Reddit mentions: The best folklore & mythology studies

Stock phrases, including "Once upon a time," were used by storytellers to let the audience know that they were about to hear a folktale, a matter of fiction. In general, western and northern Europeans told two types of stories - folktales and legends. Legends were to be believed, and folktales were the oral novels of the folk. Boundaries were often blurred so definitions are challenged by specifics, but the dichotomy is useful in classification.

The "once upon a time" open phrase indicated that there was no insistence that the story "actually happened" at any time. Similarly, these stories would end with a device to let people know the fictional story was at a close. "And they lived happily every after" is most familiar to modern audiences. I always liked the common Irish close: “Tá sé go máith, agus níl sé go dona” - "It is good and it isn't bad."

The following is text I used for my folklore classes, excerpted from my teaching manual, Introduction to Folklore:

>European folklorists, following the lead of the folk themselves, have long recognized two forms of oral tradition, Sagen and Märchen, legends and folktales. While there are many other forms of oral tradition, legends and folktales stand in opposition to one another, yet share a great deal. In reality, lines can blur.

>Legends – or Sagen as the profession often prefers – are generally short, single-episodic stories told chiefly in the daytime. More importantly, the teller intended the listener to believe the story. Legends often have horrible ending to underscore the story’s important message. A large number of them are, after all, typically meant to be instructive, to serve as warnings in some way. These types of stories are not necessarily long-lived. Their point is to reinforce and prove the legitimacy of a particular belief. Nonetheless, some legends take on a traditional character, can become multi-episodic, and migrate over considerable spans of time and space.

>Folktales – or Märchen, again using the German, technical term – are longer stories with more than one episode. They are restricted, in theory at least, to evening presentation. A folktale is not to be believed, taking place in a fantastic setting. The European folktale also requires a happy ending, the cliché of “happily ever after.” Any given folktale can be told with considerable variation, but they are traditional in basic form, and folklorists have spent decades tracing the history and distribution of these stories.

>A word here about the term “fairytale” is appropriate. At the end of the eighteenth century, various writers, most prominently the Grimm brothers, began publishing children’s stories based on folktales. These collections became extremely popular, particularly among the urban and increasingly literate emerging middle class as it found itself removed from the peasant soil that served as home to the stories. Fairytales often cause misunderstandings. In a culture that knows more about fairytales than Märchen, people assume that the folktale was intended for children. This is certainly not the case since the stories were often violent or sexual in ways thought inappropriate for children. Indeed, the telling of a folktale was usually delayed until the children had gone to bed. While fairytales provide the modern reader with the easiest access to the many stories that were once told internationally, one should always realize that they are removed from the primary inspiration. The original stories and their content provided serious entertainment for adults and they were part of an oral tradition, not something that was fossilized in writing.

>The evolution of published fairytales had a profound effect on the subject of fairies, elves, trolls, and similar entities. Because fairytales became the literary domain of children, many people – including later writers – assumed the same was true of the supernatural beings. In their original context, nothing could be further from the truth. These were not cute, diminutive creatures whose sole purpose was to delight children. They were powerful, dangerous, and capable of great harm. The European peasantry feared and respected them, and their stories underscore this, conveying in uncompromising terms the code of ethics and behavior that one must employ to survive an encounter with the dangerous world of magic and power.

>The definition proposed here for “fairytale” does not necessarily coincide with how people – and even some folklorists – use the term. Some scholars regard “fairytale” as appropriate for the more fantastic expressions of folktales as they were told by the folk. The reason why the term is not used in that capacity here is because the folk did not refer to these stories as fairytales and because the term implies a degree of innocence that is inappropriate; again, “fairytale” is most suitably reserved for the published children stories that gave literary expression to the adult oral fictions of the folk.

>Besides the legend and the folktale, there is also the folk ballad, a specialized form of oral tradition that, like the others, incorporated a wide range of beliefs. The ballad had roots in medieval Europe, combining narrative and song. The ballad usually focused on a single incident, and it almost always emphasizes action.

>Something also needs to be said here about myth. People use this term awkwardly. In a European context, myths tend to be the artificial constructs of ancient and Classical-era priests or literate people who sought to weave folk traditions into a comprehensive whole. The exercise often had political purposes, designed to provide diverse people with a single set of beliefs and stories. By reconciling similar traditions, the shared culture of these groups could be seen as more important than the differences, justifying the central rule of the king and his priests. Myth is also a way of organizing and reconciling folk traditions, which by their nature can be contradictory and highly localized. Myth tends, however, to make gods of supernatural beings, giving those powerful entities a status – for modern readers – similar to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God, even when this comparison is not justified. Of course, it is also important to point out that myths were stories that were told – and then written down – and they were different from religion itself. Many myths were simply the shared cultural inheritance of a group of people.

