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The Forest in Folklore and Mythology
"If you have a feeling for the mystery and enchantment of the woods, you will want to own this book." — Outlook .
Assembled from an enormous range of sources, this fascinating book is a mind-expanding compendium of facts, folklore, superstitions, myths, and anecdotes about trees and the forest. Included are descriptions of old forests; forest customs, temples and sacred groves; mythical forest creatures such as witches, fairies, demons, wood spirits, the "wild huntsman," and wood nymphs.
The author also recounts facts and fables about individual trees, including famous trees throughout the world, unusual trees, tree worship, people's transformation into trees, and disposal of the dead in trees — as well as folklore about fossil trees, tree bark, leaves, thorns, diving rods, and Yule logs.
This long-unavailable treasury of legend and lore will be welcomed by naturalists, anthropologists, students of folklore, and general readers alike. "A work which the curious will love to consult … a book which should be in every upper school library, and at the hand of every one to whom reference to such things is important." — Saturday Review.
Assembled from an enormous range of sources, this fascinating book is a mind-expanding compendium of facts, folklore, superstitions, myths, and anecdotes about trees and the forest. Included are descriptions of old forests; forest customs, temples and sacred groves; mythical forest creatures such as witches, fairies, demons, wood spirits, the "wild huntsman," and wood nymphs.
The author also recounts facts and fables about individual trees, including famous trees throughout the world, unusual trees, tree worship, people's transformation into trees, and disposal of the dead in trees — as well as folklore about fossil trees, tree bark, leaves, thorns, diving rods, and Yule logs.
This long-unavailable treasury of legend and lore will be welcomed by naturalists, anthropologists, students of folklore, and general readers alike. "A work which the curious will love to consult … a book which should be in every upper school library, and at the hand of every one to whom reference to such things is important." — Saturday Review.
319 pages, Paperback
First published December 19, 2001
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1223 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 8, 2020
This is fine for what it is, and there are some interesting tidbits here and there.
But for one thing, it was originally published in 1928, so right off the bat the author has...opinions about other people that are not great.
For another, the title is a little misleading. I was expecting a book about what the forest in folklore and mythology means and how we've felt about it socio-historically. What it turned out to be is more of a bibliography.
Literally a list of every mention of of a forest or even a single tree in every folklore/mythology text since the beginning of recorded history.
But for one thing, it was originally published in 1928, so right off the bat the author has...opinions about other people that are not great.
For another, the title is a little misleading. I was expecting a book about what the forest in folklore and mythology means and how we've felt about it socio-historically. What it turned out to be is more of a bibliography.
Literally a list of every mention of of a forest or even a single tree in every folklore/mythology text since the beginning of recorded history.
December 13, 2008
All kinds of stuff on forests and trees from various folklore, religion and mythology sources from cultures all over the world. Read this and go for a long walk in the woods alone at night and I doubt you won't believe there is something magic and spiritually alive in the forest.
November 3, 2013
If you are researching in fables and myths regarding forests, this is the book to refer to. It gives you a comprehensive guide to trees and shrubs, as well as all legends, superstitions and stories that are related to them. Unfortunately, there is a lack of organization in this book. For example, it starts with general intro on forest of old and of present in Chpt 1 before going to related romance and myths in 2. Then it goes back to intro of forestry and groves in 3 before going to spirits, nymphs ad fairies in 4 and 5. Chapters 6 and 7 on forest is so introductory in nature it seems to belong to 1. The last chapter then addresses folklore which is the main content of the book.
This book is definitely more comprehensive than websites; but some reorganization need to be done. That said, the summary of main points before every chapter helps to locate ideas and identify the train of thought, at least within individual chapters.
This book is definitely more comprehensive than websites; but some reorganization need to be done. That said, the summary of main points before every chapter helps to locate ideas and identify the train of thought, at least within individual chapters.
August 31, 2011
A nice collection of myths and legends, both secular and religious, involving forests or individual trees. The stories are briefly retold, usually a paragraph sufficing, and are drawn from all cultures and eras. Many will be familiar to lovers of folklore and myth, but others will be new. Porteous helpfully documents his sources thoroughly making it easy to find the full story behind a legend. Among others, there are chapters on forests of romance, on ancient groves, and on the mythological denizens of forests, including spirits, witches, fairies, and demons. In addition to these fictional tales, there are also occasional forays on the history of trees.
The author doesn’t worry about placing his entries in any particular chronological or cultural order, and sometimes it feels like we’re reading Porteous' working, though polished, notes. Nonetheless, the book is informative and entertaining, and to an extent, addictive, as the reader never knows what wonders the next paragraph may bring. (It is also a light, but useful, reference work for anyone writing about forests, as I am at present.)
