The Element Encyclopedia Of Magical Creatures

Element Encyclopedia

by Caitlin Matthews John Matthews

The ultimate a—z of fantastic beings from myth and magic.

Discover an incredible world full of every magical creature you could possibly imagine...
From unicorns, salamanders, satyrs, giants, elves and trolls, to dragons, nymphs, mermaids, werewolves and griffins — take an enchanting journey through the history, folklore, and mythology of these beasts from virtually every culture in the world. With stories and amazing facts on even the most obscure mythological creature, this is a cornucopia of magic and folklore.

Genres: Fantasy, Reference, Mythology, Witchcraft, Research, Folklore, Magic

554 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although The Element Encyclodpedia of Magical Creatures is quite if not even massively informative (with a universal and extensive coverage/description of mythical and fantastic beings, and yes, with a very good and usable bibliography at the back of the book), there are simply too many niggling, problematic academic issues for me to rate this book with more than two and rather grudging stars. For aside from the fact that there is a rather haphazard combination of minor deities, demons, troll like creatures and the like presented in The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, my one specific objection, my main and personally massively annoying issue is that I actually have found one huge, glaring and in all ways problematic factual error. For in the entry describing the demonic entity Dahak, authors John and Caitlin Matthews claim that "the creature was born from the evil will of Ahuramazda, the personification of evil in the Zoroastrian system" (an assertion that is absolutely and patently FALSE, as in the Zoroastrian system, Ahura Mazda is considered the personification of good, and it is his opponent, Angra Mainyu, also known as Ahriman, who is considered the personification of evil, and thus, mistaking Ahura Mazda for Angra Mainyu would be basically akin to mistaking God for Satan, for Lucifer). And consequently, if one notices a basic and substantial error such as the former, one then and by mere necessity often also begins to question the validity and truth of the other entries and particularly those describing creatures and entities of unfamiliar, less commonly known traditions and mythologies (and while I have only found this one glaring error so far in The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, there is really also no way for me to check whether the information on magical creatures and fantastic beings unknown or not as well known to me is factually correct, because the authors have also chosen to not make use of bibliographical references within the text proper, another serious and frustrating academic shortcoming that also limits the potential use for and of The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures for any type of serious academic research, except of course for the bibliographical list at the back, which is, indeed, a wonderful potential academic resource). And thus, sadly, while I actually did quite enjoy reading (and browsing through) The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures and found and continue to find the presented and described information both fascinating and interesting, I would not EVER want to recommend this book for serious, scholarly research. And indeed, due to the fact that I have located factual errors within the text, I also feel that I really must warn potential readers and users of this encyclopedia that there might well be more errors I have not noticed (and therefore certainly not to rely on The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures for academic purposes, and above all to verify and check ALL of the information presented, especially if even remotely considering the latter for university or college level research, as many professors would and do generally and with good reason frown upon secondary sources s that do not make use of citations, footnotes and endnotes).

[Sophie Crane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, with a large variety of creatures described. As an artist I find it's a good source of inspiration for any creative person looking for an idea or for something to draw. It's also interesting for anyone if they just wanted to pick it up and read at random. It does lack pictures, and it would be nice if there were a few scattered throughout the book but I can't say this bothers me that much. It's good sometimes to not have your own imagination influenced by someone else's interpretation. Plus you could always do further research if you wanted to look some of them up in more detail.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty darn comprehensive volume. I guess the only reason I give it four stars is that I wish there were some pictures haha.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

This "review"'s going to deviate from my standard reviews a bit. Back to your regularly scheduled reviewing next time.

A commenter on my other blog and I were having a little conversation about book buying in the comments of one of my posts there. I don’t know about you, but right now I need more books like I need a double lobotomy. Like I told him in my comment, when I went to pre-order Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, I just had to pick up Why We Suck by Dr. Denis Leary. The man is my god, after all. Might as well have the bible. But that’s just my little compulsive twitch for book buying at work.

But I did go into Barnes and Noble that day. No, not to buy anything, at least initially. I wanted to collect information for a post I'm planning on doing over there that my lazy butt hasn't gotten around to doing yet. But what did I see on the bargain racks before I even walked into the store? A slew of Element Encyclopedias, soft cover versions.

Now, I already owned one, the Encyclopedia of Witch Craft. I’ve owned it for years. My mom got it on discount from One Spirit book club and it’s helped me immensely with building a character for one of my books. So, needless to say, I screamed a little on the inside when I saw all these Element books just sitting there for $9.98 and begging to be bought. They're $30 books! Each! So I picked up Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures, Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols and Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Hauntings.

OMG I’m in heaven. When I buy when I really shouldn't, I get that tinge of guilt afterwards. You know what I'm talking about. But these . . . these will not go to waste at all and I would have kicked myself in the ass repeatedly had I not picked these up. The Element Encyclopedias are some of the best references for the mystical and magical and if you’re even considering writing anything like that, you’ll want these books amongst your reference guides. I’ll be able to use these with everything that I’m writing and plan to write.

Squee! I smile every time I look at them!