>In general, the word myth is best set aside when discussing more recent folk traditions, recognizing its proper status as a literary genre. Nonetheless, ancient documents recording myths can assist in understanding the history of various stories and beliefs. The authors of these texts were, after all, the first folklorists, and they were the only ones coming close to practicing the craft at the time.

>Some folklorists carelessly use the term myth to denote those legends that deal with a fantastic, remote time. This primal era saw the creation of many familiar things such as day and night, fire, animals, people, mountains, and all other aspects of the present world. Folklorists properly refer to these stories as etiological legends explaining the origin of things. Sometimes, however, people interchange etiological legends with the word myth. The problem with this is that “myth” can imply something that is inherently wrong, linked to “primitive” superstitious beliefs. When the term “myth” is used for the folklore of existing cultures or for the traditions that were viable only a generation or more ago, it can take on an insulting, derogatory tone. It is best to reserve the word “myth” for ancient and Classical-era texts.

A few pointers:

• Get yourself a copy of Peter Boghossian's A Manual for Creating Atheists and read it yourself. It's a good manual for teaching people how to talk to people of faith about their faith in a non-confrontational way using the socratic method. I liked the audiobook version. Gently challenge him on things he learns at church. Try to get him to explain what he's learned in his own words. Ask him if that makes sense, and so on.
  
• Science: get your kid interested in science, whether it be dinosaurs, astronomy, chemistry, electricity - something. If there's something he's already into, encourage it.
  
• Supplement his church with other mythologies. Take him to a mosque or synagogue. Talk about how different people have different beliefs. Read him Norse and Greek mythology before bedtime. Get him a book like C. Scott Littleton's Anthology of Mythology. It's got lots of pictures.
  
• Cosmos. If you have not seen it with him, you need to see it with him. Prepare to pause each episode when he has a question. Do your best to answer them and if you encounter something you don't know, be honest but follow up afterwards with a visit to wikipedia. You can get it on DVD as well as stream it on Hulu and Netflix, I think. If he likes science shows like that, there are plenty others folks here could recommend.
  
  One common theme here is this: teach him that it's important to value having as many true beliefs as possible. Instruct him on the importance of wanting to have good reasons or evidence for the things we believe. Part of this is the scientific method, but also a general desire for intellectual honesty comes into play here as well.
  
  You might also get some good suggestions are /r/atheistparents.
  
  
  

On the Roman side, you have the comedies of the author Plautus, which are actually adapted from Greek New Comedy. Greek New Comedy came around in the Hellenistic World, and was less of the raunchy fart jokes of Aristophanes (and is thus less fun), and more poking fun at social class. Menander is the only extant author we have of this type of comedy, but the Roman authors like Plautus translated some plays, and wrote others in the same tradition. These comedies are based on stock characters...the most popular of these is the "clever slave". My favorite of Plautus is Amphitryon, which mocks the parentage of Hercules...unfortunately, it's hard to find a good translation. Miles Gloriosus is also popular, and a fairly good translation is here.

Laughter in Rome was actually considered good luck in some instances, because it could divert the Evil Eye. For other instances of Roman laughter, check out satire in Juvenal and Martial. If you want to go earlier in the Greek world, there are a few lyric poets who make fun of people, such as Semonides.

I don't know about the eastern side of this, although I do know that tricksters such as those featured in the Chinese text Monkey were meant to be funny. It might at least give you a start for the east...wikipedia link here. It's a really fun read. Come to think of it, trickster tales from all sorts of cultures might help you...the book Trickster Makes This World.

It depends on what you're drawn to. Are you more interested in interpretation of story for your own personal growth? Or interpretation of films? Or are you looking to create stories?

The best books I know on this subject at least on interpretive myth include:

• Women who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes (sure it's about women's stories which can dissuade some younger men learning about this subject but it's seriously one of the best books on how to interpret a myth out there)
  
• The Hero Within by Carol S. Pearson. This is more if you're trying to find your own personal mythology for instance.
  
• The Water of Life by Michael Meade is tremendous. He does amazing events around the United States and gives good performances as well as talks and storytelling online via his non-profit Mosaic Voices.
  
