Monday, 15 February 2010
Another recent purchase of mine, although not as recent as last week's review, is The Element Encyclopaedia of Magical Creatures: The Ultimate A-Z of Fantastic Beings from Myth and Magic.
This is a rather thick tome, which strangely seems to be on much higher quality paper than any other paperback I've ever bought; it feels rather luxurious as you flick through it. After several skims through it, stopping at anything I thought looked interesting, and several forays into it searching for specific things, I still have no idea what criteria they've used to choose what to include. Pretty much any kind of magical animal, as well as plenty of 'normal' animals with magical connections, like the raven, is included, that's a given, but it's a little broader in scope than that. There are sentient creatures like elves and goblins. Then there's a section on the Titans from Greek Mythology, but most of the Olympians aren't in there, with, as far as I can tell, the sole exception of Pan. The Morrigan is there but most of the other Celtic Gods aren't. Anubis is there but Isis and Osiris aren't ...
As far as I can tell if you have some kind of animalistic aspect (Anubis' is the Jackal God; Morrigan can turn into an animal) you're included, but it's not a hard and fast rule. Zeus, after all, took the form of a bull to seduce one of his many lovers and he isn't there, perhaps because although he could appear as an animal it wasn't particularly associated with him. And yet, I would consider elves to be no further from human then Gods and Goddesses are, but the elves are there and most of the Gods aren't. Zombies are included, despite being simply ensorcelled humans (living or dead, depending on the exact mythology).
If you can get beyond the confusion about what is and isn't there and how they made their decisions, it is a very well researched and entirely fascinating volume that I would heartily recommend. I notice that there are several others in the series covering things like ghosts and spirits, magic, and vampires, so when I'm next feeling flush with cash I think I may invest in those as well, although oddly there doesn't seem to be one covering the Gods and Goddesses of the various pagan religions, historical and current, which seems to be a gap in their range. Hopefully a gap they'll fill in the future as it would make a good companion volume to this one.
This is a rather thick tome, which strangely seems to be on much higher quality paper than any other paperback I've ever bought; it feels rather luxurious as you flick through it. After several skims through it, stopping at anything I thought looked interesting, and several forays into it searching for specific things, I still have no idea what criteria they've used to choose what to include. Pretty much any kind of magical animal, as well as plenty of 'normal' animals with magical connections, like the raven, is included, that's a given, but it's a little broader in scope than that. There are sentient creatures like elves and goblins. Then there's a section on the Titans from Greek Mythology, but most of the Olympians aren't in there, with, as far as I can tell, the sole exception of Pan. The Morrigan is there but most of the other Celtic Gods aren't. Anubis is there but Isis and Osiris aren't ...
As far as I can tell if you have some kind of animalistic aspect (Anubis' is the Jackal God; Morrigan can turn into an animal) you're included, but it's not a hard and fast rule. Zeus, after all, took the form of a bull to seduce one of his many lovers and he isn't there, perhaps because although he could appear as an animal it wasn't particularly associated with him. And yet, I would consider elves to be no further from human then Gods and Goddesses are, but the elves are there and most of the Gods aren't. Zombies are included, despite being simply ensorcelled humans (living or dead, depending on the exact mythology).
If you can get beyond the confusion about what is and isn't there and how they made their decisions, it is a very well researched and entirely fascinating volume that I would heartily recommend. I notice that there are several others in the series covering things like ghosts and spirits, magic, and vampires, so when I'm next feeling flush with cash I think I may invest in those as well, although oddly there doesn't seem to be one covering the Gods and Goddesses of the various pagan religions, historical and current, which seems to be a gap in their range. Hopefully a gap they'll fill in the future as it would make a good companion volume to this one.
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