The author doesn’t worry about placing his entries in any particular chronological or cultural order, and sometimes it feels like we’re reading Porteous' working, though polished, notes. Nonetheless, the book is informative and entertaining, and to an extent, addictive, as the reader never knows what wonders the next paragraph may bring. (It is also a light, but useful, reference work for anyone writing about forests, as I am at present.)
June 22, 2017
This is one of my favorite go-to books for reading about the forest. It is all about trees, myth, folklore, and truth. Although it is dated (copyright 1928), it is not out of date. It takes me right into the woods in the different cultures around the world. I can read a paragraph and finish the entry, or read several pages at a time about a variety of locations.
If you are looking for a cover-to-cover read, don't read this book. If you're looking for fascinating information into various cultures and places, you won't be disappointed.
If you are looking for a cover-to-cover read, don't read this book. If you're looking for fascinating information into various cultures and places, you won't be disappointed.
January 7, 2019
I like books like this. It is more properly a miscellany than most books, so don't expect it to take up points and move them forward; rather it is simply a share of knowledge across a spectrum of folklorist and mythological sources with regards to forests in a very broad sense (i.e. it covers forests, trees, meadows and other geographic features) from someone who had exhaustively researched their subject.
August 14, 2025
Originally made in 1928! Republished in 2002. The book truly is a collection of different cultures’ beliefs and cares towards trees. Unfortunately it is rather dated with a lot of its mythology being wrong due to later translations of ancient text providing more accuracy.
Snippets:
The ancients, on the other hand, called a large tract of country covered with trees a sylva, from whence is derived the word “ sylviculture.”
In ancient days the state of the moon, whether it was waxing or waning, was considered to be of great importance in connection with the felling of timber.
Death has been symbolically regarded as a forester, and has been called holz-meier, or wood-mower, by Kaiserberg. In a folio written in 1521, called De arbore humana, he says : “ Wherein easily, and to the glory of God, ye may learn to await blithely the wood-cutter Death.” And again: “ So is Death called a village-mower or wood-mower, and justly hath he the name, for he hath in him the properties of a wood-cutter, as, please God, ye shall hear. The first property of the village-mower is communitas, he being possessed in common by all such as be in the village, and being to serve them all alike. So is the wood-cutter common to all the trees, he overlooketh no tree, but heweth them all down.”
WHEN the earliest progenitors of the human race had at length evolved from a purely savage state they would no doubt begin to consider the why and wherefore of their existence, and would have vague glimmerings of some power higher than themselves whom it was necessary to propitiate and to worship. They saw the sun in the heavens travelling daily, as they thought, from east to west, pouring out its fervent heat upon them, enabling them to see their surroundings, and causing all vegetation to grow and flourish in its beams. Need one wonder that the sun was considered to be a most powerful deity, and that adoration was especially due to him.
Christianity mythos chunck:
Originally, hills and mountains were considered the most befitting spots for worship, as being nearer to the heaven where the divinities resided, and, in course of time, to beautify these holy hills, trees were planted upon them, and from this arose the consecration of these groves ; but the worship of, and in, groves seems to have at first arisen from the veneration paid to natural groves. These holy hills were the “ high places ” mentioned in the Bible as being forbidden, and the prohibition, in Deuteronomy xvi. 21, as to planting groves near the altar, arose from the perversion of these groves to the purposes of idolatry. The patriarchs of the Bible probably retired to groves in which to worship God, and, in the Oak grove at Mamre, we are told (Genesis xviii.) that Abraham entertained God Himself. We are also told that Abraham raised an altar to Jehovah near a grove of Terebinths in the Valley of Hebron. In many instances an idol was placed on the holy hill and was surrounded by the trees. We read (2 Kings xviii. 4), “ He removed the high places and brake the images, and cut down the groves.” It would appear that the idol itself was sometimes called a grove, as—“ Ahab made a grove” (1 Kings xvi. 33) ; also—“ And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree” (2 Kings xvii. 10) ; and again—“ And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal ” (2 Kings xvii. 16). We read, further, that Manasseh “ built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed ; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel.... And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house” (2 Kings xxi. 3, 7). Later on it is recorded that Josiah “ brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. “ And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove ” (2 Kings xxiii. 6, 7). The priests who officiated at the idolatrous ceremonies carried on in these groves were called prophets of the grove.
Snippets:
The ancients, on the other hand, called a large tract of country covered with trees a sylva, from whence is derived the word “ sylviculture.”
In ancient days the state of the moon, whether it was waxing or waning, was considered to be of great importance in connection with the felling of timber.
