by Carol Rose
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Product Description
We have always conjured up creatures never seen in nature, from flying horses and two-headed birds to fire-breathing dragons and enormous killer skunks, as well as fantastic distortions of our own image, from giants to nubile maidens. In these pages you will meet extraordinary beings from Hindu and Navajo religions, Scandinavian tales, Russian folklore, Lithuanian stories, Irish oral history, American tall tales, and Aztec myth. Just some of the monstrous entourage:
• Baku, a benevolent Japanese monster with the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the legs of a tiger, who helps people by devouring their nightmares.
• Kurma, the giant tortoise of Hindu myth, whose upper shell forms the heavens and lower part the earth.
• Missipissy, the feared fish serpent of North America's Great Lakes region.
This illustrated encyclopedia not only identifies and describes individual beasts in their cultural context but also groups them together across cultures and discusses common mythological strands and conceits. 60 b/w illustrations.
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Average Customer Review:
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 A Concise and Presise evaluation of thousands of Mythological creatures., 2007-10-13
Much like her earlier written Encyclopedia this one once again hits the nail right on the head, giving great refference to thousands of mythological beings at one's fingertips. From the Greek Titans to American Indian tribal spirits, from nursery bogies to humorous antiquities of history this book has it all. A great smorgasbord of the monsters and deiteis of almost every civilization on Earth all convienintly located in one direct and enjoyable resource is both amazing and extreemly entertaining. This book is one that can be both read continously page to page or simply as a refference either way it is fun and interesting to turn from page to page from Appolyon to Garm to Scylla to Baba Yaga and to any other entity that ruminates in these pages of this glorious encylopedia.
I would highly recomend getting her first encylopedia "Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns, and Goblins: An Encyclopedia" as well as looking at such books as "Bestiary: Being an English Version of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Bodley 764", "The Book of Fabulous Beasts", "On Monsters and Marvels", and "The Book of Imaginary Beings". although all these books are slightly more informational and less refference and encyclopedia like they are just as enjoyable and do a great job on further investigating monsters and myth.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 A very concise source of information., 2007-09-14
I was surprised with the extensive amount of listings within the book. There is a lot of otherwise hard to find information. I would have given this book 5 stars if it weren't for one thing; there is no index. A book like this should really contain an index for those looking for particular traits, or words within a creature's definition. However there are listings in the back based on different characteristics it is not as exhaustive or all around helpful as a simple index would be. Don't get me wrong though, this book is still well worth the purchase. Besides you can search through the book for keywords on this webpage by clicking "Search Inside".
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Monsters, 2007-02-22
I was really pleased with this book. You could get lost for hours just reading about each creature. I would reccommend this book to any person who likes to read about monsters.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Fun -and- educational., 2006-10-05
This is one for both the scholar who needs a quick reference and the casual enthusiast looking to impress friends with mythical trivia (not that many people have friends who are so easily impressed).
If you have any interest, academic or casual, in the mythical beasts of yore, I highly recommend Rose's encyclopedias (this, and the "sequel," which contains more benign beings). It's fascinating to see icons from ancient Mesopotamian myth, Japanese legend, Native American religion and contemporary American folklore all on the same page.
In addition to thorough explanations of the origins and significance of each beastie, Rose goes one step further by explaining parallels to other cultural icons, common heritages and even manifestations in modern popular culture (for instance, there are numerous entries about creatures from J.R.R. Tolkien's world, which, while not strictly mythical themselves, do draw their inspiration from real-world mythology).
There are a number of similar cyclopedic works available, but this one differs from the masses in that it is both thoroughly academic (unlike many of the recent pop-culture anthologies), -and- thoroughly enjoyable. Highly recommended.
2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
 very nice, 2006-03-01
As others have mentioned, this book is an encyclopedia and as such contains mostly facts. The stories and legends mentioned in the book are briefly surmised. The pictures are all in black and white. Most beings mentioned in the book are not pictured. Having no other similar book to compare this to, I'd say it's pretty complete. I've never heard of most of the creatures listed. I did find a few beings missing that I think are important and sometimes there are multiple entries for the same subject, under different and sometimes very similar names.
This book would be useful as a reference for a research paper and is a nice addition to anyone's library.
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