Customer Reviews (2)

If it's not Scottish . . .
This is an enjoyable collection of Scottish folklore, history, traditions, poetry, and even a few literary extracts.Topography, place-names, clan histories, proverbs, weather and climate, law, holidays, recipes, toasts, and a Scots glossary all find their way into this book. If you are Scottish, you will appreciate this book; if you're not, you will wish you were.'Tis a guid book, fou of lear, for a dark nicht before the gowans are bloomin'.

A good read for people of Scottish heritage
A good read for people of Scottish heritage. This book covers Scottish folklore. There are stories about fairies, mermaids, the Loch Ness Monster, (a.k.a. Nessie), and cats, to name a few. I got this book for Christmas in1982 and I've read it. My advice is to buy it. ... Read more

Product Description
Mystery and excitement abound in this lively collection of fairy tales, folklore and legends, which celebrate Scotland's enormously rich oral tradition and offers a carefully chosen combination of old favorites such as Tam Lin, Thomas Rymer and Adam Bell, as well as more modern stories by master story-tellers like Andrew Lang, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and John Buchan. ... Read more

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Words have always held great power in the Gaelic traditions of the Scottish Highlands: bardic poems bought immortality for their subjects; satires threatened to ruin reputations and cause physical injury; clan sagas recounted family origins and struggles for power; incantations invoked blessings and curses. Even in the present, Gaels strive to counteract centuries of misrepresentation of the Highlands as a backwater of barbarism without a valid story of its own to tell. "Warriors of the Word" offers a broad overview of Scottish Highland culture and history, bringing together rare and previously untranslated primary texts from scattered and obscure sources. Poetry, songs, tales, and proverbs, supplemented by the accounts of insiders and travelers, illuminate traditional ways of life, exploring such topics as folklore, music, dance, literature, social organization, supernatural beliefs, human ecology, ethnic identity, and the role of language. This range of materials allows Scottish Gaeldom to be described on its own terms and to demonstrate its vitality and wealth of renewable cultural resources.This is an essential compendium for scholars, students, and all enthusiasts of Scottish culture. ... Read more

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A guide to Scottish superstitions, aimed at the general reader and divided into subject areas. ... Read more

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King Arthur was not an Englishman, but a Celtic warrior, according to Roger Sherman Loomis, whose research into the background of the Arthurian legend has revealed findings that are both illuminating and controversial. This study will keep the controversy of the 'real' Arthur alive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A new side of the debate about who King Arthur truly was
Celtic Myth And Arthurian Romance by Arthurian scholar Roger Loomis is a fascinating, persuasive, documented argument for the theory that the King Arthur of history was not an Englishman, but rather a Celtic warrior. Carefully annotated and researched chapters draw connections between the Camelot legend and Celtic lore, and bring to life a new side of the debate about who King Arthur truly was. An exciting and original analysis of one of history's most beloved eras and leaders, Celtic Myth And Arthurian Romance is a welcome and highly recommended addition to Arthurian studies reading lists and academic reference collections.

Amazing insights into the Arthurian myth
For anyone who's ever been fascinated by the tales of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, here's a book that puts it all in the fascinating context of Celtic mythology.The stock elements of Arthurianlegend--the enchanted castles, the abducted princesses, the contests withmysterious knights--are revealed to have a coherent esoteric meaning.AsLoomis writes, to understand the relationship between the familiar tales ofCamelot and the wilder Irish myths "is to open suddenly themountainsides into the glittering palaces of the Sidhe"--the home ofthe Celtic gods.

The brilliance of Roger Loomis--who wrote in the1920s--is that while he draws the same kind of fascinating connections asRobert Graves, Loomis does so through careful argument and documentation. His work should inform any serious discussion of the origins of theArthurian tales and the meaning of the Holy Grail. ... Read more

Product Description
Colorful stories from ancient and modern Scottish sources will charm young readers with the deeds of mermaids, giants and other supernatural creatures. Includes "Battle of the Fairy Kings," "Conall and the Thunder Hag," "In the Kingdom of Seals," "The Maid-of-the-Wave," "The Land of Green Mountains," many more. 34 illus.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Tales of Scotland, adventure, heros, and magic
The eight Scottish fairy tales contained in this paperback are delightful adventures.Virtues such as loyalty, honesty, and wisdom are the characteristics of even the least of heros. This Dover edition, first published in 1997, is a new selection of fairy tales from *Wonder Tales from Scottish Myth and Legend,* originally published by Frederick A. Stokes Co., New York, in 1917.John Green provides illustrations specifically for this edition.The tales are:"Battle of the Fairy Kings," "The Princess of Land-under-Waves," "Conall and the Thunder Hag," "The Story of Finlay and the Giants," "The Story of Michael Scott," "In the Kingdom of Seals," "The Maid-of-the-Wave," and "The Land of Green Mountains."This is indeed an excellent read. ... Read more

