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A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts
A beautiful, illustrated guide to the most magical creatures of legend and myth.
Fairies, demons, four-legged fiends, and, of course, zombies: the world is filled with fantastical beings, beautiful and scary. Come meet them in this magnificently illustrated menagerie, which includes many creatures made famous by popular fantasy and sci-fi film franchises. Take a detailed look at everything from goblins, pixies, and gnomes to vampires and dragons, and discover their origins in literature, folklore, and ancient history.
Fairies, demons, four-legged fiends, and, of course, zombies: the world is filled with fantastical beings, beautiful and scary. Come meet them in this magnificently illustrated menagerie, which includes many creatures made famous by popular fantasy and sci-fi film franchises. Take a detailed look at everything from goblins, pixies, and gnomes to vampires and dragons, and discover their origins in literature, folklore, and ancient history.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published October 11, 2016
9 people are currently reading
621 people want to read
About the author
Olento Salaperäinen
1 book3 followersOlento Salaperäinen is an expert on mythological and legendary beasts and leads a solitary existence on the Shetland Islands, in the North Sea.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
December 28, 2016
All Things Urban Fantasy
A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts: An Atlas of Fabulous Creatures, Enchanted Beings, and Magical Monsters is a wonderfully illustrated book filled with descriptions of mostly familiar mythical creatures. Most of creatures are Northern and Western European save for a small handful of monsters. I would have preferred a bit more variety from other areas like Africa, Asia, and even Eastern Europe since most of the creatures in this book are so very familiar in literature and pop culture already.
As I continued reading the descriptions I came to the realization that this book might be for a younger audience not as familiar with these creatures which would fit with the slightly short descriptions [a page or two per creature]. Being nerdy about mythology and folklore, I wanted a deeper analysis. While slightly disappointing the descriptions were a nice refresher with some interesting facts I didn't know before and the illustrations were pretty adorable too.
I think it is a great book for young school aged kids to get them interested in myths and folklore. The writing is pretty simple and in no way talks down to the reader.
A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts: An Atlas of Fabulous Creatures, Enchanted Beings, and Magical Monsters is a wonderfully illustrated book filled with descriptions of mostly familiar mythical creatures. Most of creatures are Northern and Western European save for a small handful of monsters. I would have preferred a bit more variety from other areas like Africa, Asia, and even Eastern Europe since most of the creatures in this book are so very familiar in literature and pop culture already.
As I continued reading the descriptions I came to the realization that this book might be for a younger audience not as familiar with these creatures which would fit with the slightly short descriptions [a page or two per creature]. Being nerdy about mythology and folklore, I wanted a deeper analysis. While slightly disappointing the descriptions were a nice refresher with some interesting facts I didn't know before and the illustrations were pretty adorable too.
I think it is a great book for young school aged kids to get them interested in myths and folklore. The writing is pretty simple and in no way talks down to the reader.
May 28, 2017
Absolutely loved this! Read it bit by bit every night before bed, and it was a delight! Definitely worth a read for anyone who is interested in mythology! Extensive research has gone into the writing of it and the pictures are stunning. I enjoyed every minute.
November 5, 2020
I am a sucker for anything related to mythology, so this Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts appealed to me immensely. It’s an encyclopaedia of mostly Western mythological creatures, ranging from Leprechauns to Unicorns, from Mummies to the Green Man. Each entry comes with a quick history of the creature, how it evolved, and how it’s been portrayed in various books (e.g. Lord of the Rings).
To be honest, not a lot of the information here was new to me. However, I really enjoyed the illustrations and I liked the connections to popular culture - I think I mostly learnt about how these creatures have been depicted in modern society.
If you like folklore, I think you’ll want to own a copy of this. It’s a beautiful book and is a great way to introduce someone to the Western side of mythology (some non-Western creatures, such a the Qilin, are featured but they are the minority).
To be honest, not a lot of the information here was new to me. However, I really enjoyed the illustrations and I liked the connections to popular culture - I think I mostly learnt about how these creatures have been depicted in modern society.
If you like folklore, I think you’ll want to own a copy of this. It’s a beautiful book and is a great way to introduce someone to the Western side of mythology (some non-Western creatures, such a the Qilin, are featured but they are the minority).
August 5, 2021
I really enjoyed learning more about mythological and supernatural creatures! I appreciated that this book was easy to read and understand
October 27, 2020
The level of detail included for each mythical creature is tremendous and holds the attention for children and adults alike. It has the perfect level of whimsy to entrance the reader to read this book cover to cover without losing steam.
