Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain

by Jennifer Westwood

Legends, folktales and traditions are set in the context of the individual locations from which they spring.The book details how the myths came into being, how they changed in the telling over generations, and how finally they came to form such an important part of Britain's heritage.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Reference, Mythology, Folklore, Research, British Literature

567 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1985

Reviews

[Velvetink · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good guide to the myths of places in England, more of a dictionary really.

[Angie Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

legends, myths, folktales, what's not to love ?

[Eddie Barker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great inspiration for dnd adventures, really good read for delving into Myths and legends of the British Isles.

[Brooke Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a very interesting general history of Britain as well as the Arthurian history. If you love history, travel or the Arthurian legends, this book is definitely for you.

[Robert Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've loved this book ever since I picked up a copy of it many years ago. It is well-written, logically organised and quite detailed and comprehensive in the legends which it describes.

However, I hesitate to say that I have read it or, at least, not in the same cover-to-cover manner in which I would read a fiction book. In some ways, this book is more like a dictionary or reference book: you pick it up to read a couple of entries at a time or to check things.

Back in the days when I toyed with writing stories and actually wrote a couple (never published), this book was a great source of mythological legends which I could draw on and re-interpret in my own writing. If I was stuck for a myth, or, to a degree, a creature, this amongst others, was one of my main reference materials. A really good book to dip in and out of or to read. It works well either way.

[Richard Bartholomew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an engaging compendium of British folktales and legends, drawing on a wide range of literary reminiscences, antiquarian studies, and medieval chronicles. The material is arranged by location, with each chapter representing a particular region, but many of the entries are actually short essays that explore a particular theme. The author guides the reader through the various sources (descriptions of which are given at the back of the book), often quoting at length, but the scholarship is worn lightly and is tempered with irony. For instance:

Walter Gale, a Sussex schoolmaster, tells us that in 1749 could be seen at Mayfield a pair of pincers which the inhabitants said were the very ones Dunstan used to ‘lead the Devil by the nose’. These are perhaps the same tongs found with other metalwork during the restoration of the Old Palace during the 1860s and still preserved at Mayfield. Let us disregard sceptics who say they were not made before the thirteenth century.