• To learn more about interpretation and ways to interact with your unconscious, I'd recommend many of Robert A. Johnson's books specifically Inner Work however Transformations of Masculine Consciousness, He, She, We and Living with the Heavenly Goddess are good too depending on what topic you're interested in.
  
• For storytelling, I'd recommend the book Healing Hearts Communities which consists of a collection of stories which are appropriate to use for a variety of modern requirements. So you have stories talking about addiction or violence etc.
  
  In my experience, after Campbell people usually begin to drift toward what their personal myths are. So you have some people who get really into film and get caught on Vogler or Bonnet's work, others who want to go help returning veterans and end up getting really into Odysseus in America. Or people begin focusing on different cultures and religions and move from there.

There's loads of awesome Greek mythology.

Much of Greek myth is about the Gods squabbling, often through their human heroes.

So: a whirlwind tour through the most important characters and myths:

In the beginning was the Goddess Gaia, who was the Earth and primordial chaos. From this came Uranus and together they had children: the 12 Titans.

Cronus overthrew his father, castrating him and is one of the more important Titans.

Cronus, had several children by his consort, Rhea. However, there was a prophesy that Cronus would be overthrown by one of his sons. To stop this he ate all his children. One, however, was swapped by Rhea for a stone and raised in secret. That child was Zeus.

Once Zeus was grown he overthrew his father (as prophesied) and forced him to regurgitate the other children.

What followed was a war between the Titans and the new generation (the Olympians) which resulted in the Olympians, led by Zeus, to take their place at Mount Olympus and the Titans to be imprisoned.

The key players in Greek mythology are:

Zeus: king of the gods, god of thunder and also god of hospitality. Fond of boning mortals.
Hera: his wife. Jealous.
Athene: kick-ass goddess of wisdom and the noble arts of war. Athens was named after her. When she shows up you know things are going to go down and it's going to be awesome.
Ares: god of the war as well, but the bloodlust and the violent side.
Hades: god of the underworld.
Poseiden: god of the sea. Don't piss him off.
Hermes: messenger to the gods, also practical joker. (Like Loki, but less evil.)
Aphrodite: Goddess of love.

Some key mortals:

Helen: the face that launched a thousand ships.

Achilles: one of the greatest warriors in the Trojan wars, fought to get Helen back.

Odysseus: hero of the Odyssey, an epic about his ten year return to his wife, Penelope, from Troy after the Trojan wars. He manages to piss off Poseiden (got of the sea) and so gets shipwrecked. Athene takes pity on him and helps, and the final scene would make Quentin Tarantino proud.

Hercules: Son of Zeus and a mortal. He's given twelve tasks to complete, and is quite an archetypical "Zeus pissing around with mortals" story.

Oedipus: King of Thebes. His story is covered in the Theban trilogy, but the first part (Oedipus Rex) is best known. He (unwittingly) killed his father and (totally unknowingly) married his mother. I love the final play in the trilogy, which is Antigone.

Persephone: A story for why we have seasons. Also, a nice Hades story.

Daedalus and Icarus: A parable about pride. Beautifully told, though.

King Midas: Another parable about pride.

Perseus: Classic hero story. Has also been related to the story of Saint George.

Jason and the Golden Fleece: less familiar with this, but it's considered a classic.

Theseus: killed a minotaur (spoilers!) and pops up in other stories. Marries Ariadne.

Arachne: Shows how much of a dick the gods can be.

Also of note: Aesop's Fables. These feel quite like children's stories, but you may recognise the origin of several English idioms here.

Okay, this has been quite a shallow introduction (OH, ZEUS, OH ZEUS, I'VE LEFT SO MUCH OUT!!! SORRY TO EVERYONE WHERE I LEFT OUT YOUR FAVOURITE STORY!!!). Hopefully I've whet your appetite.

It's quite easy to dip in with one story or another. As you read more and more you'll find you get more and more of the context, but well written versions tend to be very good. I remember devouring this book (figuratively) many times as a child: The Orchard Book of Greek Myths

There are plenty of books on Gods and Goddesses with basic descriptions like this one, but I'm not sure of any from the perspective of occultism and invocation. I have to imagine there are though.

My understanding comes from teachers, study, and experience. Experience is the best teacher though as many mythological depictions miss the point or are difficult to understand. Like Aphrodite being a cheater, sure that's how her energy may manifest sometimes, she is pure attraction, but that's more an abuse of her power than it is her will. She is true divinity, pure and blameless at the highest level.

