Curious Myths of the Middle Ages

By Sabine Baring-Gould

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Feb 20, 2015
• ISBN: 9781473371040

Reviews for Curious Myths of the Middle Ages

[miaculpa-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Baring-Gould covers an interesting array of topics, from well-known subjects like the Pied Piper of Hamelin and William Tell, to obscure subjects like the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus and Bishop Hatto. For this, he deserves thanks and many stars in his rating. However I had to delete a star or two due to his annoying habit of presuming readers are fluent in Latin and French. Granted, when Baring-Gould wrote this, most of his intended readers probably could speak fluent Latin and French but it is perhaps too much to ask readers of the 2005 reprint to understand, for example, Appendix D (on "Shipping the Dead"), which almost entirely consists of a dense Latin tract containing references to "carne familiariter agnitus" (which I translated as "meat is familiar to Aunt Agnes") and "eosdem circinabat fluminis fluctus" (which I'd like to think refers to "someone's fart circulating around the room").Also, the stories did get repetitive after a while as Baring-Gould painstakingly repeats the story numerous times as he shows that many different areas of Europe have similar stories. And I think I got my Olafs mixed up at one point.

[gttexas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fresh and interesting book of myths despite its age. Thanks to Laurie King's "The Moor" for making me aware of the author.