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An epic in league with those of Spenser and Malory, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, begun during Hitler’s rise to power, celebrates the insignificant individual as hero in the modern world. Jane Chance’s critical appraisal of Tolkien’s heroic masterwork is the first to explore its “mythology of power”–that is, how power, politics, and language interact. Chance looks beyond the fantastic, self-contained world of Middle-earth to the twentieth-century parallels presented in the trilogy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!
This book has these people complaining about LOTR, thinking that its content is coming from Hitler, just because the trilogy was released during the time that Hitler was going Gung-Ho on Jews and Blacks. Oh, please! LOTR has nothing to do with Hitler nor the NAZIs. They keep on saying that Frodo was using the ring to control people, just like Hitler was trying to control the Jews and Blacks. WTF?? If LOTR is NAZI worship, then "The Life Aquatic" is the best movie ever. PURE FICTION. Whoop-de-do, then!As a LOTR fan, LOTR has a good message, if you think about it...

Don't take a Chance on this book
I'm very disappointed in this book.The author is wrong about basic facts on which she bases her theories.To wit:

Frodo does not, as the author claims, use the Ring "to test resistance to institutionalized power and the power of others within the community."He doesn't "use" the Ring at all; if anything, it uses him.Gandalf's Elven ring does not save Frodo from the Nazgul at the Ford on the way to Rivendell; at that point in the story, we don't know that Gandalf has one of the Elven rings."Mordor" may mean"murder" in Anglo-Saxon, and that may have been in the back of Tolkien's mind; but "Mordor" mean "black-land" in Sindarin, and that's the meaning Tolkien wanted for the land.Durin's Bane is not mithril or greed (though that is an issue), but the Balrog.

Dr. Chance does makes several interesting points, and for that reason I might, albeit with much hesitation, recommend this book to those who are familiar enough with LotR to avoid the pitfalls.

Power has many facets
Jane Chance's discussion includes some valuable insights and a useful review of research, however it suffers from three main problems:

a. The discussion of power is one-sided and focuses too much on the power of language, while neglecting issues such as the power of vision and the gaze, which are just as prominent. This makes the application of Foucault's theories - a good idea in itself -superficial (The author refers to one book of his out of a vast corpus).
b. Any discussion of the structure of The Lord of the Rings cannot disregard the vast work that Christopher Tolkein has done on the various layers and stages of the volumes of the book.
c. Chance's book is marred by many errors: for example, how can Germany have blockaded England in 1946, a year after the end of the war? In this context, the author should have mentioned Tolkein's own discussion of the relationship between his work and the Second World War.

The Mythology of Power
Not really much insight here. Noteworthy and interesting points are scattered throughout, however they are certainly not helped by the general skimpiness of developed argument or sustained elaboration for a convincing case. All in all, the ideas are never explored to their fullest extent, and the general tone is that of a graduate student's thesis. In part this may be due to the decision to retrace the entire plot-line, rather than to develop particular themes in depth. Also, the academic liberal arts jargon is just bad.
Prof. Chance approaches LOTR and its mythology of power by way of a purely political hermeneutics, applying the theories of (mostly) Foucault to mythopoetic material that rises beyond explanation via mere politics. This Foucault influence is central, but at no point is it seriously questioned or demonstrated how it is even relevant or useful to the topic at hand - rather than, say, the concepts Tolkien drank in from epic poetry, fairy stories, world mythology, the Bible, or a thousand different philosophers (for example, how is Foucault more revealing here than Augustine, or Hobbes, or Rousseau?).
Somehow, it all fails to grasp the very personal, psychological, and metaphysical aspects of Tolkien's masterpiece, which speaks to us not primarily through the rationalism of politics but via the art of wonder: the magic of the journey, the crucible of morality and fellowship, innocence and experience, and the passages of life in relation to its underpinning wholeness.
It's disappointing and at times hilarious, though, when Prof. Chance sees LOTR as rather more concerned with "the political problem of the intellectual (22)" and "liberation from hegemony... A novel that mythologizes power and the problem of individual difference... the problem of individual and class difference within the social body or construct, the heroic power of knowledge and language in the political power struggle, and the ideal of kingship as healing and service, in a unique inversion of master-servant roles (23)". One gets the sense that it all boils down to "the role of understanding and tolerating differences within the community (24)", to "giving voice to the dispossessed of the twentieth century (25)". But interpreted this way, squintingly, the tale only seems to diminish into triviality. It becomes merely "a drama of the symbolic value of language (45)", wherein the Ring is a "challenge to [Frodo's] civic and political education (48)", and where "name-calling and hostile language...wound more than the...voice of an enemy like the Black Riders or Sauron (58)".
Admittedly, such platitudes are more than the pure baloney evoked here, and may well contain very important ideas, but they are, in the end, only tangents to the tale that Tolkien set down.

