Graeme Davis has been fascinated by myth and folklore ever since he saw Ray Harryhausen’s creatures in Jason and the Argonauts as a child. While studying archaeology at Durham University, he became far too involved with a new game called Dungeons & Dragons and went on to a career in fantasy games. He has written game sourcebooks on various ancient cultures and their myths, and worked as a researcher and consultant on multiple video games with historical and mythological settings.
I wrote...
Thor: Viking God of Thunder
By
Graeme Davis
What is my book about?
Thor is best known today as a superhero in Marvel comics and films. In many ways he is the ultimate Viking: bluff, hearty, strong, and direct. And so he was in the earliest surviving stories from Norse myth. The thunder god has survived Roman attempts to conflate him with Classical gods, the bowdlerization of early Christian writers, Nazi attempts to co-opt him and his symbols, and more – and he has done so remarkably unchanged.
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The Books I Picked & Why
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
By
Joseph Campbell
Why this book?
Campbell’s work on the phenomenon of mythology came to prominence in the late 1970s when George Lucas named this book as an influence on the story of Star Wars (known today as Episode Four: A New Hope). While the field has advanced since the book was first published in 1949 and there has been some backlash in response to Campbell’s sudden Star Wars popularity, there is still a lot here that is interesting, especially the idea that some story structures have a cross-cultural appeal because they speak to a part of the human mind that is common to all of us.
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Myth: A Biography of Belief
By
David Leeming
Why this book?
This short book takes a deep dive into the nature of mythology and its relationship to the human mind. As well as the mythologies of past civilizations, Leeming examines modern-day myths and cultural beliefs and shows how myths are living and evolving things that serve a human need to understand the universe. If you have ever wondered what makes a myth a myth, or why everyone seems to have them, this book has some interesting answers.
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The History of the Kings of Britain
By
Geoffrey of Monmouth,
Lewis Thorpe
Why this book?
In the history of almost every culture, there comes a point where the tales of gods and heroes begin to fade into recorded mortal history. In Greek mythology, Homer’s account of the Trojan War inthe Iliad is that point. In British history, Geoffrey of Monmouth recounts the transition without consciously meaning to do so. Written in the 12th century before there was a difference between myth and history, this book interweaves the two as it tries to tell the early history of the British Isles. It is also notable as an early source on King Arthur and Merlin.
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The Quest of the Holy Grail
By
Pauline M. Matarasso,
Unknown
Why this book?
This is an early example of mythology being used for a deliberate purpose: in this case, the promotion of Christian chivalric virtue. Full of dreamlike images and allegories, it also had a great influence on early fantasy writing, even if those creating early fantasy tales had never read it. And then, of course, there’s Monty Python.
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Holy Blood, Holy Grail
By
Richard Leigh,
Henry Lincoln,
Michael Baigent
Why this book?
This book is a near-perfect example of how an ancient myth can spawn a modern urban myth or conspiracy theory. Best known today for having inspired Dan Brown’s blockbuster The da Vinci Code – so much so that the authors unsuccessfully sued Brown’s publisher for plagiarism – this book weaves together fragments of myth and mysticism, strange events from more recent history, and political intrigue to create a fascinating tale about the lost bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalen.
