When I was a kid I would haunt both my school and public libraries because I was so addicted to old books like these, the smell of them, and the illustrations. As a teenager I would scour the used book stalls at Macalister Road and would come back with stacks of hardcover books, some with pages so brittle they would crumble to the touch. I suspect starting this Old Books photo-journal series is going to give me much joy, this year.

Donald A. Mackenzie is responsible for a reasonable amount of these volumes of myth and folklore and he’s from the old school (well, relatively old school if you can consider the Moderns old) of comparing myths and folklore with the idea that they all stem from a common source. This isn’t something that is done in the current cultural history and anthropology arena, but I do enjoy the charm of the narration in older volumes such as those by Mackenzie or Frazer. A couple of his texts can be found over at Project Gutenberg.

I’ve been flipping through the Myths of China and Japan; it’s great fun in that he picks up motifs like “The Isle of the Blessed” and looks for resonances with Egyptian and Celtic folklore. Of course, some of the analogies he draws are a far stretch, and not accurate from a scholarly point of view, but there are enough stand alone segments in here to make it an enjoyable read. This is a beautifully illustrated volume and I will be posting some of the illustrations in later posts.

I particularly like how this design on the cover has faded into the well-worn fabric.

I love the design here as well!

One of my favourite artists, the lovely Aria Nadii, wrote an inspiring post on Magic, Art and Beauty. It sparked off a conversation about old books and illustrations in IRC when I shared it with some friends. As a result, I remembered these shots I took of Laurence Housman’s A Farm in Fairyland, back in 2008. So you can consider this my blog response and acknowledgement of beauty

I happened upon A Farm in Fairyland entirely by chance at the university library, on one of those magical afternoons when all you want is to get lost between aisles that sometimes seem like pathways through a forest of books. I was enthralled with both the stories and the Victorian illustrations which reminded me of the Pre-raphaelites. And no wonder! Housman’s the brother of A.E. Housman and was a Victorian illustrator, poet and writer, who had also illustrated Christina Rosseti’s Goblin Market! A Farm in Fairyland is both beautiful and unique, not just for the illustrations but for the tales themselves, which were entirely original fairytales with the innocence and the charm of a fable, but with a sprightly faerie grace. I would say more but I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Also, if you have a penchant for old books, beautiful old things as well as poetic palimpsests with textures which make a synaesthete dream, do hop on over to Aria Nadii’s digital haven, so you too may be inspired by Magic, Beauty and Art.

In reviewing my reading list for 2009, it looks like I have read less books in comparison to last year. The fact of the matter is that a huge amount of my readings have been for my thesis and that left me no time and room for much reading for pleasure. However, I have read some rather lovely books, this year. My current read is an example of that. Vera Nazarian’s Salt of the Air gives several new and surprising interpretations of fairy tale motifs, and she pretty much had my attention from the first story, which I read at the bus stop. I read slowly, and by its end, I was fighting back unexpected tears. I’ll probably have to do a full review at some point after I finish reading the whole book, but for now, might I suggest you check out Salt of the Air?

I’ve just stopped working on the background for The Mythic Folk Treeboards for tonight. I will doubtless resume tomorrow, after which I will work on this background, to distinguish it from The Mythogenetic Grove. About to reward myself by watching Faerie Tale Theatre’s version of The Princess of the Pea which I’ve been wanting to watch since reading Nazarian’s rather wicked and intriguing take on that fairytale. Am also reminded that I have yet to watch Once upon a Mattress even if I’ve been dying to for several years now.

Goodnight, chickadees!

Yeats may be one of my all-time favourite poets, but I find that I love his prose (that includes his letters) almost as much (if not more) than I love the poems. Yeats’s prose complements his verse, allowing the reader to identify and revel in the layers behind the words of works such as “The Second Coming”, “The Gyres” and “Sailing to Byzantium”, for instance, or his intriguing plays. They also provide a more instant access to the mind of Yeats, which is why I’ve always been mad about the letters and thoughts of my favourite authors, artists and poets. It’s easy for people to just associate Yeats with faeries and myth, but it’s never been just about simplistic interpretations for him.

