Social Science : Folklore & Mythology

In The Dark Sacrament , co-authors David M. Kiely and Christina McKenna faithfully recount ten contemporary cases of demon possession, haunted houses, and exorcism, and profile the work of two living, active exorcists: Canon William Lendrum, a Protestant, and Father Ignatius McCarthy, a Roman Catholic. Kiely and McKenna conducted countless interviews with victims, families, witnesses, and clergy who assisted in performing multiple rites of exorcism. Many of the accounts are very recent and, in some cases, ongoing. Kiely and McKenna serve as trustworthy guides on this suspense-filled journey into the bizarre, offering concrete advice on how to avoid falling prey to the dark side. Exorcists Canon Lendrum and Father Ignatius reveal their fears, failings, and victories as they reflect on their forty years of service battling the Devil and his minions. The Dark Sacrament includes the following chilling stories:.:.; A woman is tormented by her evil dead grandmother, causing her to coil like a snake, snarl, and be invaded by several demons.; A housewife is haunted by the answers from her children playing on a Ouija board and by a historical character who sexually terrorizes her so much that she is too ashamed to admit it even to her husband.; A young girl experiences astral travel when the Angel of Death enters her body and takes her along on a frightening journey.; A boy's temperament turns dark as he is tortured by demons, causing him to become harmful to others—an unresolved 2007 case that is ongoing. Thoroughly researched and impressively wide-ranging, The Dark Sacrament contains an appendix with detailed historical analysis, translated prayers of exorcism, and fascinating notes on important terms and practices. more...

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The unvarying essential meanings of around 1,000 symbols and symbolic themes commonly found in the art, literature and thought of all cultures through the ages are clarified. more...

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Beowulf is the earliest extant poem in a modern European language. It was composed in England four centuries before the Norman Conquest. But no one knows exactly when it was composed, or by whom, or why. As a social document this great epic reflects a feudal, newly Christian world of heroes and monsters, blood and victory and death. more...

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"By filling one's head instead of one's pocket, one cannot be robbed.". The appeal of Chinese proverbs is profound and universal. With brevity, clarity, and simplicity, these carefully chosen words help pass wisdom and insight throughout the ages. This timeless, eloquent collection of proverbs offers fundamental truths about the natural world and the human condition, on subjects such as:. Ability • Adversity • Beauty • Character • Conflict Cooperation • Deception • Defeat • Fortune • Greed • Happiness Honor • Inspiration • Knowledge • Leadership • Love Moderation • Necessity • Neighbors • Obstinacy • Opportunity Perseverance • Pride • Sincerity • Strategy • Success Thought • Trust • Victory • Wisdom • And More. "With our thoughts we must build our world.". more...

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The success of a fairy book, I am convinced, depends on the due admixture of the comic and the romantic: Grimm and Asbjörnsen knew this secret, and they alone. But the Celtic peasant who speaks Gaelic takes the pleasure of telling tales somewhat sadly: so far as he has been printed and translated, I found him, to my surprise, conspicuously lacking in humour. For the comic relief of this volume I have therefore had to turn mainly to the Irish peasant of the Pale; and what richer source could I draw from?. For the more romantic tales I have depended on the Gaelic, and, as I know about as much of Gaelic as an Irish Nationalist M. p., I have had to depend on translators. But I have felt myself more at liberty than the translators themselves, who have generally been over- literal, in changing, excising, or modifying the original. I have even gone further. In order that the tales should be characteristically Celtic, I have paid more particular attention to tales that are to be found on both sides of the North Channel. One characteristic of the Celtic folk-lore I have endeavoured to represent in my selection, because it is nearly unique at the present day in Europe. Nowhere else is there so large and consistent a body of oral tradition about the national and mythical heroes as amongst the Gaels. Only the byline, or hero-songs of Russia, equal in extent the amount of knowledge about the heroes of the past that still exists among the Gaelic-speaking peasantry of Scotland and Ireland. And the Irish tales and ballads have this peculiarity, that some of them have been extant, and can be traced, for well nigh a thousand years. I have selected as a specimen of this class the Story of Deirdre, collected among the Scotch peasantry a few years ago, into which I have been able to insert a passage taken from an Irish vellum of the twelfth century. I could have more than filled this volume with similar oral traditions about Finn (the Fingal of Macpherson's "Ossian"). more...

Price: $7.95