Wereallmad
I love YaBB 1 Gold!
I recently started reading a number of books on Viking era mythology. In my quest to search for better descriptions of the creatures, artifacts, and places surrounding these myths, I ended up learning about the origins of some of these myths, and learning that there really is no end to it all.
For instance, In a book by Thomas Keightley (The world Guide to Gnomes, fairies, Elves, and Other Little People), I learned that fairies and elves date back not to Scandinavia or even Europe as I had always thought, but pre-historic Mesopotamia, and creatures in whom the author feels the word "fairy" is rooted from can be found in both Zoroastrianism and Vedic religions.
I was hoping that some people here had books they could recommend on mythology, general or specific, especially those that attempt to reveal the origins of not only words associated with ancient myths, but concepts surrounding them (for instance, when did the idea of pointed ears get attributed to elves?). It doesn't have to be limited to conventional mythology, Indo-Persian, East Asian, African, they are all welcome.
I figure this would be a pretty good thread to discuss Miura's interpretation of mythological concepts as well. So far we've had dozens of discussions of mythology scattered throughout other threads, but if people feel, they could treat this thread as a place to centralize said discussions. I only ask that people cite sources, especially literary ones.
For instance, In a book by Thomas Keightley (The world Guide to Gnomes, fairies, Elves, and Other Little People), I learned that fairies and elves date back not to Scandinavia or even Europe as I had always thought, but pre-historic Mesopotamia, and creatures in whom the author feels the word "fairy" is rooted from can be found in both Zoroastrianism and Vedic religions.
I was hoping that some people here had books they could recommend on mythology, general or specific, especially those that attempt to reveal the origins of not only words associated with ancient myths, but concepts surrounding them (for instance, when did the idea of pointed ears get attributed to elves?). It doesn't have to be limited to conventional mythology, Indo-Persian, East Asian, African, they are all welcome.
I figure this would be a pretty good thread to discuss Miura's interpretation of mythological concepts as well. So far we've had dozens of discussions of mythology scattered throughout other threads, but if people feel, they could treat this thread as a place to centralize said discussions. I only ask that people cite sources, especially literary ones.