When a terrible witch vows to eat her for supper, a little girl escapes with the help of a mirror and comb given to her by the witch's cat and dog.

    "An ideal complement to Native American and Texas studies..." Booklist

    Illustrated with visual artifacts of the period. With the long-awaited publication of this book, we have for the first time in any modern literary form one of the most vital and important of ancient myths: that of Inanna, the world's first goddess of recorded history and the beloved deity of the ancient Sumerians.The stories and hymns of Inanna (known to the Semites as Ishtar) are inscribed on clay tablets which date back to 2,000 B.C. Over the past forty years, these cuneiform tablets have gradually been restored and deciphered by a small group of international scholars. In this groundbreaking book, Samuel Noah Kramer, the preeminent living expert on Sumer, and Diane Wolkstein, a gifted storyteller and folklorist, have retranslated, ordered, and combined the fragmented pieces of the Cycle of Inanna into a unified whole that presents for the first time an authentic portrait of the goddess from her adolescence to her completed womanhood and godship. We see Inanna in all her aspects: as girl, lover, wife, seeker, decision maker, ruler; we witness the Queen of Heaven and Earth as the voluptuous center and source of all fertile power and the unequaled goddess of love.Illustrated throughout with cylinder seals and other artifacts of the period, the beautifully rendered images guide the reader through Inanna's realm on a journey parallel to the one evoked by the text. And the carefully wrought commentaries providing an historical overview, textual interpretations, and aannotations on the art at once explicate and amplify the power, wonder, and mystery embedded in these ancient tales.Inanna--the world's first love story, two thousand years older than the Bible--is tender, erotic, frightening, and compassionate. It is a compelling myth that is timely in its rediscovery."A great masterpiece of universal literature."--Mircea Eliade

    Here, collected in one volume, are tales and legends that range from the misty dawn of Gaelic history and the triumph of St Patrick to the Ireland of the present day - tales as beautiful, mystical, and enchanting as the ancient land itself.

    Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

    He was banished from the Sky World for this mother's disobedience and bore a mysterious scar on his face, the symbol of the Sun's disapproval. As Star Boy grew, he came to love the chief's daughter, and it was she who helped him find the courage to journey to the Sky World and make peace with the Sun. The Sun not only lifted the scar but sent Star Boy back to the world with the sacred knowledge of the Sun Dance, a ceremony of thanks for the Creator's blessing.

    But until Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, little attention had been paid to the ways in which the writers and collectors of tales used traditional forms and genres in order to shape children's lives - their behavior, values, and relationship to society. As Jack Zipes convincingly shows, fairy tales have always been a powerful discourse, capable of being used to shape or destabilize attitudes and behavior within culture.For this new edition, the author has revised the work throughout and added a new introduction bringing this classic title up to date.

    Drawn from sources as diverse as Morocco and India, Spain and Eastern Europe, Babylon and Egypt, the stories are characterized by their infusion of traditional Jewish characters with the archetypal forms found in all fairy tales, or by their treatment of Jewish religious themes. The book combines the playfulness of fairy tales with the author's depth of knowledge of the historical origins of the tales. Throughout one can find the quests and riddles of the traditional fairy tale along with the divine intervention that characterizes the Jewish fairy tale.

    "Brilliant, vivid, entertaining."--R. D. Laing

    

    This unrivaled introduction to megalithic science, earth mysteries, and sacred geometry was expanded and updated in The New View Over Atlantis in 1983. Now available in a fresh new package this classic, seminal work offers an impressive body of evidence and arguments to support the theory that at one time, many thousands of years ago, there was a worldwide, highly sophisticated civilization that Plato referred to as Atlantis. Michell, one of the premier esoteric writers of the 20th century, reveals that ancient stone monuments and earthworks found around the globe are not randomly strewn, but are a well-executed system of psychic centers connected worldwide and used by the people of Atlantis. Michell also demonstrates the significant modern discovery of "leys," a mysterious network of straight lines that link the ancient places around the world. He carefully and thoroughly documents the research that points to these ancient sites as places of high magic.

    This is the classic that ushered in so many imitators, imitators who did not get "it." "It" is slack, the desiderata that cannot be desired and is only attainable through "Bob," the evil god/male model who founded the Church of the SubGenius without bothering to "exist." If you read this holy book properly, you will learn to "pull the wool over your own eyes." While this volume may seem hilarious, it's also an incredibly adept deconstruction of religion in general and the human impulse to believe in and follow anyone who promises to give their lives meaning and structure. Plus, it's the only place to find the information you need to survive when the bad alien gods come out of the sky to kill, enslave, and entertain us. If you don't already have a copy, then hand in your hipness ID card and hang your head in shame.

    Includes the well-known tales as well as less familiar ones such as "The Gardener and the Squire," "The Story of a Mother," "In a Thousand Years Time," and "The Shadow."

    

    The right to entry to this haven was also seen in corporeal terms. The practice of abstemiousness, self-inflicted torture, even the courting of humiliation could trigger visions of beatitude, of the longed-for paradise. In this extraordinary and often astounding book, Professor Camporesi traces these experiences back to various documents across the centuries and explores the juxtaposition of medicine and sorcery, cookery and surgery, pharmacy and alchemy. He opens the window on a fascinating and colourful, if at times violent, world: of levitating and gyrating saints, gardens full of candied fruits and crystalline fountains, amazing exorcisms and arcane medical practices.

    

    11, 1950 under the title, The Rider on the Pale Horse.

    Sampling virtually all of the old-time styles within the musical traditions still extant in north Georgia, Folk Visions and Voices is a collection of eighty-two songs and instrumentals, enhanced by photographs, illustrations, biographical sketches of performers, and examples of their narratives, sermons, tales, and reminiscences.

    Mrs. Graydon tells of the social life of the old days, Christmas festivities, summer days on the beach at Edingsville', the fighting of duels on "the Sands." She takes the reader on a bird-watching tour of the Island and on a night hunt for sea turtle eggs. She tells of the development of modern Edisto and its growth as a favorite vacation spot--a development in which "Edisto changes, but somehow remains the same."

    Stunning, full-color illustrations; index; map; and a guide to symbolism in the stories.

    From Barry Hill, north of Dundee, to the Foret de Paimpont in Brittany, the visitor is taken to nearly 200 places associated with this great hero and king, for Arthur is remembered throughout Britain and Brittany in mountains, castles, cairns, tombs and even "round tables". With precise directions and map references, the book tells the reader how to discover Arthur's evocative world. But the pleasure is as great for the armchair traveller as for the motorist. More than 250 photographs offer a magnificent record of landscapes and monuments little changed since the Dark Ages, a kingdom that Arthur himself would still recognize.