Timeless Myths: Bibliography

The following links to the bibliography, contained books that I have read, as well as some books that I haven't read, but which I would recommend...that if you can find them that is. These included translations, texts and reference. There are the various literatures that I would suggest to the readers.

I have four separate pages of the bibliography.

Whenever it is possible, I try to read translation of ancient and medieval materials. I usually avoid using "retelling" of myths, since what I am writing on my website is basically "retelling" what I have read.

I tried to avoid dictionary and encyclopedia whenever I can, but sometimes it unavoidable, eg. the ancient German or Celtic gods, during the period of Rome (1st century BC - 5th century AD), have no literature of their own. These deities can only be found from archaeological evidences and not in writings; evidences such as paintings, statuettes, coins, inscriptions, etc.

I rarely used textbooks and essays by experts. Any analysis on the materials are mainly done from my own reading and researches.

I had structured each bibliographical page into three sections: "Texts", "Other Texts" and "References".

Under the title, Texts, it is the list of translations that I've actually read that contained mostly mythological themes. These translated texts provided the bulk of the materials that I had used for Timeless Myths. Some of these books I have bought, some of them were gained from the web (electronic texts), and some that I have read in the State Library in Melbourne.

Some subjects are historical, which may contain cultures and religions of certain groups of people. These are usually classical authors, who wrote about the cultures of the Germanic and Celtic people of their time.

In the Other Texts section, these are list of translated texts that I haven't read. There maybe one or more reasons why I have not read them.

Such as I can't find them in Melbourne (eg. bookshop, library, etc) or there are no electronic texts available on the Internet. Or, the books may be very expensive. Or maybe because the books may no longer be printed (eg. OUT OF PRINT). Another possible reason is that I don't want them.

I have included the list of books or texts here, because they are possible "suggested reading" that may be available to you at your bookshop or library.

Under the third section is the References. These are books that are not translations of ancient or medieval texts. They are probably dictionary, encyclopedia or textbooks. They may even be essays or retelling of myths and legends (I usually avoid these two types of materials, because I preferred to read translations).

Notes

This is just extra information. You may ignored the rest of this page if you wish. This part of the page mainly talks about the constraint that I have to work under when I am looking for materials.

Firstly, I can only read English, so whatever books I am looking for, I will have to find English translation. It would be great if I could read Greek, Latin, French, German, or any Celtic or Scandinavian languages, but I can't. So I have a serious limitation.

This limitation, bring up the second point. That is, some modern translations are available, but they are not always necessary written in English. There has been a lot of translation of ancient or medieval texts into modern French and German, but not always in English.

So don't expect me to have read this work or that, if it is not available in modern English.

The third issue is the availability and the cost of the books.

I will often tried to find and buy a book (whenever I can) from my local bookshops, adding each to my own personal library. Unfortunately, not all material can be found in Melbourne, and even if I can find them, some of them are far too expensive. So I would have to look elsewhere for translation.

There are number of ways that I search for the materials I need. One of them is on the Internet. There are some websites that have translated texts in electronic format. These could be written in ordinary text file (TXT), in HTML file, Acrobat file (PDF), etc. I have listed a few sites in my Related Sites, as well as in my bibliography pages of where you can get these electronic texts. These websites usually are old translations, where the copyright have expired, so these works are Public Domain, which mean they are available free. Free as in free to print and free to distribute to your friends or classmates.

Other translations does have copyright. They may be free (but not always) as well, but there may be some conditions for their use. Such as the condition that they may be use for only personal or educational use, but not commercial, such as in commercial website or adding the materials to your books that you are writing. So be warned, find out how you can use it.

(Timeless Myths has this sort of copyright, where you may use it freely for only personal and educational purposes. See my Copyright page for more detail).

Sorry, for getting sidetracked.

The other option is using the libraries. What I can't find in the bookshops or on the Internet, then I would tried the library. For me, I would tried to borrow books from the local public library or from the library of the university or college. I would try these first. If they can't be found in these libraries, then the third option is to visit the State Library in my city.

State Library would have more books than the smaller public libraries. However, not all city have their own State Library. I used the one in Melbourne. There are restrictions, however. One of them is that you can't borrow the books and take them home to read. So all readings and researches must be done in the opening hours of the Library (that's the other restriction).

There are several reasons why the books can't leave the premise. Some of the books are old or rare. They tried to avoid damage to the book. With these books, they must be handled with great care. It is also to prevent theft.

The last option is buying book through the Internet, like Amazons, Border, and Barnes and Noble. There are many more Internet Bookshops, but these are the more better known companies. This is wonderful except for security problems or when you don't have a credit card.

A couple of years ago, there have been some security breaches at Amazons, where hackers have stolen credit card details from Amazons' database. So be very careful if you use this option when buying a book.

So some words of warnings to Internet shoppers:

NEVER DISCLOSE YOUR PIN No OF YOUR CREDIT CARD! (PIN – "Personal Identification Number".)
Also make sure that the website is a genuine retailer, and not some sorts of SCAM!

Also, some books are no longer available, because they are Out of Print or rare books. Some of the website have a facility to help you find these books. These books would most likely to be found in a second-hand bookshop. This could be a cheap alternative than buying a new book, unless the book is either rare or the original manuscript. Original manuscript and rare book can be very expensive, worth $500US to over $5000US. They are expensive because they make a great collector's item. Unless you are rich and you can read the language they were written in, then by all mean, go ahead and buy them.

So I hope that I haven't bore you with some of the information in the Notes.

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