Chair of Apologetics at HCU, author of Tolkien Dogmatics. Focus on theology & literature, fantasy, angelology/demonology, sin, creation, patristics.....
Tales of the Fairies & of the Ghost World, Jeremiah Curtin.
Not ancient legends, but contemporary storytelling. Fascinating, fun, often funny, but I've no idea how the Irish survived with this many supernatural interferences constantly occurring.
The Hierarchy of Heaven & Earth, D.E. Harding.
Why did CS Lewis agree to introduce this book? Certainly not because he agreed with it--it is highly unorthodox though original. But it does try to associate stars with angels in a modern context.
Myths & Folk Tales of Ireland, Jeremiah Curtin.
Another of the many turn of the century collections that sparked national cultural revivals across Europe.
Ancient Irish Tales, ed. Tom Cross & Clark Harris Slover. Contains most of the 4 cycles of Irish myth. Lots of marvels, lots of fighting, and a specialty in magic items.
@RScottClark Would be interested to hear specific ways in which you see Everett Ferguson getting it wrong. Also a response to the fact that the early church also believed that baptism only cleanses from prior but not future sins.
David Mitchell, Unruly: A History of England's Kings & Queens.
You can read this whole book in his voice without purchasing the audiobook. Doesn't like Edward the Confessor because he's too holy to chop people's heads off, and then also judges everyone else for chopping heads. π€·
Oxford VSO: Classical Literature, William Allan.
Organized by genre and then chronologically within that genre. Moves from epic to satire in a way which is certainly not a metaphor for western civilization.
Kalevala, Elias Lonnrot.
National epic of Finland, influential to both Lewis & Tolkien. I found the most moving part for me were the wedding passages: imagining a young girl leaving her home and receiving daily life advice from her elders. BUt there's also shape-changing & magic.
Vergil: The Poet's Life, Sarah Ruden.
Short, because we don't know much. But I now know a lot more than I did! What started as her most irritating claim (Vergil was gay) turns out to be both fairly reasonable & illuminating.
Satanic Feminism, Per Faxneld.
Pro-feminist but does a lot of unwitting work to undermine feminism. Did you know many prominent abolitionists were theosophists who worshiped Satan? + just b/c you redefine Satan as some sort of good doesn't get you off the hook. He doesn't care.
Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls.
It's Russian satire and a 19th century classic from before the liberation of the serfs. It also taught me a new term: poshlost.