ANDREW LANG, página 3 de 22

JOAN OF ARC was perhaps the most wonderful person who ever lived in the world. The story of her life is so strange that we could scarcely believe it to be true, if all that happened to her had not been told by people in a court of law, and written down by her deadly enemies, while she was still alive. She was burned to death when she was only nineteen: she was not seventeen when she first led the armies of France to victory, and delivered her country from the English.Joan was the daughter of a poor man, in a little country village. She had never learned to read, or write, or mount a horse. Yet she was so wise that many learned men could not puzzle her by questions: she was one of the best riders in France; one of the most skilled in aiming cannons, and so great a general that she defeated the English again and again, and her army was never beaten till her King deserted her. She was so brave that severe wounds could not stop her from leading on her soldiers, and so tender-hearted that she would comfort the wounded English on the field of battle, and protect them from cruelty. She was so good that her enemies could not find one true story to tell against her in the least thing; and she was so modest that in the height of her glory she was wishing to be at home in her fathers cottage, sewing or spinning beside her mother.

The archologist studies human life in its material remains; he tracks progress (and occasional degeneration) from the rudely chipped flints in the ancient gravel beds, to the polished stone weapon, and thence to the ages of bronze and iron. He is guided by material survivalsancient arms, implements, and ornaments. The student of Institutions has a similar method. He finds his relics of the uncivilised past in agricultural usages, in archaic methods of allotment of land, in odd marriage customs, things rudimentaryfossil relics, as it were, of an early social and political condition. The archologist and the student of Institutions compare these relics, material or customary, with the weapons, pottery, implements, or again with the habitual law and usage of existing savage or barbaric races, and demonstrate that our weapons and tools, and our laws and manners, have been slowly evolved out of lower conditions, even out of savage conditions. The anthropological method in mythology is the same. In civilised religion and myth we find rudimentary survivals, fossils of rite and creed, ideas absolutely incongruous with the environing morality, philosophy, and science of Greece and India. Parallels to these things, so out of keeping with civilisation, we recognise in the creeds and rites of the lower races, even of cannibals; but there the creeds and rites are not incongruous with their environment of knowledge and culture. There they are as natural and inevitable as the flint-headed spear or marriage by capture. We argue, therefore, that religions and mythical faiths and rituals which, among Greeks and Indians, are inexplicably incongruous have lived on from an age in which they were natural and inevitable, an age of savagery.

If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it was when the Romans under Agricola (81 A.D.) crossed the Border, we should recognise little but the familiar hills and mountains. The rivers, in the plains, overflowed their present banks; dense forests of oak and pine, haunted by great red deer, elks, and boars, covered land that has long been arable. There were lakes and lagoons where for centuries there have been fields of corn. On the oldest sites of our towns were groups of huts made of clay and wattle, and dominated, perhaps, by the large stockaded house of the tribal prince. In the lochs, natural islands, or artificial islets made of piles (crannogs), afforded standing-ground and protection to villages, if indeed these lake-dwellings are earlier in Scotland than the age of war that followed the withdrawal of the Romans.

Since the first publication of Custom and Myth, many other works have appeared, dealing on the same principles with matters of belief, fable and ritual. Were the book to be re-written, numerous fresh pieces of evidence might be adduced in support of its conclusions. In Mr. Frazers Golden Bough (Macmillan) the student will find a carefully conceived argument, and a large collection of testimonies, bearing on the wide diffusion, among savages and civilised peoples, of ancient rites and ancient ideas. The works of Mannhardt have practically been introduced to the English reader by Mr. Frazer, with much new matter of his own. The main topics are the worship of human gods and the superstitions connected with vegetation. To push a theory too far is the common temptation of mythologists, and perhaps Mr. Frazers cornstalk does rather threaten to overshadow the whole earth and exclude the light of sun and sky. But the reader, whatever his opinions, will find great pleasure and profit in Mr. Frazers remarkable studies, and in those of Mannhardt, which were unknown to myself when I wrote Custom and Myth.

The sin of witchcraft is as the sin of rebellion. The idea which inspires this text probably is that a person who seeks to obtain his ends by witchcraft is rebelling against the deity or deities through whom alone these ends should be sought. Witchcraft is also an insult and injury to the official priests, who regard the witch as the surgeon regards the bone-setter, or as the geologist regards the dowser or water-finder who uses the divining-rod. Magic or witchcraft falls into two main classes. The former is magic of the sort used by people who think that things accidentally like each other influence each other. You find a stone shaped like a yam, and you sow it in the yam plot You find a stone like a duck, and expect to have good duck-shooting while you carry the stone about in a bag. In the same way the part influences the whole; you burn some of a mans hair, and so he catches a fever. Imitation works in the same manner; you imitate the emergence of grubs from the larv, and you expect grubs to emerge. All magic of this kind is wrought by material objects, sticks, stones, hair, and so forth, which sometimes have been charmed by songs chanted over them. Among the Arunta of Central Australia, in many respects a backward people, we do hear of an evil spirit influencing the material object which has been charmed.[1] We also hear of spirits which instruct men in medical magic. But, as a rule, the magic is materialistic. It really does produce effects, by suggestion: a man dies and a woman is won, if they know that magic is being worked to kill or woo. The second sort of magic acts by spells which constrain spirits or gods to do the will of the magician. This magic involves itself in religion when the magical ceremonies are, so to speak, only symbolic prayers expressed in a kind of sign-language. But if the idea is to put constraint by spells on a god or spirit, then the intention is magical and rebellious. Though the official priest of a savage god may use magic in his appeal to that deity, he is not a wizard. It is the unofficial practitioner who is a witch, just as the unqualified medical practitioner is a quack.