Death has been symbolically regarded as a forester, and has been called holz-meier, or wood-mower, by Kaiserberg. In a folio written in 1521, called De arbore humana, he says : “ Wherein easily, and to the glory of God, ye may learn to await blithely the wood-cutter Death.” And again: “ So is Death called a village-mower or wood-mower, and justly hath he the name, for he hath in him the properties of a wood-cutter, as, please God, ye shall hear. The first property of the village-mower is communitas, he being possessed in common by all such as be in the village, and being to serve them all alike. So is the wood-cutter common to all the trees, he overlooketh no tree, but heweth them all down.”
WHEN the earliest progenitors of the human race had at length evolved from a purely savage state they would no doubt begin to consider the why and wherefore of their existence, and would have vague glimmerings of some power higher than themselves whom it was necessary to propitiate and to worship. They saw the sun in the heavens travelling daily, as they thought, from east to west, pouring out its fervent heat upon them, enabling them to see their surroundings, and causing all vegetation to grow and flourish in its beams. Need one wonder that the sun was considered to be a most powerful deity, and that adoration was especially due to him.
Christianity mythos chunck:
Originally, hills and mountains were considered the most befitting spots for worship, as being nearer to the heaven where the divinities resided, and, in course of time, to beautify these holy hills, trees were planted upon them, and from this arose the consecration of these groves ; but the worship of, and in, groves seems to have at first arisen from the veneration paid to natural groves. These holy hills were the “ high places ” mentioned in the Bible as being forbidden, and the prohibition, in Deuteronomy xvi. 21, as to planting groves near the altar, arose from the perversion of these groves to the purposes of idolatry. The patriarchs of the Bible probably retired to groves in which to worship God, and, in the Oak grove at Mamre, we are told (Genesis xviii.) that Abraham entertained God Himself. We are also told that Abraham raised an altar to Jehovah near a grove of Terebinths in the Valley of Hebron. In many instances an idol was placed on the holy hill and was surrounded by the trees. We read (2 Kings xviii. 4), “ He removed the high places and brake the images, and cut down the groves.” It would appear that the idol itself was sometimes called a grove, as—“ Ahab made a grove” (1 Kings xvi. 33) ; also—“ And they set them up images and groves in every high hill and under every green tree” (2 Kings xvii. 10) ; and again—“ And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal ” (2 Kings xvii. 16). We read, further, that Manasseh “ built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed ; and he reared up altars for Baal, and made a grove, as did Ahab king of Israel.... And he set a graven image of the grove that he had made in the house” (2 Kings xxi. 3, 7). Later on it is recorded that Josiah “ brought out the grove from the house of the Lord, without Jerusalem, unto the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and stamped it small to powder, and cast the powder thereof upon the graves of the children of the people. “ And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove ” (2 Kings xxiii. 6, 7). The priests who officiated at the idolatrous ceremonies carried on in these groves were called prophets of the grove.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 19, 2018
Everything you ever need to know about forests and their role in folklore and mythology conveniently in one book. Some of the entries are quite short – but you can find the story behind the legend easily enough in other reference books thanks to the fact that the sources were thoroughly documented.
As a writer, I love “reading the (polished) notes” that Porteous made of forests – almost like he took a subject (e.g. forests in folklore) and wrote everything down that he found. Though it seems random the way the book is presented, I enjoy the way each entry makes me think of new stories that I can write featuring the magic of the forests as explained in “the notes” that is “The Forest in Folklore and Mythology”.
I’ll caution readers though: this isn’t a “sit down and read cover-to-cover” type of book. It should be savoured entry-by-entry, thought about and explored.
Some of the folklore might be familiar, but most are new and interesting things to be discovered and enjoyed.
A must-read for folklorists, those who love trees and any author who wants to incorporate forests in their writing.
As a writer, I love “reading the (polished) notes” that Porteous made of forests – almost like he took a subject (e.g. forests in folklore) and wrote everything down that he found. Though it seems random the way the book is presented, I enjoy the way each entry makes me think of new stories that I can write featuring the magic of the forests as explained in “the notes” that is “The Forest in Folklore and Mythology”.
I’ll caution readers though: this isn’t a “sit down and read cover-to-cover” type of book. It should be savoured entry-by-entry, thought about and explored.
Some of the folklore might be familiar, but most are new and interesting things to be discovered and enjoyed.
A must-read for folklorists, those who love trees and any author who wants to incorporate forests in their writing.
February 5, 2011
A Dover reprint of one of those grand old collections of random assorted lore on a particular topic, in this case, "The Forest" - mythology, folktales, and lore associated with forests from all over the world.
August 30, 2017
this was informative, but the chapters were clustered with paragraphs put in no particular order, which makes the narration really random. it did have a huge abundance of interesting facts about myths and folklore all across the world though.
July 6, 2016
Kind of jumpy and with incomplete-feeling entries, but at least it gave some good sources.
