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Welsh folk tales collected over 100 years ago. They give a fascinating glimpse into the life of the Welsh in a bygone era. ... Read more

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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

I loved this book as a child....
....and it is just as great - or perhaps better- now that Im older.
Yeats takes you places with this one. He introduces you to characters and creatures and mystical magical places that you dream of as a child ....but still think about as a grown-up...even tho you may not want to admit that.:) It is a sweet collection and Yeats spent a great deal of time compiling these Tales. This book should be a film. Or at least some of these tales. Yeats is the great one and if you enjoy his poetry, you will love this sweet little book. Youre never too old for tales.

A Good Introduction to Irish Fairy Tales
William Butler Yeats collects Irish fairy and folk tales in this volume.It is a pretty wide selection which covers topics such as fairies, leprechauns, merrows, puccas, ghosts, witches, giants, and more.You won't get an in depth introduction to each type of creature, but you will get a few story selections for each type of creature.This book doesn't have much commentary on the different types of creatures.It primarily focuses on folk stories concerning them.I recommend this book for anyone who hasn't had an introduction into the world of Irish folklore.I think you find it interesting.

Lightning
A beautiful selection of tales and descriptions that only Yeats could have told. We meet a variety of strange creatures and legends that have survived (thank goodness) due to Yeats' love of extraordinary things. He very well could have lived in Fairyland, you know.

From a World Long Forgotten
This is a new and expanded version of the original volume published by in 1892 under the title "Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry." It was subsequently re-titled, "Irish Fairy and Folk Tales," and has seen several editions from different publishers.
This edition, with an illuminating forward by Paul Muldoon, also has other additions that help the reader penetrate the sometimes dense and archaic language.If I had to choose between the original edition and this one, I would definitely choose this one. The main body of the book is identical to the original.
Both Yeats and Lady Gregory were especially concerned that the best of the tales from the Irish countryside be preserved before their main purveyors, the Shenaches (storytellers) vanished.Those collected here are a varied lot, and not all of them will appeal to every reader.That, however, does not affect their value at all, for here a way of life is preserved and we can look through a small window into the beliefs and habits of the Irish people in the days when the "Fairy Faith" was still common amongst them.It is probably best not to read the collection straight through, but rather peruse it, selecting from it that which most appeals.
Yeats's singular contribution is the dividing the denizens of the Irish Enchanted Countryside into categories:The Trooping Fairy, The Solitary Fairy, the Sociable Fairy, etc, together with Ghosts, Witches, Giants and the like.Within each "type" there are essays, songs, poems, hearsay, histories ... in short, something to appeal to every taste, as long as that taste has a goodly sampling of fancy about it.
These fairies are not the gossamer winged, luminous beings of Victorian paintings.These fairies are as likely to curse as to bless and it does not benefit the unwary or skeptical to offend them.Here are pookas, leprechauns, far darrig, Ban-Shees, and lanawn-shees.
These creatures were ever present to the Irish peasantry, and were forgotten with the industrialization of modern times.Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Yeats and others like him, much of this world was preserved for us.
Some of the stories and poems retain their Irish intonation and syntax and may be difficult for some to follow, but patience will be rewarded;One can almost "hear" the storyteller and the bard.
This is a volume well worth going back to again and again.

Absolutely charming!
This absolutely charming collection of stories truly represents the best of "fairy" tales in which the fairy folk feature prominantly as well as a number of other folk beasties.WB Yeats has managed to capture all of the humor, fright, and love involved in the fairy world and it is a joy to follow him around in a world he seems to know so well. ... Read more

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This handsome, bilingual volume is a unique way into the fascinating world of Welsh legends and folk tales. It includes Witches, princes, pirates and saints - sixty-three individual tales in all, each with its own beautiful illustration. As well as relating all the tales, the book also provides an authoritative explanation of the folk narrative tradition in Wales, and contains a map showing the location of each tale. Its bilingual format also makes it of particular interest to Welsh learners. Mae'r gyfrol hardd, ddwyieithog hon yn llwybr unigryw i mewn i fyd cyfareddol chwedlau Cymreig. Gwrachod, tywysogion, mor-ladron a seintiau - chwedeg a thair o chwedlau i gyd, bob un a'i darluniau hyfryd ei hun. Mae'r llyfr hefyd yn egluro'r traddodiad adrodd straeon gwerin yng Nghymru ac mae'n cynnwys map yn dangos lleoliad pob chwedl. Mae ei diwyg dwyieithog hefyd yn ei gwneud yn gyfrol o ddiddordeb arbennig i ddysgwyr Cymraeg. ... Read more

