vermeintlichen Blutsaugern, wie dem Jiang Shi.
- Leider tut es das alles auf Englisch und man sollte der Sprache schon mächtig sein, wenn man dieses Werk hier lesen möchte. -
Das Buch unterteilt sich in vier Kapitel, nebst einer kompakten Einführung: Fabelwesen, Kreaturen der Schattenwelt, Naturgeister und heilige Kreaturen, wo bspw. auf verschiedene Personen und Monster der Götterwelten eingegangen wird.
Jedes genannte Wesen wird meistens kurz, aber zufriedenstellend, umrissen und ich kann mich nicht an eine Doppelseite ohne mindestens ein zugehöriges Bild erinnern - was nicht heißt, dass jede Kreatur ein Bild bekommt, aber doch einige, sodass man sich buchstäblich ein besseres Bild von ihnen machen kann.
Man sollte keine Detailinformationen oder überbordende Aufarbeitungen der Mythen zu bestimmten Kreaturen erwarten, aber es reicht, um genug Interesse zu wecken, dass ich bei einigen doch nochmal googlen wollte, ob es nicht doch mehr Informationen zu denen gibt.
Sehr schön werden Ähnlichkeiten skiziert, also welche Kreaturen sich ähneln und worin sie sich unterscheiden. Experte der Mythologien wird man nicht, aber man wird einiges lernen - auch wenn man dadurch manche Filme und Serien nicht mehr so ernst nehmen kann (künstlerische Freiheit und so...). :)
Das ganze Design schreit jetzt nicht gerade "Premium!!!", aber ist doch ganz nett anzusehen... es steht halt der Inhalt im Vordergrund! ...würde es wohl trotzdem nicht auf Blickhöhe platzieren. xD
Für rund 12,50€ habe ich nichts bereut und bin sehr zufrieden mit diesem Werk, weshalb ich gerne die fünf Sterne vergebe!
(Wer nicht auf mythische Kreaturen steht, sollte das Buch natürlich nicht kaufen, aber wird wohl auch diese Rezension nicht lesen. ;D )
↓↓War ich hilfreich?
Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on March 7, 2020
Doch Stück für Stück...
Das Buch hier hat ein Softcover und umfast 400 Seiten, über alle möglichen bekannten und unbekannteren Kreaturen verschiedenster Mythologien und zieht gerne Verknüpfungen, wenn sich diese ähneln.
So handelt der Abschnitt über Vampire nicht nur von Graf Dracula, sondern auch von anderen vermeintlichen Blutsaugern, wie dem Jiang Shi.
- Leider tut es das alles auf Englisch und man sollte der Sprache schon mächtig sein, wenn man dieses Werk hier lesen möchte. -
Das Buch unterteilt sich in vier Kapitel, nebst einer kompakten Einführung: Fabelwesen, Kreaturen der Schattenwelt, Naturgeister und heilige Kreaturen, wo bspw. auf verschiedene Personen und Monster der Götterwelten eingegangen wird.
Jedes genannte Wesen wird meistens kurz, aber zufriedenstellend, umrissen und ich kann mich nicht an eine Doppelseite ohne mindestens ein zugehöriges Bild erinnern - was nicht heißt, dass jede Kreatur ein Bild bekommt, aber doch einige, sodass man sich buchstäblich ein besseres Bild von ihnen machen kann.
Man sollte keine Detailinformationen oder überbordende Aufarbeitungen der Mythen zu bestimmten Kreaturen erwarten, aber es reicht, um genug Interesse zu wecken, dass ich bei einigen doch nochmal googlen wollte, ob es nicht doch mehr Informationen zu denen gibt.
Sehr schön werden Ähnlichkeiten skiziert, also welche Kreaturen sich ähneln und worin sie sich unterscheiden. Experte der Mythologien wird man nicht, aber man wird einiges lernen - auch wenn man dadurch manche Filme und Serien nicht mehr so ernst nehmen kann (künstlerische Freiheit und so...). :)
Das ganze Design schreit jetzt nicht gerade "Premium!!!", aber ist doch ganz nett anzusehen... es steht halt der Inhalt im Vordergrund! ...würde es wohl trotzdem nicht auf Blickhöhe platzieren. xD
Für rund 12,50€ habe ich nichts bereut und bin sehr zufrieden mit diesem Werk, weshalb ich gerne die fünf Sterne vergebe!
(Wer nicht auf mythische Kreaturen steht, sollte das Buch natürlich nicht kaufen, aber wird wohl auch diese Rezension nicht lesen. ;D )
↓↓War ich hilfreich?