A dangerous business
Arguably, Jane Chance's criticism of Tolkien's epic has a few flaws, but I cannot wholly agree with another reviewer that if we want to learn about Tolkien, read Tolkien.Certainly, we should do so before reading Chance, but by choosing to read other books about Tolkien's Middle-earth, we enterinto a conversation with other minds, which provoke and tease our thoughtsinto new directions.Of course, its a bit hazardous.As Bilbo tells hisnephew, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, out of your door.You stepinto the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing whereyou might be swept off to."Just so.And opening a book is every bitas unpredictable as opening a door.If we're not careful, Jane Chance toomay sweep us into errors regarding Tolkien's wonderful epic, but any goodreader already knows this.If we find that she falls short in hercriticism, well then, we can atleast articulate to ourselves why,arriving at a more profound understanding of Tolkien's work -- thanks,indirectly, to Jane Chance.For myself, I agree that a central concern ofTolkien is power (and I too wish Chance had defined the term"mythology of power" more concisely), but only one among many;all else is suspect.Nevertheless, I found Chance's criticism as good aplace to start as any, and it has led me down more than one interestingpath as I continue to re-read and enjoy all that Tolkien has given us. ... Read more

Product Description
Scotland gave golf to the world. With more golf courses per head than any other country, it is still a golfer's paradise. They range from remote honesty box clubs to the superb Open Championship courses and the exclusive conservative clubs of the towns. But Scotland's strength lies in the host of enjoyable courses throughout the land which welcome visitors, and this book helps visitors to find these clubs. Key features include: gives a brief history of the birth and evolution of the game in Scotland; a guide to the language of golf; includes a map which pin-points the best courses; the most spectacular drives; lists nine best "sporty" holes for adventurous golfers; lists nine best "scenic" holes for the more leisurely; and a complete list of every course in Scotland, revised and updated for this edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Fine Book about Scottish Golf Courses
First - it's tough to argue with any book with a foreword by Sean Connery, the best 007 ever. Still, David Hamilton's summations of Scotland's better courses are spot on. There are lots of websites out there these days andlots of "coffee table" tomes that are mediocre at best, butHamilton's reviews and opinions are born of experience. And that's what'simportant.

practical guide to the golf courses of Scotland
Short capsule descriptions of the golf courses in Scotland, including comments on the courses, directions and booking information.A very personal guide with all of the obvious selections, plus some very personalfavorites....lovely. ... Read more

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Featuring more than 100 memorable tales, this extensive collection brings together stirring stories from all parts of Scotland. Legends from mountain, moor, and battlefield are represented--some of the most colorful myths and legends that have survived from Scotland's turbulent past. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Excellent!
Excellent collection of Scottish folktales. Easy to read. Great for anyone interested in Scottish heritage.

A surreal collection wrapped up in a linguistic challenge
You really must love the wild and weird tales of the Celts in order to wade through this collection of Scottish folk tales. The tales themselves are strange and fantastic, far more terrifying than any familiar fairy story--talking frogs, beautiful and ugly sisters and mothers who boil up their sons for dinner. What makes them even more of a challenge is that they are written in an English phonetic spelling of Scots, or Gaelic, accents. It takes some effort to decipher the accent and the idioms in order to get the fullest effect of the tales themselves. Those with a keen "inner ear" will soon find themselves "hearing" the voices from the tales.Others may actually have to read the folk tales aloud in order to get the sound and the meaning. ... Read more

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Scottish Folk And Fairy Tales From Nursery To Animal Stories,Witchcraft, Boogiemen,Legends And Traditions Etc. ... Read more

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We all know a tale or two of scary or amusing events said to have happened to someone they know-a friend of a friend, your sister's boyfriend's mother, this guy with whom I went to school-and the events happened just down the road, somewhere you've been or at least might someday visit. These are urban myths, and, as this book reveals, Scotland has more than its fair share.

Written in Brian Hennigan's own inimitable style, these powerful stories have universal appeal-tales that seem somehow familiar, somehow true, that make you chuckle or your hair stand on end, that you want to pass on, that you can't quite forget...even if you want to. ... Read more

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This guide to Scottish folklore provides an introduction to the topic and covers Scottish folklorists. The author provides a list of Scottish folklore collectors and an A-Z of Scottish folklore from Alba to the Young Pretender, and from Quarter Days to the thistle. ... Read more