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Prime Inspiration | Historical Analogues | World Building
| Religion & Myth
World Mythology |
Ancient Poetry & Drama | Miscellaneous
My Gloranthan Bookshelf
These are the books I've found most useful in my Gloranthan delvings over the years, the wellsprings of my Gloranthan meandering, the prime sources of my information and misinformation. My biases - the bardic arts, poetry and drama, classics in translation, Indian and other goddesses, comic books with class - should be pretty apparent.
Many of these works are available for download (in early translation) from the Internet - see my Links page. And one minor note of caution: you'll find one or two choice loons mixed in with genuine world classics in this list, but roleplaying inspiration doesn't always need real world veracity.
Prime Inspiration
This first section contains my all-time prime Gloranthan inspirations: deep well, heart music, gift of the Goddess stuff. The titles here are repeated in the relevant sections below.
The Tain - from the Irish Epic Táin Bo Cuailnge, translated by Thomas Kinsella, Oxford University Press, 0-19-281090-1.
War Music: an account of books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad, Christopher Logue, Noonday, 0-374-52494-7.
The Kalevala, translated by W. F. Kirby, Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, 1858101980.
There are several English translations, Kirby's isn't the most accurate but for poetry and power its a clear personal favourite.
A Celtic Miscellany, translated by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044247-2.
The Greek Anthology, Various, translated by Peter Jay, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044285-5.
Y Gododdin: Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem, Aneirin, translated by A.O.H. Jarman, The Welsh Classics, Volume 3, 1988, The Gomer Press, 0-86383-354-3.
Warriors went to Cattraeth, a mead-nourished host...
Beowulf translated by Seamus Heaney, Faber & Faber 0-571-20342-6.
The Earliest English Poems, Various, translated by Michael Alexander, Penguin Classics, 0140445943.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N. K. Sandars, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044100-X.
The Poems of Ossian And Related Works, James MacPherson, Edited by Howard Gaskill with an Introduction by Fiona Stafford, Edinburgh University Press, 1996, 0-7486-0707-2.
The Celtic hero poems of Ossian held all of Europe in their grasp for nearly two centuries. Napoleon always traveled with a copy close to hand. The fact that they are literary fakes detracts nothing from their raw power.
The Histories, Herodotus, translated by Aubrey De Selincourt, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044034-8.
Inanna: Queen Of Heaven And Earth - Her Stories And Hymns From Sumer, Wolstein, Diane And Kramer, Noah, Harper And Rowe, 1983, 0-06-090854-8.
A Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales, Gerald of Wales, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044339-8.
The Journey to the West (2 Volumes) Wu Ch'êng-ên, translated Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago Press, 0226971465. (The Monkey legend).
Natural History: A Selection, Pliny the Elder, translated by John F. Healey, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044413-0.
The Odyssey, Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin, 0-670-82162-4.
The Oresteia—Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides, Aeschylus, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044333-9.
The Epic Hero, Dean Miller, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins. University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6239-6.
A substantial and ambitious (if at times idiosyncratic and overly obtuse) work of scholarship, using Joseph Campbell as an ideological stalking horse. A work that is particularly important for me because Miller reveals the moral emptiness at the heart of the Campbellian concept of the hero.
King of Sartar - The Mystery of Argrath; How One Man Became a God, Greg Stafford, Chaosium Publications, 1992, 0-933635-99-0.
Historical Analogues
Britain & The Anglo-Saxons
The Year 1000: What Life Was Like At The Turn Of The First Millennium, Robert Lacey & Danny Danzinger, Abacus, 0-349-113068.
The Way Of Wyrd: Tales Of An Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer, Brian Bates, Arrow, 0-09-947790-4. An 'ethnographic' novel describing a shamanic apprenticeship.
The Wisdom Of Wyrd, Brian Bates, Rider, 071267277X.
The Quest For Merlin, Nikolai Tolstoy, 1985, Coronet Books, 0-340-39013-1.
Y Gododdin: Britain's Oldest Heroic Poem, Aneirin, translated by A.O.H. Jarman, The Welsh Classics, Volume 3, 1988, The Gomer Press, 0-86383-354-3.
The Earliest English Poems, Various, translated by Michael Alexander, Penguin Classics, 0140445943.
The Exeter Book Riddles, Anonymous, translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland, Penguin Classics, 0-14-043367-8.