Editor: David Widger

Contains stories about The Man In The Iron Mask, etc. . . .

The book: Andrew Langs translation of the Greek epos puts the ancient words into contemporary English rhyme.This book is annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer.Contents: Book I-The Coming Of ParisBook Ii-The Spell Of AphroditeBook Iii-The Flight Of HelenBook Iv-The Death Of CorythusBook V-The WarBook Vi-The Sack Of Troy. The Return Of HelenNote

Andrew Langs Fairy Books or Andrew Langs "Coloured" Fairy Books constitute a twelve-book series of fairy tale collections. Although Andrew Lang did not collect the stories himself from the oral tradition, the extent of his sources, who had collected them originally (with the notable exception of Madame dAulnoy), made them an immensely influential collection, especially as he used foreign-language sources, giving many of these tales their first appearance in English. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and telling of the actual stories.The Red Fairy Book is the second in the series.

Andrew Langs Fairy Books or Andrew Langs "Coloured" Fairy Books constitute a twelve-book series of fairy tale collections. Although Andrew Lang did not collect the stories himself from the oral tradition, the extent of his sources, who had collected them originally (with the notable exception of Madame dAulnoy), made them an immensely influential collection, especially as he used foreign-language sources, giving many of these tales their first appearance in English. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and telling of the actual stories.The Blue Fairy Book assembled a wide range of tales, with seven from the Brothers Grimm, five from Madame dAulnoy, three from the Arabian Nights, and four Norse stories, among other sources.

This is a new collection of Fairy stories in continuation of the series which "The Blue Fairy Book" was the initial volume.

The Editor thinks that children will readily forgive him for publishing another Fairy Book. We have had the Blue, the Red, the Green, and here is the Yellow. If children are pleased, and they are so kind as to say that they are pleased, the Editor does not care very much for what other people may say.

Andrew Langs selection from the vast treasure chest of the Arabian nights fairy tales contains the following stories:The Story of the Merchant and the GeniusThe Story of the First Old Man and of the HindThe Story of the Second Old Man, and of the Two Black DogsThe Story of the FishermanThe Story of the Greek King and the Physician DoubanThe Story of the Husband and the ParrotThe Story of the Vizir Who Was PunishedThe Story of the Young King of the Black IslesThe Story of the Three Calenders, Sons of Kings, and of Five Ladies of BagdadThe Story of the First Calender, Son of a KingThe Story of the Second Calender, Son of a KingThe Story of the Envious Man and of Him Who Was EnviedThe Story of the Third Calender, Son of a KingThe Seven Voyages of Sindbad the SailorThe Little HunchbackThe Story of the Barbers Fifth BrotherThe Story of the Barbers Sixth BrotherThe Adventures of Prince Camaralzaman and the Princess BadouraNoureddin and the Fair PersianAladdin and the Wonderful LampThe Adventures of Haroun-al-Raschid, Caliph of BagdadThe Story of the Blind Baba-AbdallaThe Story of Sidi-NoumanThe Story of Ali Colia, Merchant of BagdadThe Enchanted HorseThe Story of Two Sisters Who Were Jealous of Their Younger SisterThis book is annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer.

Andrew Langs Fairy Books — also known as Andrew Langs "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Langs Fairy Books of Many Colors — are a series of twelve collections of fairy tales, published between 1889 and

The tales in the Grey Fairy Book are derived from many countries—Lithuania, various parts of Africa, Germany, France, Greece, and other regions of the world.

A storytellers night without one of Mr. Andrew Langs books of fairy tales would be but a dull affair. This one is " The Crimson Fairy Book ", made up of some three dozen tales chosen, as in previous collections, from the folk-lore of all nations, and adapted and translated mainly by Mrs. Lang. Mr. H. J. Fords illustrations, colored and otherwise, are hardly equalled in artistic quality by those in any other childrens book.This book is fully illustrated and annotated with a rare extensive biographical sketch of the author, Andrew Lang, written by Sir Edmund Gosse, CB, a contemporary poet and writer.Contents:PrefaceLovely IlonkaLucky LuckThe Hairy ManTo Your Good Health!The Story of the Seven SimonsThe Language of BeastsThe Boy Who Could Keep A SecretThe Prince And The DragonLittle WildroseTiidu The PiperPaperarellooThe Gifts Of The MagicianThe Strong PrinceThe Treasure SeekerThe Cottager And His CatThe Prince Who Would Seek ImmortalityThe Stone-CutterThe Gold-Bearded ManTritill, Litill, And The BirdsThe Three RobesThe Six Hungry BeastsHow the Beggar Boy Turned into Count PiroThe Rogue And The HerdsmanEisenkopfThe Death Of Abu Nowas And Of His WifeMotiratikaNiels And The GiantsShepherd PaulHow The Wicked Tanuki Was PunishedThe Crab And The MonkeyThe Horse Gullfaxi And The Sword GunnfoderThe Story Of The Sham Prince, Or The Ambitious TailorThe Colony Of CatsHow To Find Out A True FriendClever MariaThe Magic Kettle