Free summaries
Mythology, Legends & Folklore — page 3
413 public-domain mythology, legends & folklore books, summarised. Page 3 of 9.
Popular Tales from the Norse
Dasent, George Webbe, Sir
Underneath northern skies, cunning underdogs, monstrous trolls, and enchanted beasts navigate a landscape where unyielding spirit and cleverness overcome brute force and cruel fate.
Folk-Tales of the Khasis
Mrs. Rafy
High in the mist-bound hills, spirits, beasts, and mortals cross paths in a legendary realm where arrogance invites ruin and kindness binds human destiny to the natural world.
The Light of Asia
Arnold, Edwin, Sir
A miraculous birth heralds a savior born to release all creatures from suffering, driving a sheltered prince to abandon his luxury and seek the ultimate cure for human sorrow.
The Book of Wonder
Lord Dunsany
Fantastic tales of rogues, centaurs, and forgotten gods unfold along the precipitous borders of human reality, where mundane ambition collides with ancient magic.
Zoological Mythology
Angelo De Gubernatis
The celestial movements of the sun and moon are reflected in the ancient myths of animals, where cows, bulls, horses, and asses serve as living symbols of the sky. This dense, scholarly inquiry traces the evolution of these symbols from Vedic hymns through European and Asian folklore.
Birds in Legend, Fable and Folklore
Ernest Ingersoll
A captivating exploration of birds in myth, legend, and folklore across cultures, revealing their symbolic power and enduring influence.
Some Chinese Ghosts
Lafcadio Hearn
Sacrifice, ghostly devotion, and supernatural beauty bind these traditional Chinese legends together, showing how mortal hearts interact with the divine and the terrifying.
Polish Fairy Tales
A. J. (Antoni Józef) Gliński
In a realm where enchanted frog skins burn, iron-walled castles crumble before magical steeds, and simple kindness to a field mouse turns deadly trials into triumph, ancient Slavic folklore weaves wonder with severe moral clarity.
The Folk-Tales of the Magyars: Collected by Kriza, Erdélyi, Pap, and Others
Unknown
In the dark forests and sprawling steppes of 19th-century Hungary, a rich tradition of magic, devilry, and triumphant underdogs took deep root in the popular imagination.
Seneca myths and folk tales
Arthur C. (Arthur Caswell) Parker
Rooted in Cattaraugus hearths and sacred groves, this collection weaves Seneca cosmology, monstrous encounters, and lived ceremonial traditions into a living tapestry of Haudenosaunee lore.
Basque Legends
Wentworth Webster
Strange giants, seven-headed serpents, trickster fools, and elusive mountain spirits walk through a landscape where ancient folklore meets nineteenth-century philology.
Indian Fairy Tales
Unknown
These tales preserve the vivid, oral history of India as told by the servants of a household, capturing a world where demons, talking animals, and enchanted princes collide in the flicker of a firelight.
Myths of Greece and Rome: Narrated with Special Reference to Literature and Art
H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber
A comprehensive collection of classical myths unfolds with cinematic scope, connecting ancient divine pantheons to enduring literary tradition and fine art.
Gypsy folk-tales
Francis Hindes Groome
A dragon slips from a bride’s mouth at midnight, a dead man demands his share of a living woman, and a clever lad outwits a forest full of beasts. Francis Hindes Groome gathers the wild, wandering magic of Romani tales across Europe.
Kalevala, The Land of the Heroes, Volume Two
W. F. (William Forsell) Kirby
The Kalevala is a vast, rhythmic monument to the Finnish spirit, a collection of ancient songs that pulse with the power of creation, magic, and the endurance of heroes. It is a work where a single song can part the seas or command the stars, capturing the foundational myths of a people through the lens of a…
From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan
H. P. (Helena Petrovna) Blavatsky
A Russian woman travels through India in the 1870s, documenting its landscapes, people, and spiritual mysteries.