For study, I'd recommend astrology, or at least exploring the zodiac and planets. If you understand the elemental, zodiacal, and planetary energies, it's easy to see how these powers have manifested in various mythologies as the gods. It's a great system too in that no pantheon is necessary, you can just invoke/evoke the planetary and zodiacal consciousness' directly. Not that the system is better than a pantheon based one, every representative of an original power, be it god or planet, has it's own distinct flair (if only because of the angle at which it is viewed).

I study children's lit (yeah I'm that much of a kids book loser) so I won't actually enter, I have far too many book as it is and I'm moving soon. But I would love to share this http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1840221747 its a hardback edition of the complete Grimm's Fairy Tales. I think fairy tales are so important and magical, they are literally the foundation for children's literature! Its wonderful reading these magical stories and thinking about the huge number of stories they have inspired. Undertheradar89 gifted me Chris Colfer's The Wishing Spell a few months ago which is a modern fairy tale story, and takes a different look at the fairy tale and the characters. The originals are so dark and gorey, and full of the grotesque that children really do love. And me. I love it

Happy contesting everybody and happy national US Children's Book Week!

I think the spirits will help you learn to love yourself as you are during each moment of transition, not just the end result. We are a journey/ process oriented people. You must love yourself today if you want to love yourself tomorrow too. It's okay to not be everything you want to become right away. You have time and space to fly as high and far as you can imagine. <3

There have been powerful intersex and trans people throughout shamanistic history. One that comes to mind is the prophet who predicted the success of the the Lakota including the legendary warriors Red Cloud and Crazy Horse in a vision that became known as the-hundred-in-the-hands. So you will find you have a rich cultural tapestry to draw from when you spend a little time researching, these figures are everywhere in our history.

Inuit Stories of Being and Rebirth: Gender, Shamanism, and the Third Sex https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0887558305/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_k1.3Cb9DC9BNC

You'll have to forgive my loose understanding of the mythology of that region of the world - but would Icelandic Folklore fit into those themes as well?

There's a pretty good book (among many others I'm sure, there was another I tried to find that had more than just elves that I read awhile back but I can't seem to find it) that has a lot of short stories and introductions to the various types of folklore and legends of Icelandic mythology, which I think is in some way related to other mythologies of the Scandinavian region? Which should include celtic/irish/norse mythology as well?

I might be wrong (I'm a greek/roman myth guy, myself) but perhaps that book will give you good ideas anyways. "Hidden Folk" are a very popular Icelandic myth, in particular, hence the name of the book.

Trickster Makes the World by Lewis Hyde is a fabulous book about global trickster gods and he has a great section on Native American folklore as well as central and south american indigenous lore. Well worth a read.

I also snagged a book on Arctic Giants, which covers a lot of cannabalistic giants of arctic. Some cool gruesome stuff in that.

I have an older edition of Aleksandr Afanas'ev's "Russian Fairy Tales," which includes Baba Yaga stories and a lot of other interesting tales. Not sure if there is a difference between mine and what I linked to (i.e. updated items, etc.)

If you snag yourself a Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, you can find some really good items. I also tend to collect reference books, which can let you leapfrog to other books on the topic.

Mike Duncan's History of Rome podcast is very good.

Classical Mythology: Images and Insights is the textbook I used in a classical mythology course I took a couple years ago. You can get an older edition for very cheap.

I read Ancient Greece: A Very Short Introduction last week and can recommend it. There are a few other books in this series that you might check out as well, like Myth, The Roman Republic, The Roman Empire, Alexander the Great, Herodotus, etc. I'm reading the one on the Trojan War now and it's excellent.

You know what? I am absolutely convinced that you've already attempted to look up her origins, and have found multiple mentions of her being an Irish god. I'm willing to bet you have absolutely no need for me to provide you with sources, and are just clinging on to hope that I won't provide sources, just so you can somehow "win" the argument. But fuck it, this is a fantastic mythology full of beautiful writing, so I'll compile some links for my own personal use to share with others while also showing you here...

---

Her name is an Irish name, so that's a good place to start.

The Morrigan is a triple-deity, all three deities also being Irish. Babh (the Irish word for "crow"), Irish goddess Anu, and then Macha, another Irish word. One of the better books on the subject of the three would be this.

Her "race", for want of a better word, is that of the Tuatha dé Denann (more Irish words), and after a good 5 mins of searching I've found a few dozen references to them as being Irish, and not one suggesting otherwise.

