Theli's Collection

[Theli]

Theli in myths, legends and fairy tales I'm starting to think you know way more than the rest of us.

Is there a favorite you have that a layman shouldn't miss? I love the area(s) but find myself stumbling around in it, grasping at straws...

Thanks for the pics - these look great!

Well to be honest I still have yet to read any of my new additions, so I can't really specifically speak for them. However a couple authors that cannot be dismissed, and yet are oddly often overlooked, when it comes to fairy tales and romances is George MacDonald and William Morris. Their influence on later fantasy works cannot be overstated, without their works we wouldn't have much of the pillars of fantasy, like Tolkien and Lewis today. Also important (and a story that both Tolkien and Morris had both translated/adapted themselves) is Beowulf. I guess most people are somewhat familiar with that particular epic by now, but if you haven't read at least one version of it you could do worse than to pick up a copy. The Seamus Heaney translation is fantastic. And again with Beowulf, and other Viking epics we wouldn't have the works from Morris, E.R. Eddison or Tolkien.

Of course there are others that I think everyone must read, everyone knows some version of King Arthur's tale, from Sir Thomas Malory and Lord Tennyson, to T.H. White, J.R.R. Tolkien and even John Steinbeck, to more modern adaptations from Jack Whyte or Stephen R. Lawhead, and it too is essential reading. When it comes to fairy tales there are so many options for different editors and translations, since most of them originate as folk tales, and the Grimm retelling of many of them are particularly enjoyable in an often dark twisted way, but so are Andrew Lang's. With that said there are a few who penned new stories, like the aforementioned George MacDonald, or Hans Christian Andersen and I truly appreciate their works too, maybe even more so.

[Brian861]

Great adds, Theli! Pretty sweet fairy tales collection ya got going there.

[bugen]

That's great info Theli, thank you. I'm familiar with Beowulf but not MacDonald or Morris and you've put both on the radar. I've put in a scant amount of time with Malory and Tennyson, in snippets, and have White's The Once and Future King but haven't gotten to it yet.

But Beowulf... this book is... an oddity. The way I learned it is this is history, albeit fantastical. I've only read a translation by Prof. E. Talbot Donaldson, but would love to hear if you've got a recommendation. I just learned of Tolkien's translation a few months ago but also that he had the opposite take on the book, as in not history.

Thanks again, a lot of great stuff here, and a great area for research!

[Theli]

That's great info Theli, thank you. I'm familiar with Beowulf but not MacDonald or Morris and you've put both on the radar. I've put in a scant amount of time with Malory and Tennyson, in snippets, and have White's The Once and Future King but haven't gotten to it yet.

But Beowulf... this book is... an oddity. The way I learned it is this is history, albeit fantastical. I've only read a translation by Prof. E. Talbot Donaldson, but would love to hear if you've got a recommendation. I just learned of Tolkien's translation a few months ago but also that he had the opposite take on the book, as in not history.

Thanks again, a lot of great stuff here, and a great area for research!

Other than what little research I have done myself, mostly from intros and appendices of the copies I have read (one in elementary school as well the aforementioned Heaney translation), I've never really taken a class on epic poetry or classics specifically, so I can't say much from an academic point of view. That said, to my mind, Beowulf is very much not historical, in fact I'm hard pressed to think of much that takes place through the course of the story that could be historical fact, other than perhaps names. To the Viking people of the day it may well have been a considered a historical fact, much like the Hercules and Perseus may have been to Greek citizens, or how the bible may be to Chrisitan folk, but to a modern historian, I would very much doubt it. It is, however, one of the oldest epics ever told and as such has historical and cultural merit. That's the quantifier though, it wasn't written until many years (hundreds, maybe more) later when with the Christian occupation of Nordic lands. So really most versions of the tale are complete bastardizations of the original epic that was spread solely by word of mouth, and obviously had none of the Christian overtones.

There is of course some historical merit in many of the sagas told by the Vikings though. Again, the same problem arises with the stories being written well after they take place, and again by Christian missionaries. Nonetheless they also tend to have some very important and somewhat concrete dates as well as much more believable histories (often even quite mundane) than Beowulf itself.

[Theli]

My newest addition thanks to a wonderful little lady from the dark tower forum:





I'm a big Gary Gianni fan ever since his work in Reobert E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn by Del Rey pub., so this was a fantastic addition to my collection!

[Brian861]

Congrats!

[Theli]

A couple more remarqued books arrived recently.

The deluxe edition of Tolkien's the Fall of Arthur:





and The Slow Regard of Silent Things, which is also signed and lined by the author, Patrick Rothfuss:

[Brian861]

Nice

[srboone]

Sweet editions! Folio makes some nice books!

[Mike88]

Theli I don't know if your interested but I thought I'd run it by you. Some people were talking in another thread about LD's Alot of Disney box sets come with a hardcover book about the movie. Like Cinderella, Alice in wonderland Etc. If that interests you you might be able to pick them up for under 20.00. I hope this interests you. Good Luck. Mike

[TacomaDiver]

That's how I picked my sets up. eBay has them for beyond cheap (especially considering how expensive they were when released.) Just have to be extra careful with the disc's conditions.

Theli I don't know if your interested but I thought I'd run it by you. Some people were talking in another thread about LD's Alot of Disney box sets come with a hardcover book about the movie. Like Cinderella, Alice in wonderland Etc. If that interests you you might be able to pick them up for under 20.00. I hope this interests you. Good Luck. Mike

[frik51]

Love your new additions!!

sk

[Theli]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Mike: I'm not really a collector of Disney memorabilia or laser disc, but thanks for the heads up nonetheless!

My Kane collection arrives, absolutely stunning!





Also picked up some nice books at the used bookstore:

Some 1st ed. Kings:





As well as this:


And my girlfriend gave me this beautiful book for Christmas:

[srboone]

Sweet editions! I got my Complete Kane, too. And I keep looking at all these Tolkien books in stores, but I keep thinking: "One day, Easton Press editions....."

But that day never seems to come.

[Theli]

Sweet editions! I got my Complete Kane, too. And I keep looking at all these Tolkien books in stores, but I keep thinking: "One day, Easton Press editions....."

But that day never seems to come.

I'm kind of the same way, they had them up for sale again at Christmas (The Fall of Arthur and Beowulf anyway) and I just couldn't quite afford them at the time. Argh, this collecting habit is driving me mad(der)!