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folklore, fairy tales, stuff

Tanni Foemangler

By Tanni Foemangler,
in TV, Movies & Books

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Ceraziefish Post Whore

Ceraziefish

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Well, folklore... The most stuff I know about is Norse mythology/folklore. What kinda stuff are you interested in specifically?

Most of the lexicon of Norse mythology comes from two books (both from Iceland, presumably because they didn't have anything better to do than write down old myths; Sweden was too busy trying to take over Norway and Norway was too busy being taken over by Sweden); Edda (also called the Prose Edda) by Snorri Sturluson, and The Poetic Edda, and no one really knows who wrote that one (probably some monk or somethin').

Norse mythology comes in three basic flavors; myths, sagas, and histories. Myths are about the gods and such, like our friends Odin and Thor but also about some rarer cats like Njord, Freyr, et cetera. The Edda and the Poetic Edda are about 90% myths. Sagas are about heroes, like Egil's Saga or Njal's saga. They are often assumed to be at least somewhat historically accurate (for example Eirik the Red's Saga is about Eirik the Red, who was a real historical figure who discovered Greenland). These are basically biographies of people who were important enough to get biographies back then. Histories are just that, histories that are thought to be fairly fictional. For example Heimskringla is basically the story of how all the Kings of Sweden are descended from the god Freyr, so get down and suck their johnson, you fucking serf.

One thing that isn't Norse that I recommend is The Tale of the Campaign of Igor. This is a Russian epic poem, supposedly written in the 1200's about one of the last pagan princes of the Rus'. It's a fun read, but a lot of people think it's a fake, actually written in the late 1700's (and they have some pretty convincing evidence, although of course a true Russian would never admit that).

If all else fails, just stick with Ye Olde English and hit up Beowulf (it's so archaic you'll need a translation, don't even try reading it in the original old English-- although try to get a dual language edition if you can, they're sweet) or The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales is still pretty hard to read but you'll probably recognize most of the words, and there are translations available, but your best bet is to get one with a good glossary.

I'm trying to remember other folklore I've read. There's all kinds of great stuff out there. If all else fails, man, just go to a bookstore and pick out something that looks cool. I really haven't read any mythology or folklore that I didn't like. When I was a kid I had a couple picture books of, like, Japanese fairy tales, although I can't remember for the life of me what they were called.

JOURNEY TO THE WEST <-- Have you heard of this? It's a Chinese Novel from the 1300's. Not exactly folklore, really, but it is awesome.

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Ceraziefish Post Whore

Ceraziefish

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I should note that I haven't actually read Egil's Saga or Njal's Saga, but they're both super famous and important. Njal's saga is pretty ridiculous, it spans over 200 years, with the Christianization of Iceland happening right in the middle of it. I have a really sexy edition of Egil's Saga, but I haven't gotten around to reading it.

EDIT: I'll be around later with some names of translators, because that will make a difference in your enjoyment of this stuff; some translators are really boring and some are incredibly awesome. I have a number of recommended translators from my professor, so I'll come by and post those later.

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Mithrandir Post Whore

Mithrandir

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THE THREE SNAKE LEAVES

probably the coolest fairy tale ever, and no one knows it.

I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in Grimm. A quick google search should yield the text itself.

I've got more too, if you want them, just let me know and I'll drop some titles (or in the case of more common stories, awesome obscure variations that I know about).

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Ceraziefish Post Whore

Ceraziefish

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Do you know of a cheap version.

Because I have one where each volume is like $30 and I read the first one and said "No dice" to paying $90 to finish.

I thought they existed, but I've never read the whole thing. So I don't know. A few books are like that; you'll be hard pressed to find a copy of Ibn Fadlan's Journey to Russia for less than like $50 for no good reason (it's a fairly short book, although I guess it's really only of interest to people studying Russian history; still, so are most of the books I read last year, and they were all reasonably priced).

Another old Chinese novel (again, not folklore; since China was so advanced so early they've been pumping out novels since the 1200's or so) that I have read and recommend is Outlaws of the Marsh. It's basically about a bunch of medieval Chinese warriors riding around, getting drunk, and fucking each other's shit up. The medieval chinese equivalent of an action movie, basically.

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Tanni Foemangler Post Whore

Tanni Foemangler

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killer, thanks guys. if you feel like dropping names Mith, by all means :smile:

i don't really know exactly what i'm looking for. more fantastic than reality-based i think, but also preferably stuff with moral messages and stories that have been told and retold and reretold over the ages

or just anything interesting

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Ceraziefish Post Whore

Ceraziefish

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killer, thanks guys. if you feel like dropping names Mith, by all means :smile:

i don't really know exactly what i'm looking for. more fantastic than reality-based i think, but also preferably stuff with moral messages and stories that have been told and retold and reretold over the ages

or just anything interesting

Well, all the old myths in the Poetic Edda are pretty much all about how to be the ideal viking. So they have a moral message, it's just kinda twisted, hahaha.

There's this one poem called "the Sayings of the High One," by which they mean Odin, that's really just advice on how to be a viking, nothing else.

EDIT: Cuz Norse is crazy, Njal is pronounced "Nyal" and Egil is pronounced "Eyil"

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Silver Cyclone Post Whore

Silver Cyclone

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I specialise mainly in Celtic myths. Which are fucking awesome btw they are full of battles consisting of one man killing millions. spears that can be thrown miles and never miss. And there is some pretty awesome moral tales such as the curse of the poet and such. A great book to get started on Celtic myth's was mammoth books Celtic mythology. I've lent it to someone at the moment so I can't remember the author. But that gives all the basic tales and the Celtic myth version of the creation of the world and the separation of tribes and the journeys they went through. Which is a fucking awesome story btw. It covers myths from Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales etc. Highly suggest that book. If you want any specific stories or any more detailed information look us up on AIM's and I can give you a more detailed run down of what I remember.

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Tanni Foemangler Post Whore

Tanni Foemangler

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well i read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight as well as a bunch of analyses yesterday and i'm not sure what i was supposed to get out of it. i DO like the fact that i don't know what to get out of it though, like a story told to you at a bus stop late at night by someone who just asked you to pop the security cap off a conspicuous bottle of Smirnoff

i've got a Three Snake Leaves text bookmarked that i want to check out later tonight. i looked up King Arthur and found a bunch of books that looked like they're geared towards kids, so i don't know if youze guys have any recommendations for 'good' texts or of those are as good as any. and there are tons of Celtic mythology books out there, so... :snakes:

and yeah i'm reading everyone's rec's, i'm just trying to give each its fair amount of research time :B

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