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Throughout the 19th century, myth and mythography underwent radical revision for reasons intimately connected with important changes in ideology.Theological controversy and the demythologizing of Christianity brought about the reexamination of ancient myths as expressions of primitive religious belief, and the development of anthropology led to the extensive and serious study of myths.This important collection of essays examines this changing role of mythology as expressed in 19th-century literature and painting.The contributors focus on one powerful myth to which 19th-century artists turned again and again:the myth surrounding the rising and setting of the sun, and the importance of the sun as a primal, generative force.Their essays analyze the ways in which such artists as Shelley, Byron, Turner, Tennyson, Ruskin, Swinburne, Darwin, Hardy, and Pater found inspiration in solar mythology and how they interpreted solar myths in light of their own culture. ... Read more

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An epic in league with those of Spenser and Malory, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, begun during Hitler’s rise to power, celebrates the insignificant individual as hero in the modern world. Jane Chance’s critical appraisal of Tolkien’s heroic masterwork is the first to explore its “mythology of power”–that is, how power, politics, and language interact. Chance looks beyond the fantastic, self-contained world of Middle-earth to the twentieth-century parallels presented in the trilogy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
This book has these people complaining about LOTR, thinking that its content is coming from Hitler, just because the trilogy was released during the time that Hitler was going Gung-Ho on Jews and Blacks. Oh, please! LOTR has nothing to do with Hitler nor the NAZIs. They keep on saying that Frodo was using the ring to control people, just like Hitler was trying to control the Jews and Blacks. WTF?? If LOTR is NAZI worship, then "The Life Aquatic" is the best movie ever. PURE FICTION. Whoop-de-do, then!As a LOTR fan, LOTR has a good message, if you think about it...

Don't take a Chance on this book
I'm very disappointed in this book.The author is wrong about basic facts on which she bases her theories.To wit:

Frodo does not, as the author claims, use the Ring "to test resistance to institutionalized power and the power of others within the community."He doesn't "use" the Ring at all; if anything, it uses him.Gandalf's Elven ring does not save Frodo from the Nazgul at the Ford on the way to Rivendell; at that point in the story, we don't know that Gandalf has one of the Elven rings."Mordor" may mean"murder" in Anglo-Saxon, and that may have been in the back of Tolkien's mind; but "Mordor" mean "black-land" in Sindarin, and that's the meaning Tolkien wanted for the land.Durin's Bane is not mithril or greed (though that is an issue), but the Balrog.

Dr. Chance does makes several interesting points, and for that reason I might, albeit with much hesitation, recommend this book to those who are familiar enough with LotR to avoid the pitfalls.

Power has many facets
Jane Chance's discussion includes some valuable insights and a useful review of research, however it suffers from three main problems:

a. The discussion of power is one-sided and focuses too much on the power of language, while neglecting issues such as the power of vision and the gaze, which are just as prominent. This makes the application of Foucault's theories - a good idea in itself -superficial (The author refers to one book of his out of a vast corpus).
b. Any discussion of the structure of The Lord of the Rings cannot disregard the vast work that Christopher Tolkein has done on the various layers and stages of the volumes of the book.
c. Chance's book is marred by many errors: for example, how can Germany have blockaded England in 1946, a year after the end of the war? In this context, the author should have mentioned Tolkein's own discussion of the relationship between his work and the Second World War.

The Mythology of Power
Not really much insight here. Noteworthy and interesting points are scattered throughout, however they are certainly not helped by the general skimpiness of developed argument or sustained elaboration for a convincing case. All in all, the ideas are never explored to their fullest extent, and the general tone is that of a graduate student's thesis. In part this may be due to the decision to retrace the entire plot-line, rather than to develop particular themes in depth. Also, the academic liberal arts jargon is just bad.
Prof. Chance approaches LOTR and its mythology of power by way of a purely political hermeneutics, applying the theories of (mostly) Foucault to mythopoetic material that rises beyond explanation via mere politics. This Foucault influence is central, but at no point is it seriously questioned or demonstrated how it is even relevant or useful to the topic at hand - rather than, say, the concepts Tolkien drank in from epic poetry, fairy stories, world mythology, the Bible, or a thousand different philosophers (for example, how is Foucault more revealing here than Augustine, or Hobbes, or Rousseau?).
Somehow, it all fails to grasp the very personal, psychological, and metaphysical aspects of Tolkien's masterpiece, which speaks to us not primarily through the rationalism of politics but via the art of wonder: the magic of the journey, the crucible of morality and fellowship, innocence and experience, and the passages of life in relation to its underpinning wholeness.
It's disappointing and at times hilarious, though, when Prof. Chance sees LOTR as rather more concerned with "the political problem of the intellectual (22)" and "liberation from hegemony... A novel that mythologizes power and the problem of individual difference... the problem of individual and class difference within the social body or construct, the heroic power of knowledge and language in the political power struggle, and the ideal of kingship as healing and service, in a unique inversion of master-servant roles (23)". One gets the sense that it all boils down to "the role of understanding and tolerating differences within the community (24)", to "giving voice to the dispossessed of the twentieth century (25)". But interpreted this way, squintingly, the tale only seems to diminish into triviality. It becomes merely "a drama of the symbolic value of language (45)", wherein the Ring is a "challenge to [Frodo's] civic and political education (48)", and where "name-calling and hostile language...wound more than the...voice of an enemy like the Black Riders or Sauron (58)".
Admittedly, such platitudes are more than the pure baloney evoked here, and may well contain very important ideas, but they are, in the end, only tangents to the tale that Tolkien set down.

