Read for the Once Upon a Time IX Reading Challenge.
I started a tradition a few year back to try and read a more scholarly book in one of the Once Upon a Time challenge categories. Here’s this year’s selection – a collection and comparison of similar mythological themes across world cultures.
If you’ve studied mythology at all, the obvious story to be included in this list is Flood myths – turns out they have them in both the Middle East, and American Indian cultures. But there are others, stories of Love, and Heroes, and how we all universally struggle to explain death and what happens after that.
There’s also a section about more modern interpretation of myth – that’s the driest reading in the book, but still interesting, if you’re into this kind of thing. That is really what this book comes down to – if you’re really interested in this subject matter, it’s a good overview. If you’re not so interested in thinking about why mythology stories are the way they are, you’re probably best off skipping this book.