[Bonezie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for more in depth descriptions about the different creatures instead of such a brief descriptions. There are also quite a few popular creatures that I expected it to have that are missing, hellhounds, yuki-onna etc. There is almost nothing listed about Jörmungandr. Only that it is referred to as the Midgard serpant. Illustrations would have been a nice touch. And a pronunciation guide would have been awesome, since it lists creatures from all over the world and there are some pretty strange names.

There are also some inaccuracies I noticed, such as under Mothman, Kevin Costner is listed as the star in The Mothman Prophecies. Or that in the book there is a mythological creature listed as 'raksa'. 'Raksa' is the name of a village in Slovakia. The creature the book is referring to is the rakshasa (which is what I was trying to look up when I came across raksa). And despite looking I can't find any instance of rakshasa being referred to as raksa so I'm not sure where that came from or if its just a spelling error.

As an overview of mythological creatures from around the world it works and it is a great quick reference book. But if you're looking for more in depth information on creatures from a specific culture then it's best to pick up a book devoted to that.

[Care · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written so comprehensively, accessible to all levels of readers. It includes both mythological figures and fictional creatures, bridging the gap between myth and fiction. I wish there were illustrations included, but almost every 'creature' I looked up was in here. Except Jiangshi. That was a bit of an oversight. But what encyclopedia doesn't miss one or two things? Overall, I felt that everything was well represented, Canadian Indigenous legends included as well as other often ignored myths.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only downfall to this book is the lack of pictures. It would have added alot to this book if it had some drawings or painting of even some of the creatures.

[Wolf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Others have noted various factual inaccuracies (about people’s beliefs and stories - none of these creatures are real, of course) and I spotted some myself when reading entries. Since none of the entries give references or sources, there’s no easy of checking them. Once you spot one, you are left wondering what else might be a mistake.

Which is a shame, because otherwise this doorstop of a book is right up my street. It is attractively and well laid out. It is easy to read. A lack of illustrations is the only flaw in terms of its presentation.

Each entry is relatively brief. There is little room for in depth examination of each creature and variations in belief.

On the plus side, a wide range of creatures and easy text.

On the negative side, you may want to go away and find other references for anything in here.

[Ashley T · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a whim since I love bestiaries and folklore. It really covers a wide range of cultures and I ended up reading it cover to cover and marking creatures I would like to try to draw. It's a pretty comprehensive book and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in folklore, mythologies, or bestiaries.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that it was very diverse in its global coverage of magical creatures from all cultures, but they cover so many creatures, that you just get a brief skim of each one.

[Megan Vick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference for magical creatures! If you're creating a world, or want more info on monsters and creatures from a book you're reading, this won't disappoint!

Check out all my reviews at Beguiled By Books

[Lori Schiele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been reading this book very slowly for a number of years, off and on, perhaps 10-20 pages at a time and, while I find the information interesting and informative--I also find a great deal of it incorrect or missing partial information--so I took it upon myself to cross-reference the names throughout the book where there were mistakes and overlaps (a very unsettling number),by using Google the Internet I also cleared up much of the confusion and added notes and margins where needed to the books for clarity (such as where many of the "Magical Creatures" were gods and goddesses of other pantheons, not monsters or creatures.
So there is a great deal of items I wrote in margins, as well as pieces of paper tucked into sections where more than the margins were needed, in order to try to get a much more well-rounded and complete guide.
The "Ultimate" A-Z is very far from a "Ultimate Guide of Magical Creatures" but I still did find many of the entries interesting and so I continued to read, take notes, and edit where editing was required.

January 2019: have almost reached the end but it has taken me 3 years to complete this over 1000 page book, along with the extra research. For those interested in "Fantastic Beings" and "Magical Creatures", it is definitely worth a read, but don't expect it to be easy or at all complete. Still, there is much to be learned. So even with all of the errors and miscorrections, I chose to give it a 4 because if you have the time and the interest, there were a lot of things to be learned from.

Completed Oct 2019

[Claudia Loureiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this vibrant and fascinating tome five stars simply because I can't give it more. I was hesitant to buy it but I am so glad now that I went with my instincts. I love fantasy and the imagination in their own right...and this book gives wonderful homage to the magical beings all around us.
I really am fascinated by this tome, and thoroughly believe it belongs on the shelf of anyone who is interested in the things we have to believe in to see.
This book does not have many illustrations (and the ones it does have are really just sketches). I did not take away in the rating for that because most of these creatures, I think, are best seen by the minds eye...where they will never disappoint because they will look exactly as you think they should.
:)

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I happened upon this book by shear accident at the book store. It was sitting on the clearance - Last Chance shelf and I just couldn't help myself. I picked it up and just happened to open it up to 'Orc.' Now, i loved Lord of the Rings, but I didn't know that an Orc wasn't something that Tolkien created! So, curiosity prevailed and I bought it wondering what other creatures I will discover and learn about. I found the book to be quite interesting and entertaining. The authors did a good job of describing and explaining the various creatures listed. I would like to see a similar book about Magical and Mythical Realms too.