A dangerous business
Arguably, Jane Chance's criticism of Tolkien's epic has a few flaws, but I cannot wholly agree with another reviewer that if we want to learn about Tolkien, read Tolkien.Certainly, we should do so before reading Chance, but by choosing to read other books about Tolkien's Middle-earth, we enterinto a conversation with other minds, which provoke and tease our thoughtsinto new directions.Of course, its a bit hazardous.As Bilbo tells hisnephew, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, out of your door.You stepinto the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing whereyou might be swept off to."Just so.And opening a book is every bitas unpredictable as opening a door.If we're not careful, Jane Chance toomay sweep us into errors regarding Tolkien's wonderful epic, but any goodreader already knows this.If we find that she falls short in hercriticism, well then, we can atleast articulate to ourselves why,arriving at a more profound understanding of Tolkien's work -- thanks,indirectly, to Jane Chance.For myself, I agree that a central concern ofTolkien is power (and I too wish Chance had defined the term"mythology of power" more concisely), but only one among many;all else is suspect.Nevertheless, I found Chance's criticism as good aplace to start as any, and it has led me down more than one interestingpath as I continue to re-read and enjoy all that Tolkien has given us. ... Read more

Product Description
The Welsh saints have highly patterned lives -structured according to traditional expectations. In addition to the broad narrative structure which they share with their secular counterparts, the saints also share with each other adistinctive set of hagiographical motifs. Drawing on sources ranging from seventh-century Vitaeto twentieth-century fieldwork, Henken discusses the male and female biographical patterns and then presents the common themesand motifs which run through the saint's lives. This material is organized according to stages of the saints' lives and categories of their activity. The volume also includes a complete motif index and an index of traditions associated with the individual saints.
ELISSA R. HENKENcurrently teaches both folklore and Celtic literaure at the University of Georgia. ... Read more

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Myths determine the way cultures understand themselves. The papers in this volume examine culturally specific myths in Britain and the German-speaking world, and compare approaches to the theory of myth, together with the ways in which mythological formations operate in literature, aesthetics and politics - with a focus on the period around 1800. They enquire into the consequences of myth-oriented discourses for the way in which these two cultures understand each other, and in this way make a significant contribution to a more profound approach to intercultural research. ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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In olden times fairies were sent to oppose the evil-doings of witches, and to destroy their power. About three hundred years ago a band of fairies, sixty in number, with their queen, called Queen of the Dell, came to Mona to oppose the evil works of a celebrated witch. The fairies settled by a spring, in a valley. After having blessed the spring, or "well", as they called it, they built a bower just above the spring for the queen, placing a throne therein. Near by they built a large bower for themselves to live in. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

From the publisher
Book Description:
Angela Carter once said 'I'm in the demythologizing business'. The same can be said of Pam Gems. This book vividly describes the radical impact Gems' work has had upon British mainstream theatre and the innovative approaches that have made such an impression upon the dramatic landscape. The author describes Gems' striking ability to perceive the tremors of social change before they emerge, thus creating a pervasive sense of progression within her work. Gems' cannily unravels the obscure yet widely accepted mythologies surrounding notions of gender and sexuality through a radical style of stagecraft. Her vision locates itself firmly within feminist discourse and, in creating strong female parts, redresses the balance of female representation in dramatic history. In particular, the book highlights the writer's powerful influence upon normative theatrical forms and the psychology of male-dominated theatre. Drawing upon feminist, postcolonial and queer theory, the book offers a perceptive and accessible analysis of Gems' dramaturgy. Despite her highly prolific career, there has been a gaping absence of detailed critical analysis of her work until now. 'Queer Mythologies' is the first comprehensive and explicit study of one of the most significant figures in British mainstream theatre.

Synopsis:
This book on Gems has a thesis or a 'backbone' which elicits the title 'Queer Mythologies'. Pam Gems has written over 25 plays, and has not had adequate detailed analysis of her plays to date. She is a popular playwright produced often at the West End and has a widespread appeal by being on the pulse of cultural iconology. Gems writes strong central characters for both male and female actors, and often writes almost cinematically, with time shifts in a non-linear narrativization. Her characters are metaphors for contemporary women and men and she often 'herstoricizes', thus righting the balance of dramatic history by creating parts for women in British drama. Her dramaturgy brings to the mainstream theatre the identities and subcultures of class, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality making her plays queer mythologies.