Mythologies consists of seven different works of prose edited and selected for this anthology by Yeats himself. The first is the (in)famous Celtic Twilight where he documents stories either experienced by him or faithfully recorded from oral sources. They aren’t dry, straightforward documentations, but are rather graceful narrations which convey a certain “mood” that runs throughout his poetry and plays as well.

My favourite amongst this collection of accounts is Regina, Regina Pigmeorum, Veni which details his encounter with the faeries- via a medium. Apart from the “thrill” of reading about his experiences, I believe this chapter to be very helpful if you’re looking to see how Yeats apprehended or believed in Faeries, for purposes of interpreting his poems or plays. I also liked The Queen and the Fool because of its mention of the Amadan-na-Breena, a.k.a, The Fool. A lot of his writings in this volume deal with mythical iconography and symbolism which is also found in his poetry. Take the figure of the “Fool” for instance, or his references to a “Secret Rose” which is part of the spiritual symbolism of the Hermetic Orders as well as the Rosicrucians. Yeats was a member of both Occult groups.

The second and third parts are “The Secret Rose” and the “Stories of Red Hanrahan” respectively. Both deal not only with the folklore of Ireland but with the mythopoetical imagination of the author, who weaves elements of myth and mysticism in evocative, beautifully lyrical prose. The last parts- the Rosa Alchemica, The Tables of the Law, The Adoration of the Magi and Per Amica Silentia Lunae, are, in my opinion, the best. They delve even deeper into the mysticism which is at the roots of Yeats’s work and are also filled with mystery and suspense. Belittled by those who did not understand what he was all about, Yeats had a complex, methodological approach to both his art and his vision. As a student of his work and someone fascinated by his life history and involvements, I thought these sections captured the quality of mystery that surrounds both his life and his work.

Per Amica Silentia Lunae ties in nicely with some of the ideas found in the complex and exhilarating A Vision (which is a wholly different volume, altogether). Because this is my overall favourite within this collection, I can’t really be objective about this, but really, I found the ideas and the prose in Per Amica Silentia Lunae to be thrilling as well as striking resounding chords in my soul- as it would with anyone who has ever known the feeling of inspiration which possesses and transforms the soul with its arrival.

If you’re looking for straightforward accounts of creatures in Irish myth and folklore, this probably won’t satisfy you. (Try Yeats’s Fairy and Folk Tales of Ireland instead.) But, if the spirit of myth and folklore fascinates you, if you are enchanted by the intangible and how the poetic human spirit responds to it, you’ll find this volume to be both a treasure and an inspiration, regardless of whether you’re a literature major or not.

Like the earlier Faeries Mr. Froud gives the beloved Faerie legends of the world a spin via his remarkable personal artistic vision, though this time in collaboration with the expert hand of Terri Windling, his editor. The difference between this book and the prior Faeries is that there seems to be a whole lot more imagination in the proceedings, and a willingness to go beyond the limits of traditional folklore. The influences for this book are markedly more diverse too, and there is mention (in the introduction, if not anywhere else) of the elementals of Arabian and African mythology.

Of course, the main attraction would naturally be the art, which is gorgeous in an eerie sort of way. Some of the pictures- with the accompanying text seems aimed at inspiring meditation or self-actualization, giving this book a new-agey slant the prior volume didn’t have. It does have the effect of making this book more immediate, as does the contextualization of otherworldly characters within everyday life. Characters come alive through the many colourful, beguiling, disturbing pages of this pictorial odyssey through the otherworld of faeries, pixies, and other not so wholesome creatures. One of my favourite aspects of this book, however, is the text, inclusive of the editorial, which allows us a glimpse at the artistic/mythopoeic process behind the creation.

“Know Thyself” is the creed that you will find throughout this book, one which will cause you to look at things around you anew. Definitely inspiring, and the design/layout of the book is also pretty impressive. If I have one complaint, is that this book tends to veer dangerously into didactic ground every now and then. But with art this gorgeous, it’s not something you’re going to mind so much.