December 29, 2017
A nice place to start if you aren't too familiar with fairytale/mythological/etc. creatures. Features illustrations on each creature & pop culture tie ins. The illustrations are nice and helpful for the particularly strange beasts that are hard to imagine (i.e. the Qilin), but I wasn't a fan of the pop culture bits, mainly because they sometimes contained spoilers & inaccurate information.
January 26, 2023
4 stars
So I happen to find this book in my local book sale (Big Bad Wolf), and whooboy, a nice finding, indeed. While the title said that this book is a field guide to fantastical beasts, the following title is pretty much close to the content of the books. Because not only just the mythical beasts, but also supernatural beings as well. This book have 6 sections, from the Fairfolk and little magical creatures such as gnomes, goblins, etc. Then to demons and the undead, water creatures, hybrid beasts, humanoid creatures and sacred & divine beings. Sadly, the books include mostly myth from Western side of the World like Europe, with a few from Asia, North Africa, North America and Australia. What make this book interesting, its also discuss about the modern myth, such as poltergeist, zombies, and also..Loch Ness monster. The latest can be categorized into cryptid, though.
The narration for each creatures are combined between the original sources, factual events and also some reference to the pop culture that featured said creatures like movies and books up to the time when this book was written (2016). Each creatures also have illustration to show how they look like. Salaperainen's prose is not that dry, quite engaging to be exact, without trying to be condescending toward its reader. He also provide the source of the creature that he discuss so reader can also check the original source. However, I don't think this book is suitable for children, because some content can be too sensitive (there's a discussion about King Minos was cuckolded by his wife! He deserve it, tho). So fair warning if you want to give this book to your child, I suggest to read together. Teen and young adult will like this, and adult can enjoy this. I sure did.
A nice add to my ever growing mythology encyclopedia collection!
So I happen to find this book in my local book sale (Big Bad Wolf), and whooboy, a nice finding, indeed. While the title said that this book is a field guide to fantastical beasts, the following title is pretty much close to the content of the books. Because not only just the mythical beasts, but also supernatural beings as well. This book have 6 sections, from the Fairfolk and little magical creatures such as gnomes, goblins, etc. Then to demons and the undead, water creatures, hybrid beasts, humanoid creatures and sacred & divine beings. Sadly, the books include mostly myth from Western side of the World like Europe, with a few from Asia, North Africa, North America and Australia. What make this book interesting, its also discuss about the modern myth, such as poltergeist, zombies, and also..Loch Ness monster. The latest can be categorized into cryptid, though.
The narration for each creatures are combined between the original sources, factual events and also some reference to the pop culture that featured said creatures like movies and books up to the time when this book was written (2016). Each creatures also have illustration to show how they look like. Salaperainen's prose is not that dry, quite engaging to be exact, without trying to be condescending toward its reader. He also provide the source of the creature that he discuss so reader can also check the original source. However, I don't think this book is suitable for children, because some content can be too sensitive (there's a discussion about King Minos was cuckolded by his wife! He deserve it, tho). So fair warning if you want to give this book to your child, I suggest to read together. Teen and young adult will like this, and adult can enjoy this. I sure did.
A nice add to my ever growing mythology encyclopedia collection!
September 3, 2017
My ten-year-old and I enjoyed reading an entry or two each night together. I especially liked the origins and history, information from the different cultures and regions that had stories about each creature, and the modern culture and pop culture depictions and references (Rowling, Tolkien, Dahl...)
February 15, 2025
What a marvelous overview here: fairies and little people, demons and the undead, vampires, zombies, water creatures, hybrid beasts, humanoid creatures, the sacred and devine. So many outstanding illustrations and descriptions. The ideal book on the topic for young and old readers. Highly recommended!
June 5, 2021
Quite a good read. One point of information is the girls at the Salem Witch trials have been found not to have been under the influence of ergot. Also, there was no notation to claim that tribes with totems in various countries could not marry into the same totem etc.
September 16, 2023
Good introduction to fantastical creatures from folktales of all over the world, including Chinese 麒麟Qilin and Japanese Kappa. It also involves good books (such as Harry Potter series) and movies (such as Disney animations) related to these creatures.
December 29, 2018
Wonderful and informative book!
February 11, 2021
Great little book.
February 20, 2021
A little mythology, a little religion, a little pop culture, and colorful illustrations. A lot of creatures I’d heard of and a few I hadn’t.
March 28, 2023
It's very interesting book yet I think it would be good to have origins of how it started. However, I loved the refences made for each creature.
January 13, 2018
I greatly enjoyed this book. A lot of work went into it, finding the origin stories for each fantastic beast, who all believes in them and telling all the locations where they are found.
The book talks a bit about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, where the ideas for creatures/characters come from and where they got character names.
I’d recommend this book if you like mythology and/or like learning about these kind of beasts.
The book talks a bit about Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, where the ideas for creatures/characters come from and where they got character names.
I’d recommend this book if you like mythology and/or like learning about these kind of beasts.
May 29, 2020
This is a fantastic book with plenty of enchanting and intriguing facts about each magical and mythical being. A truly fun and unique read for all ages, with gorgeous illustrations at each turn of the page!
October 30, 2016
4 stars from Bill, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
Disclaimer: just so you know, some of the books we review are received free from publishers
A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts, by Olento Salaperäinen, is a nice if basic introduction to 50 mythological/supernatural creatures, one suitable more for younger readers than older ones (say, high school or up) due to its relatively brief entries and often familiar subject matter.
The guide is encyclopedic in form, dividing the creatures into six basic groups: Fairies and Little People, Demons and the Undead, Water Creatures, Hybrid Beasts, Humanoid Creatures, and The Sacred and the Divine. The groups themselves are organized alphabetically, with each having between 7-10 creatures and 2-4 pages of description devoted to each creature. Each section also has a small sidebar that usually offers up a modern day (and often modern media) use of the creatures, such as how zombies were used in Shaun of the Dead, vampires in Twilight, and ogres in Shrek. A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts is also lavishly illustrated, with a full-page illustration every other page. Finally, Salaperäinen includes a glossary, bibliography, and index.
Most of the fantastical beasts will be familiar to readers as all the old favorites are here, drawn mostly from Greek, British, and Norse mythologies and the classic monster movies (though Salaperäinen, of course, gives their more ancient antecedents). And so we have gorgons, sirens, griffins and centaurs; dwarves, elves, giants, and trolls; ghosts, mummies, vampires and zombies, to name a few. Non-western cultures do appear throughout, if in fewer numbers. And so we have the Chinese Quilin (head of a lion, body of a deer, a horse’s hooves, an ox’s tail, and the scales of a fish), the Egyptian Sphinx, the Tibetan Yeti, the Australian Aborigine’s Rainbow Serpent, and a few others. Dragons appear, in both their western and eastern forms....4 stars from Bill, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
Disclaimer: just so you know, some of the books we review are received free from publishers
A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts, by Olento Salaperäinen, is a nice if basic introduction to 50 mythological/supernatural creatures, one suitable more for younger readers than older ones (say, high school or up) due to its relatively brief entries and often familiar subject matter.
The guide is encyclopedic in form, dividing the creatures into six basic groups: Fairies and Little People, Demons and the Undead, Water Creatures, Hybrid Beasts, Humanoid Creatures, and The Sacred and the Divine. The groups themselves are organized alphabetically, with each having between 7-10 creatures and 2-4 pages of description devoted to each creature. Each section also has a small sidebar that usually offers up a modern day (and often modern media) use of the creatures, such as how zombies were used in Shaun of the Dead, vampires in Twilight, and ogres in Shrek. A Field Guide to Fantastical Beasts is also lavishly illustrated, with a full-page illustration every other page. Finally, Salaperäinen includes a glossary, bibliography, and index.
Most of the fantastical beasts will be familiar to readers as all the old favorites are here, drawn mostly from Greek, British, and Norse mythologies and the classic monster movies (though Salaperäinen, of course, gives their more ancient antecedents). And so we have gorgons, sirens, griffins and centaurs; dwarves, elves, giants, and trolls; ghosts, mummies, vampires and zombies, to name a few. Non-western cultures do appear throughout, if in fewer numbers. And so we have the Chinese Quilin (head of a lion, body of a deer, a horse’s hooves, an ox’s tail, and the scales of a fish), the Egyptian Sphinx, the Tibetan Yeti, the Australian Aborigine’s Rainbow Serpent, and a few others. Dragons appear, in both their western and eastern forms....4 stars from Bill, read the full review at FANTASY LITERATURE
January 2, 2017
Previously published at TheQwillery.com
Olento Salaperäinen’s A Field Guide To Fantastical Beasts is the perfect book to take with you on a fairy hunt into the woods. Salaperäinen groups the beasts by category: Fairies & and Little People, Demons & The Undead, Water Creatures, Hybrid Beasts, Humanoid Creatures and then The Sacred & The Divine; with about seven to ten creatures listed alphabetical in each of those subcategories.