To add to this, the only reason she is notable above any other god is her association with the Hercules of Irish mythology, Cú Chulainn (The Irish for "Hound of Chullainn). The most well known image of The Morrigan is that of her in crow form over his dead body, after previously warning him of his impending death. Not so much relevant to examining her origins, but just adding even more connections with Ireland to build on the sources you're pretending to need.

You want some more books to read? Try this, this, this, or these.

---

Now obviously these sources vary in their usefulness, I personally despise using Wikipedia as a source, but I'm not here to do your homework, that's what's convenient for me right now. What I've provided are multiple instances of The Morrigan being referred to as Irish, to the Irish etymology of her name, and the Irishness of other gods associated with her.

I could link to about 100 more books, a dozen more wikipedia entires, or thousands of online references of varying usefulness, all of which refer to her as an Irish goddess, but as I've already established, I am not offering contrarian opinions that differ from the accepted knowledge of scholars and regular Irish folk who were brought up on this stuff. That would be you, the one demanding sources for accepted knowledge while not providing anything to suggest otherwise.

I have no doubt that you will read these sources and become an expert on Irish mythology in the days to come. You are sincerely welcome.

Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries by Walter Evans-Wentz, who was a fascinating character in his own right.

Examines the beliefs in the Celtic regions of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, Cornwall and Britanny in regards to the fey at the very beginning of the 20th c.

Here's the table of contents:http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/ffcc/

The book is widely available online: the amazon cite includes a free version on kindle, project gutenberg also has it online.

It's a classic.

If you want a compendium of little people, fairies, gnomes etc. A Field Guide to the Little People is wonderful.

Katharine Brigg's An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, & Other Supernatural Creatures is another classic.

You must read at least one of R.J. Stewart's books on the subject of faery healing.

Here is a good beginner's book on OHG.

Here is an OHG-English dictionary in PDF form.

Germania is perhaps the greatest source we have for insight into the Germanic tribal religion.

Jacob Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, while controversial, provides a lot of insight into lesser-known Germanic deities.

Even post-conversion works like the Kinder- und Hausmärchen can help us understand the remnants of heathen belief in German culture.

Bit of an out-of-the-box suggestion but perhaps pick up a copy of https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Little-People/dp/0809044501 or something similar. The one I linked is full of descriptions of real world fey/faeries from European folklore, and each description usually includes some sort of short cautionary tale. You might be able to find online collections of such folklore if you search for stories about "the Little People" or "the Fair Folk."

Once you get a handle on how the stories tend to run (usually involving someone ignoring/following old superstitions and being punished/rewarded or making a deal with a fey and either keeping it or breaking it) it should become easier to come up with new ones on the fly, and gives you a much wider cast of oddball fey to pick from than usual DnD lore really gets into.

Hope this helps!

We have a lot of excellent (material book) already-published authors (Mike Dash, Roel Konijnendijk, Cassidy Percoco come immediately to mind, that is, /u/mikedash, /u/Iphikrates, and /u/mimicofmodes!), and a lot of brilliant flairs with books coming in the next year or two.

But I am confident I speak for every single AH community member when I say the place to start is:

• Ronald James, Introduction to Folklore: Traditional Studies in Europe and Elsewhere (2014)
  
  by the unbeatable, in fact unmatchable, /u/itsallfolklore.

I completely agree. It would rewrite our entire history of the human race. I grew up being taught that everything really kicked off for humanity with the discovery of agriculture in the fertile crescent.

After reading Grahams books and then countless hours of independent research, what I find most fascinating is the massive correlation between flood mythology.

I found this book about flood myths in a used bookstore a while back, and it is fascinating how prevalent flood mythology is all over the world.

If Graham was correct about the sudden and unexpected world wide flood, it would certainly account for all these myths. I also love to read how these myths speak of how they tried to survive the flood.

Many cultures speak of going to much higher ground to wait it out, while others ran to cave systems or "into the earth".

Another factor to the flood mythology lining up with Graham Hancocks research is the matter of the massive smoke plume created by a meteor breaking up across a massive ice sheet. These myths describe the blocking out of the sun, which in itself would be more than enough to really fuck up any well off civilization.

I've got a lot of ideas to discuss and bounce off people, which is why I'm so happy that other people are willing to discuss it here. I find that when I try to discuss this with someone not already exposed to these theories is very difficult as it really forces someone to completely reconsider everything they've been taught about the history of humanity.

Most of it is Slavic folklore and mythology.
Amazon has one English book especially about Slavic mythic creatures (don't own, don't know if it's good), you should find a lot of the monsters of The Witcher Series in it, though sometimes with a slightly different name.
Some other things, like the motive of the Wild Hunt are things that are elements in most European countries folklore. Wiki is a good start for things like that, because you find good sources on most articles.

