From the tale of a sixteenth-century shoemaker from Breslau whose ghost terrorized everyone in the city, to the testimony of a doctor who presided over the exhumation and dissection of a graveyard full of Serbian vampires, his book is fascinating reading.

    With a brilliant set of bizarre and fantastical illustrations, Monsters provides a dark yet engrossing visual history of fearsome beasts from every age and culture. Christopher Dell investigates what the existence of monsters even if only in our heads says about humankind, and explores such questions as how monsters have survived the millennia; why they are universal; and, why we find the same one-eyed giants in Japan and in ancient Greece, or the same dragons in Europe and China

    The 200 mysteries and hoaxes are thoroughly examined, including cattle mutilations, crop circles, spontaneous human combustion, Martian lore, Roswell, Loch Ness, the Old Hag, weather phenomena, faeries, Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, living dinosaurs, ghosts, pterodactyl sightings, flying humanoids, hollow earth, and other absorbing puzzles. Along the way readers will learn of hoaxes and witness the creation of various modern myths.

    But these authors' dark imaginings pale when compared to little-known but well-documented and true tales. In this delightfully spine-tingling tour of all six New England states, Citro chronicles the haunted history and folklore of a region steeped in hardship and horror, humor and pathos.

    From the mists of Japanese prehistory, through the medieval ages, up to today, the bestiary of Japanese folklore contains a wide range of monsters. There are women with extra mouths in the backs of their heads, water goblins whose favorite food is human anus, elephant-dragons which feed solely on bad dreams, dead baby zombies, talking foxes, fire-breathing chickens, animated blobs of rotten flesh that run about the streets at night... "The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons" is a massive illustrated bestiary choc full of yokai. It features over one hundred traditional Japanese monsters, each one beautifully illustrated in full color by yokai artist Matthew Meyer. Each yokai is described in detail, including origins, habitat, diet, and legend, based on translations from centuries-old Japanese texts. Read this book, and the next time you watch an anime or a Godzilla movie, you'll be able to recognize their folkloric ancestors dating back centuries. You'll find out about all of the strange mythical animals you can see at temples and shrines, on beer can labels, and even on Japanese money. Meet the predecessors to Pokemon, Power Rangers, scary J-horror girls, and all of the strange creatures that pop up in Japanese video games. "Night Parade" will turn anyone with a passing interest in Japanese folklore into a full-blown yokai expert!

    The lyrical storytelling of award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli dramatizes the timeless tales of ancient Egypt in the year when Angelina Jolie will make Cleopatra a multimedia star. And just like the popular National Geographic Treasury of Greek Mythology, the stories in this book will be beautifully illustrated to bring ancient characters vividly to life. The stories are embellished with sidebars that provide historical, cultural, and geographic context and a mapping feature that adds to the fun and fascination. Resource notes and ample back matter direct readers to discover more about ancient Egypt. With its attractive design and beautiful narrative, this accessible treasury stands out from all other mythology titles in the marketplace.

    This title provides a complete guide to the mythical beasts and beings from a variety of cultures around the world, including Mesopotamian, ancient Greek, ancient Egyptian and Chinese, Japanese, Nordic, Celtic and Native American.

    The Loch Ness Monster: a creature that should have died out with the dinosaurs, or a legend built on hoaxes and wishful thinking?Sir Peter Scott, internationally renowned naturalist and president of the World Wildlife Fund, was convinced that the Monster existed. So were senior scientists at London's Natural History Museum and Chicago University; they lost their jobs because they refused to renounce their belief in the creature. For decades, the scientific establishment was determined to quash attempts to investigate Loch Ness - until Nature, the world's greatest research journal, published an article by Peter Scott featuring underwater photographs of the Monster. Drawing extensively on new material, Gareth Williams takes a wholly original look at what really happened in Loch Ness. A Monstrous Commotion tells the story as never before: a gripping saga populated by colourful characters who do extraordinary things in pursuit of one of evolution's wildest cards.Meticulously researched and dazzlingly written, this book will appeal to anyone fascinated by nature and its mysteries - and to everyone who enjoys a beautifully crafted detective story with a strong cast of heroes and villains, plenty of twists and an unexpected ending.