[N.L. Riviezzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked up this book at random from the library. Found it quite fascinating. Some of the magical creatures are very familiar as they appear in literature a lot but a large number of the creatures mentioned in this book are ones that I was not familiar with. Quite glad to have found this book and plan to buy my own copy soon.

[Chancey Shae · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't think of a creature they missed! And many of them I had never heard of before! A great reference book!

[Elysa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another fun read to accompany the Harry Potter series.

[sharon Wilkinson Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book lost a star as would of liked some illustrations throughout the book.

[Tiffany Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures
It took me the LONGEST time to get through this. Actually tho, it should have been called The Elemental Encyclopedia of SERPENTS. You can’t see my highlights because they are in invisible probably but if you do see them there are over 200 (probably should be more than that). Every other animal in this either *WAS*WAS some kind of serpent or had some kind of connection *TO* serpent. So much so that after a while, I got tired of reading about them, but snakes aren’t an animal I really want to think about. Unless it’s telling you what to do if one should come up on you and can have it attack you.

But it definitely was informative. When I got to the end (and around the middle) the information (stories) sounded like they were repeating themselves. Such as I was reading about one animal and would swear I heard the exact same story mentioned with another animal. And then I just thought it was odd because it gave me the impression that this was about MAGICAL CREATURES. Some of these animals definitely not “MAGICAL”. Some of em are just animals. So in other words this is an Encyclopedia of Animals (some magical, some not). It’s a mix.

In my notes, a couple of the things I said were 1) I think this would have been better if it was a hard-back illustrated book kinda like in the style of Fantastic Beast. It just would have enhanced it to make it visual. Another is a slight suggestion. Now you *can* do what I did and listen to it read for half of it, but it not it would be good to have the pronunciation to all of the names. Some of course you’ll know but others.. But overall it’s a good reference book to use if you ever want to write a fantasy story and you need to know more about a creature to include it in your story. This is the right book for that.

Rating: 7

[Omiai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is a really helpful book. It is very thorough in covering magical creatures from all over the world, and not just the well known ones.

Two reasons I haven't given it 5 stars:

1. Illustrations would really have improved this book. As it is, there are a few, but they are just random dragon pictures, nothing related to the creatures that are being listed.

2. A pronounciation guide for the names of all the creatures would have been really useful. This, more than the lack of illustrations, is this books real downfall.

Otherwise, I really recommend this book! It has every creature you could think of and more! I'd be amazed if there was a creature you could think of (that you haven't just made up yourself!) that isn't in this book! Very impressive and thorough!

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had only really flipped through it before, but the other day I actually looked something up.
I don’t know how this book got past an editor, even a proofreader! The mistakes are pretty obvious, but they are still enough to doubt the wisdoms of trusting any information taken from the book. Many entries are mixed up and/or contradict each other. If you need a reference source for magical creatures, I suggest looking elsewhere.
(The one star is for the book designer- that lovely under appreciated person who chose the fonts, worked out the spacing and placement of all the text, decided where the illustrations would go, and so on.)

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little (for the subject matter) encyclopedia. It doesn't have everything but it has a lot, and much I didn't know about (which is what I wanted). I particularly liked the asides about more general categories.
I do have a few criticisms: namely, there is no index of all creatures. That really would be nice to have. A second, sightly pedantic one, is that there are so many connections between entries but only rarely do they specifically tell you to check out another one.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read this book several years ago, but never from cover to cover, which i've now done. it is missing some magical creatures. still it's fun emporium of many of them. the book includes creatures from both myth and fiction. it has books from various countries. anyone interested in magic and faeries might enjoy it. it doesn't have the ghillie dhu which disappointed me.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really comprehensive collection of mythical creatures. Those whose legends I am very familiar with were well-represented. I gave the book four stars primarily because pronunciation of some of the more unfamiliar creature names would be extremely helpful, and secondly, some pictures would be a great addition. Otherwise a really useful guide.

[Heka · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent reference for any household that finds itself occasionally discussing mythical creatures. My copy lives on an accessible shelf in our living room and is not infrequently called upon to settle disagreements over the characteristics and origins of various beasts. Granted, this is only useful if you and your housemates are dorks. But if you are, invest in one of these!

[Patrick McGorman · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book containing just about any mythological beast, from the majestic to the man-eaters. This book contain creatures from all of human time, from the Mesopotamian Sirrush to cretics like El Chupacabra. The only thing I could have wanted more would be more pictures of the creatures I was reading about, though honestly that would be a lot of pictures.

[Aaron Denny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like it a lot, but they make stuff up sometimes. There is no such thing as a "Gigantosaurus" as is described in the Kasai Rex description on page 332. Lost a star for that along with the wasted empty space on the pages.

[Virginia Rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful as a first point of call for research, especially in the kindle format where you can use the search function, but a bit sparse in places to fit in the number of entries.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is going on
my Christmas list

[Matilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun book of magical creatures throughout the world. I think this will be a handy compendium to use for writing fantasy.