There is a great deal of subjective evidence. When it is analyzed using the tools of comparativism, it becomes much stronger. Overwhelming, I dare say.

But there is objective evidence too. It's important that atheists never stop seeking it out. To that end, here are just a few of the books that I have read that I think every atheist should also read.

https://www.amazon.com/Varieties-Anomalous-Experience-Examining-Scientific/dp/1557986258

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Parapsychology-Harvey-J-Irwin/dp/0786430591

https://www.amazon.com/Extraordinary-Knowing-Science-Skepticism-Inexplicable/dp/0553382233

https://www.amazon.com/Outside-Gates-Science-Time-Paranormal/dp/1560259868

https://www.amazon.com/Mysticism-Evelyn-Underhill/dp/1463612354

https://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Faces-Collected-Joseph-Campbell/dp/1577315936

https://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Makes-This-World-Mischief/dp/0374532559

https://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Paranormal-George-P-Hansen/dp/1401000827

https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Goddess-Complete-Being-Hughes/dp/0571166040

Here are all the local Amazon links I could find:


amazon.co.uk

amazon.ca

amazon.com.au

amazon.in

amazon.de

amazon.it

amazon.es

amazon.com.br

amazon.nl

amazon.co.jp

Beep bloop. I'm a bot to convert Amazon ebook links to local Amazon sites.
I currently look here: amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca, amazon.com.au, amazon.in, amazon.com.mx, amazon.de, amazon.it, amazon.es, amazon.com.br, amazon.nl, amazon.co.jp, if you would like your local version of Amazon adding please contact my creator.

>This is a foundational text and deserves to be read.

I'll second this. The book contains a wealth of references to research that is hard to find otherwise - experimental results that science fails to acknowledge because it cannot explain them. The author comes surprisingly close to outlining the basis of a magickal system.

I'd like to add Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth and Art, for an analysis of trickster's many tales. If you know how to look, it's a good introduction to trickster magick.

And also Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal - a comparative theologian's fascinating excursion into pulp fiction weirdness, the magick of writing, and how to make a hypersigil.

None of these books are likely to appear in the occult section, but I've found them more useful in developing my understanding of magick than many books that address the subject directly.

For the fantasy bingo I looked for free japanese fantasy ebooks and found two collections of folk tales, not exactly what you asked for but I guess nontheless interesting for you:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00849UXS8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00848U9O2

Not analytical, but [The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0679733485/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_WeFzyb8P38Y07) and [Trickster Makes This World] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374532559/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_rgFzybHSHHMHP) are both pleasurable reads.

Have you read Trickster Makes This World (excerpt here? Great book on the use and meaning of Trickster stories.

http://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Makes-This-World-Mischief/dp/0374532559

This one's a great book for trickster gods across cultures: the Raven, Coyote, Odysseus, Hermes, Krishna, etc.

Naw, trump would’ve nuked Iran or NK or Puerto Rico by now if that was true.

The thing is, experts in trickster archetype scholarship (all 13 of us) know exactly what’s going on here. Things look bad now, but in the future a new and better world will come from all this bullshit.

https://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Makes-This-World-Mischief/dp/0374532559

Buy it on Amazon or your favorite online book retailer. 😉

I have a book I read to my son, called "the magic grinder".

In it, a dragon who seems to be very stoned gives Minnie mouse a magic grinder for saving him from a cave ceiling falling on him.

"turn the handle and say these words: grinder grinder help me please. You will know just what I need, and the grinder will give you whatever you want until you say the magic words golden grinder, stop and stay".

I want that.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0394825756?pc_redir=1396988992&robot_redir=1

Well, not a dozen books. Let's start with one, maybe?

https://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Makes-This-World-Mischief/dp/0374532559

Here!

Book by a flaired /r/AskHistorians member.

An elephant cleaning up litter.

/u/kratzalot, do you think that /u/rarelyserious will be less of a grumpasaurus when /u/dryan0 flies out to visit?

I'm reading Trickster Makes This World, I'll throw down all smarty-pants with yas.

> The Trickster's Skin

Ah, realized I got the name wrong :It's "Trickster Makes this World"
https://www.amazon.com/Trickster-Makes-This-World-Mischief/dp/0374532559

I'll look up Galveston :)

Yeah, GOT doesn't hold up in the later seasons when I think about it. Makes me sad.