the secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript

#The secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript full#
#The secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript series#

The implicit ideas underlying folk lore and customs are also explored. Indeed, folklore is something that is integral to all our lives – it is so intrinsic we do not think of it as being 'folklore'.

#The secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript full#

Explore Folklore is the first book to bridge that gap, and to show how much 'folklore' there is in modern day Britain.Įxplore Folklore shows there is much more to folklore than morris dancing and fifty-something folksingers! The rituals of 'what we do on our holidays', funerals, stag nights and 'lingerie parties' are all full of 'unselfconsious' folk customs. As a result there is a huge gap between scholarly approaches to folklore studies and 'popular beliefs' about the character and history of British folklore. There have been fascinating developments in the study of folklore in the last twenty-or-so years, but few books about British folklore and folk customs reflect these exciting new approaches. 'Highly Recommended' by the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Folklore Award 2003 'A howling success, which plugs a big and obvious gap' Published by Explore Books, an imprint of Heart of Albion Press.ĭemy 8vo (215 x 138 mm), 212 + x pages, 109 b&w photographs, 8 line drawings, 1 map, paperback This book will appeal to all with an interest in Green Men and to art historians looking for a reliable study of this fascinating decorative motif. The second edition contains a summary of independent confirmation of the links with Asia together with nine more illustrations.Įxplore Green Men is illustrated with 118 photographs and drawings, mostly of Green Men who have never before showed their faces in books. She also investigates which pagan god Green Men supposedly represent. The author also discusses the comparisons that have been made with Cernunnus, Robin Hood, Jack-in-the-Green, woodwoses, Baphomet, Al Khidr and Bulgarian peperuda. As part of this discussion there is background information on the cultural changes that affected how Green Men were regarded. The book starts by discussing the 'paganisation' of Green Men in recent decades, then follows backwards through the Victorian Gothic Revival, Baroque, Rococco and Italianate revivals, to their heyday in the Gothic and the supposed origins in the Romanesque. Dr MacDermott's research follows the Green Man back from the previous earliest known examples into its hitherto unrecognised origins in India about 2,300 years ago. Mercia MacDermott comes to this myth-laden territory with a cool head… 'Įxplore Green Men is the first detailed study of the history of this motif for 25 years. features new photographs from Ruth Wylie's superb archive, and it has a text which makes sense. Most of them were lavishly illustrated, which is just as well, since much of the commentary was nonsense. 'The enigmatic silence of the Green Man has been broken in the last decade by a flood of books, with a new study coming out pretty much every year since 1990. 'A friendly and intriguing work of architectural scholarship.' Mercia MacDermott with photographs by Ruth Wylie

#The secret society and its 2300 year old manuscript series#

Whereas the majority of books on folklore and mythology published for the general public mostly reiterate ideas and approaches that were dropped by academics in the 1970s, the Explore Books series reveals that more sophisticated and exciting ideas now prevail.

These books look specifically at how folklore and mythology form a major, if usually unrecognised, part of modern day popular culture. The aim of the series is to provide accessible overviews of the latest academic thinking relating to folklore and mythology. Heart of Albion launched Explore Books back in September 2002. Heart of Albion Press: Explore Books series