    From the earliest whispers of eternal evil in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, vampire tales flourished through the centuries and around the globe, fueled by superstition, sexual mystery, fear of disease and death, and the nagging anxiety that demons lurk everywhere.In Vampire Forensics, Mark Jenkins probes vampire legend to tease out the historical truths enshrined in the tales of terror: sherds of Persian pottery depicting blood-sucking demons; the amazing recent discovery by National Geographic archaeologist Matteo Borrini of a 16th-century Venetian grave of a plague victim and suspected vampire; and the Transylvanian castle of "Vlad the Impaler," whose bloodthirsty cruelty remains unsurpassed.Jenkins navigates centuries of lore and legend, adding new chapters to the chronicle and weaving an irresistibly seductive blend of superstition, psychology, and science sure to engross everyone from Anne Rice's countless readers to serious students of archaeology and mythology.

    But that’s only one of the 43 forbidding locations documented within these pages. Bold readers are invited to go on a world-spanning tour of haunted places, to meet ghosts, apparitions, and spirits such as the Windigo of the remote Canadian forests, which possesses unwary travelers and compels them to eat human flesh. Here also are such horrors as the moving coffins of Barbados, the Hungry Ghosts of China, and other bizarre manifestations of the spirit world. Truly a feast of shudders and thrills for all fans of the supernatural.

    From our colonial past to the present, the monster in all its various forms has been a staple of American culture. A masterful survey of our grim and often disturbing past, Monsters in America uniquely brings together history and culture studies to expose the dark obsessions that have helped create our national identity.Monsters are not just fears of the individual psyche, historian Scott Poole explains, but are concoctions of the public imagination, reactions to cultural influences, social change, and historical events. Conflicting anxieties about race, class, gender, sexuality, religious beliefs, science, and politics manifest as haunting beings among the populace. From Victorian-era mad scientists to modern-day serial killers, new monsters appear as American society evolves, paralleling fluctuating challenges to the cultural status quo. Consulting newspaper accounts, archival materials, personal papers, comic books, films, and oral histories, Poole adroitly illustrates how the creation of the monstrous "other" not only reflects society's fears but shapes actual historical behavior and becomes a cultural reminder of inhuman acts.

    The result of sixteen years of research in Talmudic, gnostic, cabalistic, apocalyptic, patristic, and legendary texts, the classic reference work on angels is beautifully illustrated and its reissue coincides with the resurgence of belief in angels in America.

    Dewhurst reveals not only that North America was once ruled by an advanced race of giants but also that the Smithsonian has been actively suppressing the physical evidence for nearly 150 years. He shows how thousands of giant skeletons have been unearthed at Mound Builder sites across the continent, only to disappear from the historical record. He examines other concealed giant discoveries, such as the giant mummies found in Spirit Cave, Nevada, wrapped in fine textiles and dating to 8000 BCE; the hundreds of red-haired bog mummies found at sinkhole “cenotes” on the west coast of Florida and dating to 7500 BCE; and the ruins of the giants’ cities with populations in excess of 100,000 in Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, and Louisiana. Dewhurst shows how this suppression began shortly after the Civil War and transformed into an outright cover-up in 1879 when Major John Wesley Powell was appointed Smithsonian director, launching a strict pro-evolution, pro-Manifest Destiny agenda. He also reveals the 1920s’ discovery on Catalina Island of a megalithic burial complex with 6,000 years of continuous burials and over 4,000 skeletons, including a succession of kings and queens, some more than 9 feet tall--the evidence for which is hidden in the restricted-access evidence rooms at the Smithsonian.

    Join paranormal expert and storyteller extraordinaire Hans Holzer as he explores ghostly manifestations of every variety and delves into the true nature of "the other side." In this groundbreaking book--featuring eye-opening photographs of ghostly apparitions and visitations--Holzer presents hundreds of case histories, tips on interpreting sounds and other signals from the beyond, and more.

    . . How to spot and identify demons and other subversive spirits . . . And what to do next.Demons, fairies, and fallen angels are everywhere. They lurk at crossroads, crouch behind doors, hide in trees, slip into beds, wait in caves, hover at weddings and childbirths, disguise themselves as friends, relatives-even disguise themselves as you. They are powerful; they are protean; they are enchanting. And, to the uninformed, they are often invisible. This illustrated guide-the first of its kind-reveals the remarkable permutations of the demon and fairy species worldwide. Packed with lore about each demon, detailing its origins, the culture surrounding it, and its reputed antics and exploits, A Field Guide to Demons, Fairies, Fallen Angels, and Other Subversive Spirits is a fascinating exploration of global mythologies. Perfect for the armchair traveler and the intrepid, seasoned demon-spotter alike, this complete guide to subversive spirits offers a behind-the-scenes look at the devilish mishaps, impish irritations, and demonic devastations that punctuate our lives.