June 23, 2023
After spending way too long picking through this one, I'd recommend it as quick reading and shelving for longterm storytelling reference. The book is a culture-spanning bounty of fascinating but poorly-organized research notes by an author whose century-old views have a tendency to be awkwardly all-too-clear at times, forgiveable for the richness of glimpses he gives into even more ancient and strange worlds. Though details are sometimes sparse, the seeds of narrative and myth provided are sufficient to raise forests of imagination between readings and inspire further digging into their roots. Read as a whole, the compilation also provides rich insight into the [recorded] history of forest symbolism in human thought, resupplying a subconscious storehouse of sylvan archetypes and strengthening many a metaphor to come.
Reading of the beauty described in those forests that stood a hundred years ago, there is a sadness which accompanies this book in modern hands; a reflection on a hundred years of waste and destruction which have rendered impotent and extinct that magic which seems to have once grown so densely just a few generations before. It hurts to read of a particular ancient, mystical place only to look it up online and find a parking lot, and screams become almost audible when you drive past an old wood mown down for the sake of yet-another warehouse, yet-another "development," yet-another big stupid whatever. So, in spite of its uncouth-ness from a "progressive" 21st Century perspective, I'd consider this one a bookshelf essential for the sake of these fragmented memorials.
Reading of the beauty described in those forests that stood a hundred years ago, there is a sadness which accompanies this book in modern hands; a reflection on a hundred years of waste and destruction which have rendered impotent and extinct that magic which seems to have once grown so densely just a few generations before. It hurts to read of a particular ancient, mystical place only to look it up online and find a parking lot, and screams become almost audible when you drive past an old wood mown down for the sake of yet-another warehouse, yet-another "development," yet-another big stupid whatever. So, in spite of its uncouth-ness from a "progressive" 21st Century perspective, I'd consider this one a bookshelf essential for the sake of these fragmented memorials.
December 25, 2024
At times, this book is full of information overload, but that can't be held against a reference book. I was very interested in some of the lore that the book covers and frankly bored by other parts, but the book, though having long chapters, is renewed in subject from paragraph to paragraph, so that you can stop and take a break anywhere without really losing the thread. The book has an admirable scope, covering forest myth and lore (and romance, as was included in the original publication title) on every inhabited continent. Many religions and superstitions are represented. A worthwhile read to anyone interested.
March 16, 2019
A difficult read, with ancient English, Shakespeare quotes and little in the way of 'kind' paragraphing, it is *so very rich* with folklore and mythology from *all over the world*. Scandinavian, Slavic, Indian, South American, North American, Pacific, Canadian, Japanese, Chinese and even more than that. It's everything you could want to know about trees *without* botanical knowledge. It is, truly, forests in folklore and mythology - and the constant inclusion of source books at the foot of almost every page has hugely expanded my reading list.
August 21, 2018
Written in 1928, this book contains a breadth of myths and legends as compiled from historical sources by the author. For me, the organization of this book made reading it difficult. Legends are presented from several peoples; however, they are spread across chapters and the constant barrage of tree/forest facts makes retention difficult. Docking one star for organization.
July 29, 2019
This is a great resource. There are hundreds and hundreds of myths and legends described in this book. Unlike most modern takes, this book doesn't really bother to interpret the myths. I found this refreshing. Also, as some other readers have mentioned, there are references on nearly every page. I look forward to going down that rabbit hole at some point in the future.
December 21, 2019
This book had a neat concept behind it and had plenty of interesting information to share! Sadly, the way the sections were composed was jarring and made reading the book a bit difficult to get use to.
July 13, 2021
Interesting reference about forests that appear in folklore and mythology. This would be fun to pull from if studying Enchanted forests in high school or college.
July 10, 2022
Great resource on mythology and legends about trees around the world.
July 19, 2023
I read this a few years ago but I'm rating it now because I'm remembering how I enjoyed it!
February 6, 2013
A reprint that's dated and perhaps reflective of the writing style back when it was first published? (In 1928 I believe.) The book is full of interesting facts about trees (as the title states) but beyond the chapters heading/subheadings, there does not seem to be any organization or rather synthesis of the facts into something that would let the readers discern patterns or see the bigger picture. Once in a while there may be a page or two at most about something so one gets some depth. Unfortunately this style made it less of an enjoyable read than it would have been otherwise.
October 19, 2012
I found this book for the intent of reading more about "sacred groves" and my fascination with a fictional tribe of people in a video game (Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). I admit I didn't read the whole thing. Even so, I was impressed how the author described the feeling of reverence to be felt when discovering a small, quiet glade in the forest.
Want to read
February 9, 2010This will be on my next Dover order, thanks!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews