Gods & Monsters Myths & Tales

by Liz Gloyn (Foreword)

Myths and legendary tales from around the world are packed with gigantic rivalries; gods, monsters and giants compete for supremacy over the land, the creatures within and the universe beyond. Zeus clashes with the all-powerful Typhon, Odin is destined to face the great wolf Fenrir during Ragnarok. And yet monsters such as the Minotaur, and giants of all kinds, dragons even, are monsters only to those too fearful to understand them, while others such as the Sirens, or the weird sisters, are malevolent without remorse.

Such mythical gods and their foes, make great adventures for the modern reader tracing the roots of The Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Witcher, where good and evil are morphed into real avatars and creatures of vivid imagination. In these pages you'll find the gods of the heavens and mountains, and the spirits and demons of the deep sea, the dark woods and the burning sands. From the gods of Babylon and Ancient Egypt to the Norse Aesir, from the pantheon of mighty Greek deities to the gods of the earth and the sky in Pacific legends, most of the great traditions are featured here, with monsters galore: Anansi the trickster spider, the chaos serpent Apep, the Wendigo (or Windegoo spirits), the Greek Sphinx, the drought demon dragon Vritra and the Chimera to name a few.

The Flame Tree's Gothic & Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Genres: Mythology, Fantasy, Classics, Horror, Research, Anthologies, Short Stories

432 pages, Hardcover

Published April 20, 2021

About the author

Liz Gloyn is Reader in Latin Language and Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests beyond classical reception studies explore the intersection between Latin literature, the Roman family and ancient philosophy. She is the author of The Ethics of the Family in Seneca (2017).

Reviews

[Carl Bluesy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book for exploring a small bit of lots of different mythologies. There’s lots of snippets for many stories from many sources, and wall I never felt I caught a good in depth, understand enough, any of the subjects covered in this book, they gave me a rough idea about the stories.

I think this book works best at a jumping off point. Where you see what stories passionate you the most and then you can find other books I go into on those particular stories. I think this book helps you down what areas you want to know a little bit about and what ones you want to get more books on continue on your understanding and experience of these timeless stories.

[John D · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst book I've read in a long time, possibly ever. I've read many many books on myths in many contexts. This one is drier than textbooks on myths, and contains none of the insight or organization. Each section, even each paragraph is disjointed from each other with no segues or explanation for seeming random ordering. Only parts of the myths and context of the myths are given, and not always, or even often, the most important parts.
Finally the toward is bizarre on it's Woke bent. These myths were the bases of a number of the world's religions and cultures. Why would one not put the muths in that context and honor those cultures, rather than trying to somehow fit them into a temporary modern pseudo-religious that will have no staying power compared to the actual context of these myths?
It book is a poor representation of the myths, and dishonors them.

[Virginia · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF, I got about 40% of the way through.
This book tried to do too much, it tried to have myths from every religion over different categories. Because they aimed high they didn't have enough space to fully let these stories shine. Another, more minor thing, I disliked about this book was the titles didn't include the origin of the myth so you had to flip back to the table of contests to see where a tale came from. If you are looking for for a good introduction to different myths this isn't bad, but I recommend finding a book on each culture you are interested in.

[Michael Barker · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stories themselves were interesting but the way they were presented felt disjointed and were hard to visualize due to the constant switching between different cultures stories.

[Arlo H · Rating 1 out of 5]

So horribly inaccurate and fictionalized I threw up in my mouth every time I opened it.

[Gunnar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super nice read, very informative

[Daniram Persaud · Rating 4 out of 5]

As this is an anthology, it has many ups and downs. But the ups are good enough that I'm willing to rate it this highly.

[Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an odd collection. I really liked some of the stories, and I liked the scope of the collection (geographically, I mean). What I liked less was the way the tone & style of the writing shifted randomly. There were sections that were more text-book like, explaining the mythical figures as though from the perspective of someone studying the cultures they're form. At other times the stories were presented as though being told directly, like a fairy tale. Some parts did both, with the narrative mostly aping the 'oral' story-telling style common to myths and fairy tales, with random explanations mixed into paragraphs. It made the book hard to get into in spite of the interesting stories, because if you started investing in them as stories the immersion would be broken by an out of place sentence.