Mytologi

The Viking gods fought a constant battle with nature. Odin, Thor and Loki are just some of the familiar characters that maintain an influence over us today through movies, TV series and comics to great fiction and epic poetry. This fabulous new book offers all the main tales with an introduction to the characters and the land that inspired them.

The dark forces of the ancient world were held at bay by the resourceful and emerging civilisations of Greece and Rome that formed the basis of Western culture, providing a tradition of fabulous tales that are retold in this new book.

The Mahabharata has the privilege of being the longest epic ever written in the world. Jaya by Devdutt Pattanaik is a fascinating retelling of the Mahabharata with beautiful illustrations. But what sets this book apart from the many other versions of the epic is the seamless way the author has woven tales that are well known with little known variants from regional and folk tales. Originally known as Jaya, The Mahabharata has more than 100,000 2-line stanzas. This enthralling retelling by Devdutt Pattanaik draws its readers into the fascinating tale of the Kuru family, the complications and fights that lead up to the famous 18-day Mahabharata War and its impact. He weaves together well-and-lesser-known folk as well as regional versions of the epic including the Pandavani of Chattisgarh, Gondhal of Maharashtra, Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu and Yakshagana of Karnataka. The book is written in a 108 chapters and abundant with many little known facts like the names of the hundred Kauravas, the stories of Astika, Madhavi, Jaimini, Aravan and Barbareek and the deifying of Draupadi as a goddess in the temples of Tamil Nadu. The author has even tried to date the war with the astronomical data provided in the epic. Devdutt Pattanaik''s Jaya is a book that shows the epic in a new light.

Includes tales such as young women go on long and difficult quests, wicked stepmothers turn children into geese and tsars ask dangerous riddles, with help or hindrance from magical dolls, cannibal witches, talking skulls, stolen wives, and brothers disguised as wise birds.

As well as vividly exploring the tales, the author brings her expertise in the archaeology of the Iron Age and particularly shamanism to bear on the mythical worlds she describes, with evidence as diverse as the Gundestrup Cauldron and the famous bog bodies. She also asks how the myths survived the Christianization of Europe.

Lets you tune into the sacred power and ancient wisdom of trees. From the birch to the willow, this title introduces fifteen revered trees of the Celtic Tree Calendar and describes their unique gifts. It helps you learn from the author's personal stories of revelation.

Every night for three years the vengeful King Shahriyar sleeps with a different virgin, executing her next morning. To end this brutal pattern and to save her own life, the vizier's daughter, Shahrazad, begins to tell the king tales of adventure, love, riches and wonder. The sequence of stories will last 1,001 nights.

Now as sumptuously packaged as they are critically acclaimed-a new deluxe trade paperback edition of the beloved stories.

'These legends are the action-packed stories - of ancient heroes, huge battles, attempted invasions, prophecies and spells, clashes between the underworld and the real world, abductions, love affairs and feasts - which have fascinated the Irish mind for more than 2,000 years .

My Heart My Mother looks at many different aspects of Egyptian religion from the role of Hathor-Sekhmet, the serpent eye goddess, in the cult of Osiris, to the reliefs in the temple at Abydos, and more general discussions of temple life, ancestor ritual, death, rebirth and regeneration. An original piece of work on female divinities and their role in the passage of the pharaohs from death to rebirth that takes us beyond the New Kingdom period and into the Greco-Roman world.