Mythos

In Quest of the Hero makes available for a new generation of readers two key works on hero myths: Otto Rank's Myth of the Birth of the Hero and the central section of Lord Raglan's The Hero. Amplifying these is Alan Dundes's fascinating contemporary inquiry, "The Hero Pattern and the Life of Jesus." Examined here are the patterns found in the lore surrounding historical or legendary figures like Gilgamesh, Moses, David, Oedipus, Odysseus, Perseus, Heracles, Aeneas, Romulus, Siegfried, Lohengrin, Arthur, and Buddha.

A study of the Grail legend explores the saga's Gnostic roots and its relationship to ancient nature cults that associated the physical condition of the king with the productivity of the land.

Sebastian is the alchemist's son, pursuing his father's enemy through the centuries. Pip and Tim can hardly believe his story. But then they themselves are caught in a web of magic and cunning, and their only hope of escape is to join Sebastian in his desperate battle against unimaginable evil. Suggested level: intermediate, junior secondary.

"The medieval legend of the Grail, a tale about the search for supreme mystical experience, has never ceased to intrigue writers and scholars by its wildly variegated forms: the settings have ranged from Britain to the Punjab to the Temple of Zeus at Dodona; the Grail itself has been described as the chalice used by Christ at the Last Supper, a stone with miraculous youth-preserving virtues, or a vessel containing a man's head swimming in blood. In his classic exploration of the major versions, Roger Sherman Loomis shows how the Grail, once a Celtic vessel of plenty, evolved into the Christian Grail with miraculous powers. Loomis bases his argument on historical examples involving the major motifs and characters in the legends, beginning with the Arthurian legend recounted in the 1180 French poem by Chrétien de Troyes. Loomis's book builds suspense as he proceeds from one puzzle to the next in revealing the meaning behind the legends"--