From the Inside Flap
Queer Mythologies
The Original Stageplays of Pam Gems
By Dimple Godiwala

This book vividly describes the radical impact Gems' work has had upon British mainstream theatre and the innovative approaches that have facilitated such an impression upon the dramatic landscape. Drawing upon feminist, postcolonial and queer theory, the book offers a perceptive and accessible analysis of Gems' dramaturgy. Despite her highly prolific career, there has been a gaping absence of detailed critical analysis of her work until now. 'Queer
Mythologies'is the first comprehensive and explicit study of one of the most significant figures in British mainstream theatre.

About the Author
Dimple Godiwala was educated at the Universities of Bombay and Oxford. She is the author of 'Breaking the Bounds: British Feminist Dramatists Writing in the Mainstream since c. 1980' (Peter Lang), and has written in the field of cultural, feminist, dramatic and postcolonial theory. Her critical anthology 'Alternatives Within the Mainstream: British Black and Asian Theatres' is published by Cambridge Scholars Press (2006). She is currently compiling 'Alternatives Within the Mainstream II: Postwar Queer British Theatres'

Excerpted from Queer Mythologies: The Original Stageplays of Pam Gems by Dimple Godiwala. Copyright © 2005. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Foreword by Professor Tim Prentki
Queer Mythologies

Dr Dimple Godiwala has expertly undertaken the first comprehensive appraisal of the theatrical oeuvre of Pam Gems at a moment when her profound influence on the development of English drama is in danger of being seriously underestimated through critical neglect. Besides offering vital insights to the individual plays, Dr Godiwala has succeeded in linking them to a coherent internal development within the life and work of Pam Gems. She is assisted in this task by access to Ms Gems and her son for a plethora of unique insights into the contexts in which much of the work was created. Most importantly, she never loses sight of a particular play as a performance text and so is able to capture the theatrical essence in ways that transcend any literary achievement. This capacity is especially important in any analysis of Pam Gems' achievement since it is predicated upon a fierce desire to work against the grain of the theatrical establishment. Godiwala captures this anti-establishment motif that runs through the plays through her own development of a definition of queer theory which is used ingeniously and effectively to forge connections and to demonstrate the gradual unfolding of Gems' preoccupation with the outsider and the misrepresented. Yet at the heart of this strategy of defiance lurks a paradoxical desire to be let into the lime-light which many of the protagonists exhibit. This desire is implicitly linked to Gems' own situation: at once a scathing critic of the mainstream, yet simultaneously penetrating it to effect irrevocable changes to it. Central characters like Queen Christina and Edith Piaf who make their worlds on their own terms are nevertheless depicted as being at the mercy or rather the agency of those by whose permission they are allowed to appear in their starring roles. Though hungry for performance, they still cling tenaciously to an identity which defies the expectations of their audiences, even as Gems in her handling of their characters lures the audience towards a love/hate relationship to them. Godiwala reveals with clarity and penetrating insight, the ways in which this paradox is indicative of the attitudes that Pam Gems herself experienced in relation to the English theatrical establishment; at times enjoying the spotlight of the main stage and critical acclaim but more often suffering the consequences of a refusal to compromise her artistic vision.

This volume marks a significant contribution to the rehabilitation of Pam Gems' reputation and Dr Godiwala reveals herself as a major critical voice on the contemporary literary and theatrical scene. This monograph is an absolute necessity for any students of Gems' work and an important extension of applied critical theory in performance. Prof Tim Prentki, University of Winchester


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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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Was there such a thing as a modern notion of race in the English Renaissance, and, if so, was skin color its necessary marker? In fact, early modern texts described human beings of various national origins--including English--as turning white, brown, tawny, black, green, or red for any number of reasons, from the effects of the sun's rays or imbalance of the bodily humors to sexual desire or the application of makeup. It is in this cultural environment that the seventeenth-century London Gazette used the term "black" to describe both dark-skinned African runaways and dark-haired Britons, such as Scots, who are now unquestioningly conceived of as "white."In Shades of Difference, Sujata Iyengar explores the cultural mythologies of skin color in a period during which colonial expansion and the slave trade introduced Britons to more dark-skinned persons than at any other time in their history. Looking to texts as divergent as sixteenth-century Elizabethan erotic verse, seventeenth-century lyrics, and Restoration prose romances, Iyengar considers the construction of race during the early modern period without oversimplifying the emergence of race as a color-coded classification or a black/white opposition. Rather, "race," embodiment, and skin color are examined in their multiple contexts--historical, geographical, and literary. Iyengar engages works that have not previously been incorporated into discussions of the formation of race, such as Marlowe's "Hero and Leander" and Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis." By rethinking the emerging early modern connections between the notions of race, skin color, and gender, Shades of Difference furthers an ongoing discussion with originality and impeccable scholarship. ... Read more