A Dictionary of British Folk-tales in the English Language


Book Description

A classic in folklore scholarship arranged in 2 parts. Folk Narratives contains tales told for edification or delight, but not thought to be factually true.Folk Legends presents tales the tellers believed to




Women and Weasels


Book Description

If you told a woman her sex had a shared, long-lived history with weasels, she might deck you. But those familiar with mythology know better: that the connection between women and weasels is an ancient and favorable one, based in the Greek myth of a midwife who tricked the gods to ease Heracles’s birth—and was turned into a weasel by Hera as punishment. Following this story as it is retold over centuries in literature and art, Women and Weasels takes us on a journey through mythology and ancient belief, revising our understanding of myth, heroism, and the status of women and animals in Western culture. Maurizio Bettini recounts and analyzes a variety of key literary and visual moments that highlight the weasel’s many attributes. We learn of its legendary sexual and childbearing habits and symbolic association with witchcraft and midwifery, its role as a domestic pet favored by women, and its ability to slip in and out of tight spaces. The weasel, Bettini reveals, is present at many unexpected moments in human history, assisting women in labor and thwarting enemies who might plot their ruin. With a parade of symbolic associations between weasels and women—witches, prostitutes, midwives, sisters-in-law, brides, mothers, and heroes—Bettini brings to life one of the most venerable and enduring myths of Western culture.







Author-title Catalog


Book Description







Catalog of Folklore and Folk Songs


Book Description







The First Printed Translations into English of the Great Foreign Classics


Book Description

"The First Printed Translations" by William James Harris is a bibliography that has been compiled with the view of supplementing existing textbooks on English literary history and assisting students in preparing for examinations in Bibliography and Literature. It will also be of service to those who are working for the professional examinations of the Library Association. The great foreign classics have exercised a direct and decided influence upon English literature and the object of this bibliography is to give in concise form the authors and titles, translations, and dates of the first English translations of the chief foreign authors, and incidentally to enable students to note the effect of such translations on the works of many of our great imaginative writers. Excerpt: "ACHILLES TATIUS. Fourth Century. Greek writer. CLEITOPHON AND LEUCIPPE. Tr. by Rev. R. Smith, 1855. One of the decadent Greek novelists. An erotic novel of a conventional type. ÆLFRIC. c. 1006. THE CATHOLIC HOMILIES. Ed. with tr. B. Thorpe, Ælfric Soc., 1844-46. LIVES OF SAINTS. Ed. Text and Tr. W. W. Skeat, E.E.T.S., 1881. Eminent Saxon prelate, one of the most learned of his time. His works, upwards of eighty in number, have been republished by the Ælfric Soc. (London, 1844-46)."




Recent Books