Myths & Legends
9 total works
SINCE the days of Southey the romantic literature of Spain has not received from English writers and critics the amount of study and attention it undoubtedly deserves. In no European country did the seeds of Romance take root so readily or blossom so speedily and luxuriantly as in Spain. When we think of chivalry, do we not think first of Spain, of her age-long struggle against the pagan invaders of Europe, her sensitiveness to all that concerned personal and national honour, of the names of the Cid Campeador, Gayferos, and Gonzalvo de Cordova, gigantic shadows in harness, a pantheon of heroes, which the martial legends of few lands can equal and none surpass. In the romances of Spain we find that folklore plays an inconsiderable part, and that her chivalric fictions are either the offspring of historic happenings or of the brilliant and glowing imagination which illumines the whole expanse of Peninsular literature.
The Myths of Mexico and Peru conjures images of far-off places in warm and humid countries, invokes names of unimaginable power, and chronicles times of bloody conquest and deeds much larger than life. Lewis Spence embeds the Latin-American mythology in history and recasts it in description informed by the lore of living peoples and by the most knowledgeable scholars of the time. This was a book written to be read, reread, and pondered. This was a book--is a book--to acquaint us with, and even to help us understand, other worlds and other times. It is far more than just the mythology of early Latin American civilizations. The Myths of Mexico and Peru embeds their mythology in history and recasts the history in description informed by the lore of living peoples and based on written materials provided by the most knowledgeable scholars of the time, whose foundation of scholarship has seen surprisingly little restructuring through the passage of these many years.
Reset with fresh illustrations together with an extensive index and glossary.