Jamaican song and story
Unknown
A collection of Jamaican folk tales, songs, and stories, capturing the island's rich cultural heritage.
Folklore of the Santal Parganas
Cecil Henry Bompas
This collection preserves the vivid, oral history of the Santal people, capturing a world where spirits dwell in every rock and forest, and where the boundaries between human, animal, and divine are perpetually porous.
The Age of Fable
Thomas Bulfinch
A classic gateway to the foundational stories of Western culture, this work gathers the myths of antiquity into a single, accessible narrative. It remains the essential primer for any reader seeking to understand the bedrock of classical literature.
Devil Stories: An Anthology
Unknown
The devil is a character of infinite variety, appearing as a tempter, a comedian, a tragic victim of his own bargains, and a mirror for human frailty.
Everybody's Book of Luck
Anonymous
HOOK This guide to the unseen forces of daily life acts as a practical handbook for those seeking to decode the signs, symbols, and superstitions that influence human fortune.
Myths of northern lands
H. A. (Hélène Adeline) Guerber
The ancient deities of the cold North speak again in this comprehensive guide, inviting modern readers to explore the grim, tragic, and heroic foundations of Germanic and Scandinavian mythology.
Chitra, a Play in One Act
Rabindranath Tagore
The power of this drama lies in the tension between the masks we wear to be loved and the raw, unadorned truth we fear to reveal. It is a meditation on whether intimacy can survive the transition from fantasy to reality.
Eskimo Folk-Tales
W. J. Alexander (William John Alexander) Worster
A collection of Greenlandic oral traditions, these tales reveal a stark, singular world where the boundary between human, animal, and spirit is as thin as the Arctic ice.
Legends of Old Testament characters, from the Talmud and other sources
S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould
This collection gathers the imaginative, often fantastical, extra-biblical stories that have long surrounded the figures of the Old Testament. It serves as a bridge between canonical history and the vast, swirling world of folklore and myth.
A Book of Giants: Tales of Very Tall Men of Myth, Legend, History, and Science
Henry Wysham Lanier
Giants are the mirror in which humanity has long reflected its own fears, ambitions, and desire for order. This collection gathers the myths, legends, and historical curiosities that define these towering figures of the human imagination.
The Birth of the War-God: A Poem by Kálidása
Kālidāsa
A celestial epic of longing and transformation, this verse narrative follows a mountain princess’s quest to win the heart of a detached, mourning deity to save the heavens from ruin. It is a work of lush, sensory beauty, grounding its mythic stakes in the intimate rhythms of the natural world.
The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs
William Morris
The ancient song of the north rises again, tracing the blood-soaked lineage of the Volsungs and the tragic, golden doom of the Niblungs.
Human Animals
Frank Hamel
The boundary between humanity and the animal kingdom is porous, a shifting edge where myth, superstition, and the darkest corners of human psychology collide.
Bakemono Yashiki (The Haunted House), Retold from the Japanese Originals: Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 2 (of 2)
James S. (James Seguin) De Benneville
HOOK This atmospheric chronicle explores the eerie, lingering legacy of a haunted Edo estate, weaving together the lives of historical figures and the restless spirits of the Tokugawa era.
Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, Vol. 2
Viktor Rydberg
A vast, unified subterranean realm anchors the ancient northern cosmos, where departed souls, cosmic roots, and primordial forces weave the fate of gods and men.
Fairy Tales From All Nations
Anthony R. (Anthony Reubens) Montalba
A sweeping anthology gathers forgotten folklore from around the globe, revealing a world where enchanted beasts, cunning rogues, and resolute maidens test the boundaries of fate and human heart.
Stories from The Arabian Nights
Laurence Housman
When a woodcutter overhears a cave door swing open at a magic phrase, he unlocks a world where cunning servants outwit murderous thieves and ancient spells shape human destiny.