The Lords of Battle - Image and Reality of the Comitatus in Dark Age Britain, Stephen S. Evans, The Boydell Press, 1997, 0-85115-678-9.
At last, a book about hero bands!
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, translated and edited by Michael Swanton, Phoenix Press, 1996, 1-84252-003-4.
A History of the English Church And People, Bede, translated by Leo Sherley-Price, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044042-9.
Alfred the Great, Asser's Life Of King Alfred And Other Contemporary Sources, Translated by Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044409-2.
The History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey of Monmouth, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044170-0.
A Journey Through Wales and The Description of Wales, Gerald of Wales, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044339-8.
The History and Topography of Ireland, Gerald of Wales, translated by John O'Meara, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044423-8, Ireland.
Cattle Lords & Clansmen: The Social Structure of Early Ireland, Nerys Patterson, 2nd edition, University of Notre Dame Press 1994, 0-268-00800-0.
A great overview of clan life that inspired many Orlanthi chroniclers in the mid-nineties.
Taliesin: Shamanism And The Bardic Mysteries In Britain And Ireland, John Matthews, The Aquarian Press, 1-85538-105-5.
The Vikings
Njal's Saga, translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044103-4.
Egil's Saga, translated by Hermann Palsson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044321-5.
King Harald's Saga - Harald Hardradi of Norway, Snorri Sturluson, translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044183-2.
Seven Viking Romances, Various, translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044474-2.
Laxdaela Saga, translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, Penguin Classics, 0140442189.
Hrafnkel's Saga and Other Stories, translated by Hermann Palsson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044238-3.
Orkneyinga Saga - The History of the Earls of Orkney, translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044383-5.
The Vinland Sagas - The Norse Discovery of America, translated by Magnus Magnusson and Hermann Palsson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044154-9.
Eyrbyggja Saga, translated by Hermann Palsson and Paul Edwards, Penguin Classics, 0140445307.
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki, translated by Jesse Byock, Penguin Classics, 014043593X.
Europe
The Nibelungenlied Prose Translation, translated by A. T. Hatto, Penguin Classics, 0140441379.
The Song of Roland, Anonymous, translated by Dorothy Sayers, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044075-5.
The Poem of the Cid, translated by Rita Hamilton, Penguin Classics, 0140444467.
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, translated by Nevill Coghill, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044022-4.
The Decameron Second Edition, Giovanni Boccaccio, translated by G. H. McWilliam, Penguin Classics, 014044629X.
Greece
The Campaigns of Alexander, Arrian, translated by Aubrey De Selincourt, Penguin Classics, 0140442537.
The Greek Alexander Romance, translated by Richard Stoneman, Penguin Classics, 0140445609.
Appian's The Civil Wars, Appian, translated by John Carter, Penguin Classics, 0140445099.
The Histories, Herodotus, translated by Aubrey De Selincourt, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044034-8.
Guide to Greece—Volume 1: Central Greece, Pausanias, translated by Peter Levi, Penguin Classics, 0140442251.
Guide to Greece—Volume 2: Southern Greece, Pausanias, translated by Peter Levi, Penguin Classics, 014044226X.
The Rise and Fall of Athens, Plutarch, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044102-6.
Plutarch on Sparta, Plutarch, translated by Richard J. A. Talbert, Penguin Classics, 0140444637.
History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, translated by Rex Warner, Penguin Classics, 0140440399.
The Greek Anthology, Various, translated by Peter Jay, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044285-5.
A History of My Times, Xenophon, translated by Rex Warner, Penguin Classics, 0140441751.
The Persian Expedition, Xenophon, translated by Rex Warner, Penguin Classics, 0140440070.
Rome
The Civil War, Julius Caesar, translated by Jane F. Mitchell, Penguin Classics, 0140441875.
The Conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar, edited by Jane F. Gardner, Penguin Classics, 0140444335.
The Jewish War, Flavius Josephus, translated by G. A. Williamson, revised by E. Mary Smallwood, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044420-3.
The Satyricon and the Apocolocyntosis of the Divine Claudius, Petronius, Seneca, translated by J. P. Sullivan, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044313-4.
Natural History: A Selection, Pliny the Elder, translated by John F. Healey, Penguin Classics, 0140444130.
The Secret History, Procopius, translated by G. A. Williamson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044182-4.
The Twelve Caesars, Suetonius, translated by Robert Graves, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044072-0.
The Annals of Imperial Rome, Cornelius Tacitus, translated by Michael Grant, Penguin Classics, 0140440607.
Histories, Cornelius Tacitus, translated by Kenneth Wellesley, Penguin Classics, 0140441506.
The Agricola and the Germania, Cornelius Tacitus, translated by H. Mattingly, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044241-3.
Latin Literature An Anthology, Various, edited by Michael Grant, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044389-4.
Europe
The History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours, translated by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Classics, 0140442952.
The Book of Dede Korkut, translated by Geoffrey Lewis, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044298-7.
India
The Laws of Manu, translated by Wendy Doniger and Brian K. Smith, Penguin Classics, 0140445404.
China
Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu, translated by D. C. Lau, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044131-X.
The Analects, Confucius, translated by D. C. Lau, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044348-7.
World-Building
Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jared Diamond, Random House 1997, 0-224-03809-5.
Out of This World: Otherworldly Journeys from Gilgamesh to Albert Einstein, Ioan P. Couliano, Shambala, 1991, 0-87773-488-7.
Beanworld, Larry Marder, Beanworld Press Inc., 1-887245-006.
Religion & Myth
General
The World's Religions, Ninian Smart, Cambridge University Press, 0-521-42906-4.
The Religious Experience of Mankind (3rd Edition), Ninian Smart, Charles Scribner's Sons, 0-684-18078-2.
The Sacred & The Profane: The Nature of Religion, Mircea Eliade, Harvest, 0-156-79201-X.
The Golden Bough - A Study in Religion and Magic, (Abridged), Sir James Frazer, Wordsworth, 1-85326-310-9. For story ideas and colour only.
Shamanism
The Way of the Shaman, Michael Harner, Bantam, 0-553-20693-1.
Shaman: The Wounded Healer, Joan Halifax, Crossroads, 0-824500-61-X.
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Mircea Eliade, Princeton University Press, 0-691-09827-1.
Principles of Shamanism, Leo Rutherford, Thorsons, 0-7225-3321-7.
Myth & Myth Theory
The World of Myth: An Anthology, David Adams Leeming, Oxford University Press, 0-19-507475-0.
Myths of the World: A Thematic Encyclopedia, Michael Jordon, Kyle Cathie Ltd., 1-85626-110-7.
The Feminist Companion To Mythology, Larrington, Carolyne (Ed.), Pandora Press, London, 1992, 0 04 440850 1.
An edited collection of scholarly essays by experts in the field, each focusing on a particular culture. A top resource for women's mythology, and also excellent as a general critical introduction to world mythology. Each essay reflects its source materials with an awareness of gender and a consciousness of the western history of (male) scholarly and religious interpretation. Its an excellent overview of contemporary research seeking to recover the in-situ uses of mythology.
The Nature of Greek Myths, G. S. Kirk, Penguin, 0-14-013536-7.
Campbell & The Hero
The Power Of Myth, Campbell, Joseph With Moyers, Bill, Doubleday New York 1988, 0-385-24773-7.
A series of interviews conducted by Bill Moyers, this is the one Joseph Campbell book you have to have. A summary of his ideas and the journey he invites us all to live: the journey of the hero.
The Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell, Princeton University Press, 0691017840. The archetypal Gloranthan book. Full of scholarly non sequiturs, dubious Freudianisms, and over-literal Jungianisms, but some parts are excellent.
The Epic Hero, Dean Miller, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins. University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6239-6.
A substantial and ambitious (if at times idiosyncratic and overly obtuse) work of scholarship, using Joseph Campbell as an ideological stalking horse. A work that is particularly important for me because Miller reveals the moral emptiness at the heart of the Campbellian concept of the mythic hero.
Women Who Run With Wolves: Contacting The Power Of The Wild Woman, Clarissa Pinkola Estês, Rider Books 1992.
Estês is both a cantadora - a storyteller - (yay!) and a Jungian analyst (hmm...). This is a mythopoetic manual - 'Iron John' for women if you will. It's about freeing your inner wol-ef: with lots of good stuff on wolves, folklore, death/rebirth stories and always finding another way. Some nice stuff therein for Odaylan / hunter types. However, as with all Jungian/Campbellian writings, be prepared to make occasional rolls against your gullibility trait.
The Heroine's Journey, Murdock, Maureen, Shambala, London 1990, 0-877-73485-2.
Murdock's work is very closely modeled on the 'Hero of a Thousand Faces' (it reproduces some of the original graphics), and apparently Campbell himself had some input. Essentially, she adds a few more points to the monomyth in order to model the heroine's / everywoman's journey. Breathing new life to an essential mythic truth or stretching an already overstretched monstrosity beyond breaking point? Only you can decide. While the work covers a lot of women's mythology, it is fairly lightweight in its treatment. Like much neo-Campbellian stuff, it can't decide whether it's a scholarly work or a self-help manual.
Awakening The Heroes Within, Pearson, Carol S., Harpercollins, New York, 1991, 0-06-250678-1.
This is the book that persuaded me to drop the monomyth forever. It is a self-help manual, yet so spot on in its mythic insight that I use it for both character *and* scenario generation. Pearson's model drops a lot of the monomyth's baggage and gives proper emphasis to different values, different challenges and different responses - to different ways of being a hero.
Pearson proposes twelve basic mythic journeys that an individual can take: those of Innocent, Orphan, Warrior, Caregiver, Seeker, Destroyer, Lover, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Sage and Fool. For each journey she clearly provides examples of the goal, the initial fear, the response to that fear, the task, the gift you bring to it, and the different levels of mastery you may attain: the shadow, the experience of the call, and three levels of mastery (which in game terms I describe as initiate, master and hero). And it all condenses down to a one page spreadsheet. :)
Once you Gloranthasise these into a local culture, and as long as you don't confuse individual journeys (personal mastery) with those of cults (mastery of the runes), these models provide a clear template for many different types of hero quest, scenario, and character development prompt.
A Joseph Campbell Companion, Campbell, Joseph, Harper Perennial, 0-06-092617-1.
World Mythology
The Ancient Near East
The Epic of Gilgamesh, translated by N. K. Sandars, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044100-X.
Inanna: Queen Of Heaven And Earth - Her Stories And Hymns From Sumer, Wolstein, Diane And Kramer, Noah, Harper And Rowe, 1983, 0-06-090854-8.
Wolstein is a storyteller and professional folklorist, and Kramer the 20th Century's greatest Ancient Near-East scholar. The Story of Inanna/Ishtar is the west's oldest surviving written story, and the world's first written love story. Inanna is a myth of woman as totality - ruler, lover, wife and redeemer. It is also a prime inspiration for Greg Stafford's 'Descent of the Red Goddess' and (for those of you who have played it) my own 'Music of the Spears' / 'Everything is Thunder'. As an added bonus, there is also a video available of Wolstein performing the poem.
Poems of Heaven and Hell from Ancient Mesopotamia, Various, translated by N.K. Sandars, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044249-9.
Ancient Greece
War Music: an account of books 1-4 and 16-19 of Homer's Iliad, Christopher Logue, Noonday, 0-374-52494-7.
The Iliad, Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin, 0-14-027536-3.
The Odyssey, Homer, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin, 0-670-82162-4.
The Iliad, Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044014-3.
The Odyssey, Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044014-3.
The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, Calasso, Roberto, translated by Tim Parks, Vintage Books, 0-679-73348-5.
Age Of Bronze, Eric Shanower, Image. Graphic novel/comic series - very well researched!
Age of Bronze Volume 1: A Thousand Ships, Eric Shanower, Hungry Tiger Press, 1-58240-200-0.
The Greek Myths, Robert Graves, Penguin, 0-14-017199-1.
Gods, Men & Monsters from the Greek Myths, Michael Gibson, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-23655-8.
Jason and the Golden Fleece (The Argonautica), Apollonius of Rhodes, translated by Richard Hunter, Oxford World Classics, 0-19-283583-1.
Hesiod and Theognis (Works & Days, Theogony, Elergies), Hesiod, Theognis, Penguin Classics, 0-14044283-9.
Greek Mythology, Richard Stoneman, Diamond Books, 0-261-66652-5.
Ancient Rome
Tales From Ovid, Ted Hughes, Faber & Faber, 0-571-19103-7.
Metamorphoses, Ovid, Oxford World Classics, 0-19-281691-8.
The Aeneid, Virgil, translated by David West, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044457-2.
Ancient Ireland, Wales & Britain
The Tain - from the Irish Epic Táin Bo Cuailnge, translated by Thomas Kinsella, Oxford University Press, 0-19-281090-1.
A Celtic Miscellany, translated by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044247-2.
Early Irish Myths and Sagas, Various, translated by Jeffery Gantz, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044397-5.
Celtic Women in Legend Myth & History, Lyn Webster Wilde, Blandford, 0-7137-2552-4.
Women In Celtic Myth: Tales Of Extraordinary Women From Ancient Celtic Tradition, Caldecott, Moyra, Destiny Books 1992, 0-89281-357-1.
Here you will find the heroine tales from the Tain and Mabinogion and elsewhere: Deidre and Emer and Etain, those 'fightingest women' Scathach and Aife, goddess figures such as Rhiannon and the Morrigu, and more besides.
Over Nine Waves: A Book Of Irish Legends, Heaney, Marie, Faber & Faber, London, 1994, 0-571-17518-X.
The Book of Conquests, Jim Fitzpatrick, De Danaan Press, 0-905895-134.
The Silver Arm, Jim Fitzpatrick, Paper Tiger, 0905895541.
Erinsaga: The Mythological Paintings of Jim Fitzpatrick, Jim Fitzpatrick, Paper Tiger, 0-904745-04-X.
Celtic Gods, Celtic Goddesses, RJ Stewart, Blandford, 0-713-7-2113-8.
Irish Myths & Legends, Lady Gregory, Courage, 0-7624-0281-4, Ancient Britain.
Druids, Gods & Heroes from Celtic Mythology, Anne Ross, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-39725-X.
The High Kings: Arthur's Celtic Ancestors, Joy Chant, George Allen & Unwin, SBN: 004-8232-408.
British And Irish Mythology, John & Caitlin Matthews, Diamond Books, 0-261-66651-7.
Y Gododdin, Aneirin, translated by A.O.H. Jarman, Welsh Classics, Gomer Press, 0-86383-354-3.
The Mabinogion, translated by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, Dragon's Dream, 90-63329113.
The Mabinogion, translated by Jeffrey Gantz, Penguin Classics, 0140443223.
The Poems of Ossian And Related Works, James MacPherson, Edited by Howard Gaskill with an Introduction by Fiona Stafford, Edinburgh University Press, 1996, 0-7486-0707-2.
Anglo Saxon England
Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, Faber & Faber, 0-571-20342-6.
The Earliest English Poems, Various, translated by Michael Alexander, Penguin Classics, 0140445943.
The Vikings
Gods And Heroes From Viking Mythology, Brian Branston, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-236556-6.
The Sayings of the Vikings-Hávamál, Bjorn Jónasson, Gudrun, 0-7137-2552-4.
Edda (The Younger, or Prose Edda), Snorri Sturluson, Everyman, 0-460-87616-3.
Asgard, Nigel Frith, (aka The Spear of Mistletoe), Unwin, 0-04-823209-2.
Finland
The Kalevala, translated by W. F. Kirby, Society of Metaphysicians Ltd, 1858101980.
The Kalevala, translated by Keith Bosley, Oxford World Classics, 0-19-281700-0.
Russia
Heroes, Monsters & Other Worlds from Russian Mythology, Elizabeth Warner, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-377-36-4.
Persia
Persian Mythology, John R Hinnells, Newnes Books, 0-600-34282-4.
The Arab World
Tales from the Arabian Nights, translated by Sir Richard Burton, Bracken Books, 0-9464-95-246.
Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, translated by N. J. Dawood, Penguin Classics, 0140442898.
Fabled Cities, Princes & Jinn from Arab Myths & Legends, Khairet Al-Selah, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-37735-6.
India
Ka, Calasso, Roberto, Translated from the Italian by Tim Parks., Random House, London, 1998, 0-09-975071-6.
A systematic overview and synthesis of Hindu mythology and philosophy that penetrates beyond the 'stories about storms and battles' level that much of the retelling of Hindu myth gets trapped in. As a work of synthesis it's breathtaking, as a novel of ideas its a damned fine holiday read, and as a piece of Lunar propaganda...
Hindu Myths: A Sourcebook Translated from the Sanskrit, Various, translated by Wendy O'Flaherty, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044306-1.
The Bhagavad Gita, translated by Juan Mascaro, Penguin Classics, 014-044121-2.
The Upanishads, translated by Juan Mascaro, Penguin Classics, 0140441638.
Devi: Goddesses Of India, Hawley, John Stratton And Wulff, Donna Marie (Eds), University Of California Press 1996, 0-520-20058-6.
This collection contains essays on twelve different goddesses, from Kali to Bharat Mata ('Mother India'), all of whom are related to Devi, the Great Goddess. They demonstrate how local goddesses can also be universal goddesses, and how Goddess worship relates to everyday life. The essays are grouped into three areas: Goddess as Supreme, Goddess as Consort, and Goddesses who Mother and Possess.
Hindu Goddesses: Visions Of The Divine Feminine In The Hindu Religious Tradition, Kinsey, David, University Of California Press 1986, 0520063392.
Systematic mythological overview of important individual goddesses, from Vedic times to the present day.
Tantric Visions Of The Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas, Kinsey, David, University Of California Press 1986, 0-520-20499-9.
Beautiful, seriously weird minor tantric goddesses, including one who cuts her own head off, one who prefers sex with corpses and one who sits on a corpse while pulling the tongue of a demon. Fierce goddesses, widow goddesses, outcast goddesses...
China
Dragons, Gods & Spirits from Chinese Mythology, Tao Tao Liu Sanders, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-26650-3.
The Journey to the West (2 Volumes), Wu Cheng'en, translated by Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago Press, 0226971465.
Monkey, Wu Ch'eng-en, translated by Arthur Waley, Penguin Classics, 0140441115.
The Americas
American Indian Myths & Legends, Richard Erdoes & Alfonso Ortiz, Pimlico, 0-7126-7368-7.
Seven Arrows, Hyemeyohsts Storm, Ballantine, 0-345-32901-5.
North American Indian Mythology, Cottie Burland revised by Marion Wood, Newnes Books, 0-600-34287-5.
Spirits, Heroes & Hunters from North American Indian Mythology, Marion Wood, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-27695-9.
Warriors, Gods & Spirits from Central & South American Mythology, Douglas Gifford, Hodder & Stoughton, 0-340-33631-5.
Africa
African Mythology, Jan Knappert, Diamond Books, 0-261-66653-3.
Oceania
Pacific Mythology, Jan Knappert, Diamond Books.
Ancient Poetry & Drama
I have always soaked up lots of ancient drama and poetry, not least for their colour and insight into daily life.
The Oresteia - Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides, Aeschylus, translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044333-9.
Prometheus Bound, The Suppliants, Seven Against Thebes, The Persians, Aeschylus, translated by Philip Vellacott, 0-14-044112-3.
The Wasps, The Poet and the Women, The Frogs, Aristophanes, translated by David Barrett, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044152-2.
The Knights; Peace; The Birds; The Assemblywomen; Wealth, Aristophanes, translated by David Barret & Alan H. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044332-0.
The Poems of Catallus, Catullus, translated by Peter Whigham, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044180-8.
The Bacchae and Other Plays, Euripides, translated by Philip Vellacott, Penguin Classics, 0140440445.
Medea/Hecabe/Electra/Heracles, Euripides, translated by Philip Vellacot, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044129-8.
The Sixteen Satires, Juvenal, translated by Peter Green, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044194-8.
The Epigrams, Martial, translated by James Michie, Penguin Classics, 0140443509.
The Satires of Horace and Persius, Persius, Horace, translated by Niall Rudd, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044279-0.
The Theban Plays: King Oedipus; Oedipus at Colonus; Antigone, Sophocles, translated by E. F. Watling, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044003-8.
The Idylls, Theocritus, translated by Robert Wells, Penguin Classics, 0-14-044523-4.
Miscellaneous
Sandman, Neil Gaiman, Vertigo.
Jurgen, James Branch Cabell, Unicorn Paperbacks, 0-04-823252-1.
Lots of heroquest inspiration here (a Nick Brooke favourite), even if Jurgen himself is an unsympathetic fink. Some knowledge of French helps to unravel the many small jokes and anagrams.
At Home In The Wilderness, Sun Bear, Naturegraph, 0-87961-004-2.