Folklore & Mythology

Oedipus the King also known as Oedipus Rex,/i> , is a Greek tragedy, written by Sophocles and first performed ca. 429 BC. The play was the second of Sophocles' three Theban plays to be produced, but comes first in the internal chronology of the plays, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone . Over the centuries it has come to be regarded by many as the Greek tragedy par excellence . [Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_rex under the terms of the GNU-FDL] more...

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Based on Viking Age poems and composed in thirteenth-century Iceland, The Saga of the Volsungs combines mythology, legend, and sheer human drama in telling of the heroic deeds of Sigurd the dragon slayer, who acquires runic knowledge from one of Odin's Valkyries. more...

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The Trojan War is the most famous conflict in history, the subject of Homer's Iliad, one of the cornerstones of Western literature. Although many readers know that this literary masterwork is based on actual events, there is disagreement about how much of Homer's tale is true. Drawing on recent archeological research, historian and classicist Barry Strauss explains what really happened in Troy more than 3,000 years ago. more...

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This book contains an overview of the current state of scholarship on Beowulf, looking back over the history of the field and suggesting new directions for future research. More than 1,000 books, articles, recordings and websites are surveyed and a nuanced sense is offered of the great variety of views that have been expressed on this greatest of all remaining Old English texts. The book is intended to offer guidance and stimulus to all readers of Beowulf, whether scholars, students or first-time readers of the most complex, engaging, and gripping work to survive from Anglo-Saxon England. more...

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This book explores the history of the so-called Royal Art, from its mysterious beginnings in Egypt and China, through the Hellenistic world and the early years of Islam and into mediaeval Europe. Some of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, figures such as Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas were drawn to alchemy, and legendary alchemists such as Nicholas Flamel were thought to have actually succeeded in finding The Philosopher’s Stone. During the Renaissance, Paracelsus and his followers helped revolutionise medicine, and during the seventeenth century, alchemy played a major role in paving the way for modern science. During the twentieth century, it became a focus of interest for the psychologist Carl Jung and his followers, who believed that the alchemists had discovered the unconscious. more...

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