The Wolves of God, and Other Fey Stories
Algernon Blackwood
A man stands alone at a ship’s rail, watching a low, treeless shore rise from the mist. What he seeks is the quiet safety of home, but what waits in the silence is an ancient, watchful fear.
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ: The Philosophic and Practical Basis of the Religion of the Aquarian Age of the World and of The Church Universal
Levi
A sweeping reinterpretation of the Gospel narrative, this text presents the life of Jesus as an esoteric journey through the ancient wisdom traditions of the East and West.
The Scottish Fairy Book
Elizabeth W. (Elizabeth Wilson) Grierson
A highland realm of mischievous brownies, elusive fairies, treacherous monsters, and historical prophecy comes alive through traditional lore shaped by Scotland's rugged landscape and austerity. <Image alt="Cover of The Scottish Fairy Book featuring a fairy with butterfly wings framed by thistles" caption="The…
Roman Legends: A collection of the fables and folk-lore of Rome
Rachel Harriette Busk
Centuries of oral storytelling echo through Rome's cobblestone streets, preserving local versions of classic fairy tales, humorous urban anecdotes, and devout religious lore.
Teutonic Mythology: Gods and Goddesses of the Northland, Vol. 3
Viktor Rydberg
A vast mythic architecture links ancient northern songs, heroic journeys, and cosmic catastrophe into a single unified saga. Across subterranean rivers and frost-bound peaks, divine champions and fallen artisans shape the destiny of gods and men.
Legends of Gods and Ghosts (Hawaiian Mythology): Collected and Translated from the Hawaiian
W. D. (William Drake) Westervelt
High upon mountain ridges, beneath ocean surf, and across the dark paths of the spirit world, human lovers, treacherous chiefs, and shape-shifting dragon-gods wage battles of devotion and revenge.
Swiss Fairy Tales
William Elliot Griffis
A mountain peak glowing red at dusk; a tailor tricking a giant into an eating contest; a clockmaker learning time from an owl: these tales gather the legends of the Alps into one fireside hearth.
Old Indian Legends
Zitkala-Sa
Small acts of vanity and greed tear apart the quiet harmony of the plains, where even the smallest creatures must outwit tricksters and monsters to survive.
Georgian Folk Tales
Marjory Scott Wardrop
These timeless narratives from the Caucasus preserve the wit, wonder, and stark resilience of a people living at the crossroads of empires. They offer a rare window into a rich, ancient oral tradition.
Myths and Legends of the Sioux
Marie L. McLaughlin
Stories of the rabbit, the spider, and the spirit world define this foundational collection of Dakota lore. Passed down through generations, these tales blend the domestic, the supernatural, and the moral into an enduring portrait of Sioux life.
The Poem-Book of the Gael: Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse
Unknown
This collection gathers the lyrical heartbeat of a civilization, presenting translations of Irish Gaelic poetry that range from ancient mythological cycles to the poignant songs of the dispossessed. It offers a window into a culture where the boundaries between the natural world, the fairy realm, and the divine…
The Irish Fairy Book
Unknown
Step into a world where ancient heroes walk beside shoemaking elves and the boundary between the mundane and the magical is as thin as a morning mist. This collection gathers the heartbeat of Irish folklore, preserving the wonder of a tradition that has enchanted generations.
Hero Tales and Legends of the Serbians
Vuk Stefanović Karadžić
This collection preserves the soul of a nation through the voices of its bards, capturing the epic struggles and enduring spirit of the Serbian people. It serves as both a historical record and a window into a vivid, mythic world.
Myths and Legends of All Nations: Famous Stories from the Greek, German, English, Spanish
Logan Marshall
These tales of gods, heroes, and tragic figures form a foundational bridge between the ancient imagination and our own, preserving the voices of history through the enduring language of myth.
Supplemental Nights to the Book of the Thousand and One Nights
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
A vast, labyrinthine collection of folklore and artifice, these supplementary tales extend the reach of a legendary storytelling tradition into the shadowy corners of morality, wit, and the supernatural.