World Mythology Resources

For anyone who wants to know the facts or as close to facts as myth gets, you could do worse than stick by Arthur Cotterill. The guy is a legend as far as i'm concerned and a yardstick by which all others should be measured. Over time i've come to trust him and you should too. The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Mytholgy is a cracker. It doesn't ultimately include Africa, Oceania or the Americas but covers pretty much everything else which is more than enough to keep your brain engaged for quite sometime. It's easily big enough to chock your front door open too.

Drop the 'ultimate' bit, stick in 'world' and you get The Encyclopedia of World Mythology (obviously.) Same author, smaller and cheaper but also includes the chapters missing from the bigger book. Work that out if you can. An even lighter weight option is his Dictionary of World Mythology which includes a little bit of everything. Just the job for whetting your appetite.

Richard Cavandish is also a guy who knows his stuff. One of the first books i bought was his snappily named Mythology. This illustrated encyclopedia of the principal myths and religions of the world is a get together of thirty of the top anthropologists, archaeologists , lecturers and professors in their field and covers every mythology in the universe. Bigger isn't necessarily better.

Myths and legends of the world by Kenneth McLeish is another phat one, as well as a fat one . With almost 800 pages containing thousands of entries about all kinds of supernaturals you won't be finishing it in a hurry. But you would definately finish it before The Facts on File Encyclopedia of World Mythology and Legend. It's a bit on the pricy side, but with 1200 pages that's no suprise. Save your pennies.

Check out the folklore resources ..