Each beast has one to two pages of information about it with an illustration. Salaperäinen tells us where the beast originates from and some interesting tidbits from history. One that I found interesting for example is Gremlins weren’t created until World War I. They gave pilots a lot of trouble, since the Gremlins like to eat and destroy engines and machinery. Salaperäinen also includes information about each beast and how they interact with pop culture. There’s a great reference of Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf in the Werewolf entry.
The art in the book is wonderfully folky and gives the book its very own characters. Salaperäinen also added a glossary, index and bibliography in the back in case you want to go deeper into the subject.
One of the weaknesses of the book is its limited scope of beasts. As a fan of all things mythical and fantastical, I want to learn about new creatures. I would be surprised if the everyday non-fantasy fan hasn’t heard of each of the beasts. I will say that even though the entries are small they do pack a big punch of information.
A Field Guide To Fantastical Beasts is the perfect beastiary for young adults or people new to the subject. The only warning a parent or reader needs to be aware of is there is a subcategory dealing with Demons and the Undead, so depending on your own personal beliefs you may want to steer clear. Otherwise, I would feel comfortable suggesting this to Tweens and Adults.
Olento Salaperäinen’s A Field Guide To Fantastical Beasts is the perfect book to take with you on a fairy hunt into the woods. Salaperäinen groups the beasts by category: Fairies & and Little People, Demons & The Undead, Water Creatures, Hybrid Beasts, Humanoid Creatures and then The Sacred & The Divine; with about seven to ten creatures listed alphabetical in each of those subcategories.
Each beast has one to two pages of information about it with an illustration. Salaperäinen tells us where the beast originates from and some interesting tidbits from history. One that I found interesting for example is Gremlins weren’t created until World War I. They gave pilots a lot of trouble, since the Gremlins like to eat and destroy engines and machinery. Salaperäinen also includes information about each beast and how they interact with pop culture. There’s a great reference of Michael J. Fox’s Teen Wolf in the Werewolf entry.
The art in the book is wonderfully folky and gives the book its very own characters. Salaperäinen also added a glossary, index and bibliography in the back in case you want to go deeper into the subject.
One of the weaknesses of the book is its limited scope of beasts. As a fan of all things mythical and fantastical, I want to learn about new creatures. I would be surprised if the everyday non-fantasy fan hasn’t heard of each of the beasts. I will say that even though the entries are small they do pack a big punch of information.
A Field Guide To Fantastical Beasts is the perfect beastiary for young adults or people new to the subject. The only warning a parent or reader needs to be aware of is there is a subcategory dealing with Demons and the Undead, so depending on your own personal beliefs you may want to steer clear. Otherwise, I would feel comfortable suggesting this to Tweens and Adults.
March 21, 2018
This review was originally posted to This Is My Bookshelf
Don’t you love it when a book comes from nowhere and surprises you?
I’d never seen this before, but when I place an order with The Book People I had the option of picking a free gift and thought I’d give this a go.
As the blurb states, this is a guide to all sorts of creatures. It covers a wide range of cultures and religions, world wide stories and local legends. For each, we discover the creatures origin and history along with examples from pop culture. All this is accompanied by beautiful illustrations.
If you’re interested in folk lore, world culture or even just a fantasy fan I’d highly recommend this. It’s something I know I’ll just keep going back to.
Don’t you love it when a book comes from nowhere and surprises you?
I’d never seen this before, but when I place an order with The Book People I had the option of picking a free gift and thought I’d give this a go.
As the blurb states, this is a guide to all sorts of creatures. It covers a wide range of cultures and religions, world wide stories and local legends. For each, we discover the creatures origin and history along with examples from pop culture. All this is accompanied by beautiful illustrations.
If you’re interested in folk lore, world culture or even just a fantasy fan I’d highly recommend this. It’s something I know I’ll just keep going back to.
December 13, 2016
Geared toward younger readers or maybe adults who haven't read much fantasy, but I did learn a few new things. I particularly liked how it included the history of most of the creatures and how they have evolved over time. There were many entries that I wished were longer.
July 2, 2019
So much fun! Perfect book to read for my Care of Magical Creatures OWL!
November 22, 2022
Very interesting and contemporary. I liked it
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews