This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Enchanted World Series is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
The Enchanted World Series of books, were a set of twenty one books released in the 1980s. Each book focused on different aspects of mythology or folklore and were released by Time Life Books.1 Their overall editor was Ellen Phillips and their primary consultant was Tristram Potter Coffin, a Guggenheim Fellowship Award winning University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus of English.
They were known for their beautiful art and the extensive research used in their stories. A unique part of the series was that its books were written as stories, taking place from an "in the universe" perspective, presenting its subjects as real people, places, and things. The books often overlap; for example while King Arthur and his knights only have one book completly devoted to them, Fall of Camelot, they often appear in other books. Half of Legends of Valor is about them and they appear in Wizards and Witches, Fairies and Elves, Dwarfs , and Giants and Ogres. Aside from overlap, a common thread through several of them was its documenation of the alleged decline of magical things from "when the world was young" to the modern day. The subject--dragons, dwarves, giants--are presented as being potent and strong at the dawn of time but as humans spread and demystify the world, magical creatures grow weaker and eventually disappear, though there is always the promise that the magic will return once again.
The Series
In order of publication:
Wizards and Witches
Forthcoming
Dragons
Forthcoming
Fairies and Elves
Forthcoming
Ghosts
Forthcoming
Legends of Valor
Forthcoming
Night Creatures
Forthcoming
Water Spirits
Forthcoming
Magical Beasts
Dwarfs
Dwarfs (actual spelling used on book - this is the proper spelling - "dwarves" comes from Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien, and was an intentional change of spelling) opens with the Prose Edda, a narration of Norse mythology. It opens with Norse dwarves and tells how the race began soon after Odin and his Aesir killed Ymir, using his flesh to make the earth. The maggots that crawled from the flesh became dwarfs. Corpse grey and subterranean troglodytes, the gods tended to look down on them but the dawrfs, brash and brazen, knew that when Aesir needed weapons or wanted luxuries that the dwarfs by their magical craftsmanship alone could provide what was needed. While author Tim Appenzeller admits that such tales contain much fiction they still contain a grain of truth.
However, in time the dwarfs lost the ability, or the will, to stand as equals to the gods and walked among mortals. With the pagan gods dead and the God and His Church dominant, a new world had dawned. Even so the dwarf kings such as Herla or Laurin of the Tyrol's Mountinas were not afraid and outshone their cavedwelling ancestors in splendor. The dwarfs adapted well to Christian Europe, befriending mortals; Alberich, for example was famous for befriending King Otnit of Lombardy and going with him to Syria to help him win an exotic pagan princess for a bride. The tale of Elidor is also recounted.
The dwarfs decline is further explored with the dwarvish peasantry. They were friendly towards mortal peasants with whom they shared parellel lives and they often helped each other just as their respective kings did. However, as humans grew stronger forming centralized states, large cities, roads, and factories and as the dwarfs' own magic began to fail them, the fragile ties of friendship began to unravel and most dwarfs left the mortal world. Those that remained, abandoned by their fellows suffered a diaspora and placed themselves at mortals mercy. They went on to become household spirits slavishly serving as domestic help of their particular mortals though even there they would go into retreat. The last sightings of dwarfs concerned the Knockers, beings that lived in mines and watched over miners. While, the text says, miners would give them food and drink, these were offerings and not rewards. Appenzeller goes on to speculate that knockers are just the most visible members of hidden dwarf kingdoms. While some of them might be recent dwarf refugees from the outside world, some of them might have always lived there, "awaiting the day when their earth-shaping skills will once again dazle mortals and gods alike.
Spells and Bindings
Giants and Ogres
Seekers and Saviours
Fabled Lands
Book of Christmas
Fall of Camelot
Magical Justice
Lore of Love
Tales of Terror
Book of Beginnings
The Secret Arts
Gods and Goddesses
References
- ^ www.pjtss.net/library/batsy/timelife.htm
 |
This mythology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 5 January 2009, at 22:21.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Enchanted World Series".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.