The Mythic Bestiary: The Illustrated Guide to the World's Most Fantastical Creatures

by Tony Allan

Book Overview

Dragons and firebirds, fairies and orcs: these are just a few of the residents of The "Mythic Bestiary." A whole menagerie of make-believe beings from the earth, water, and air inhabit these... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1844834840
• ISBN13: 9781844834846
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Duncan Baird
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 2.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.9" x 11.2"

Customer Reviews

Not a bad book

I bought this book more to help with ideas for new drawings. There were some beasts in here that I had completely forgotten about. I also noticed that there were a few missing. In all I am glad that I bought this book.

Not for young children

A very interesting book, but this was a gift for my 7 yr old son and, unfortunately, it's not appropriate for young children. While I was prepared for some mild nudity in depictions of mermaids and sirens, I was not prepared to explain why succubi "visited men (particularly monks) at night, giving them impure thoughts and wet dreams." (p. 180) Still, with the appropriate audience, it's an interesting read that explains who all these creatures are the keep popping up in both classic and modern literature.

Magnificent Mythical Beast Illustrations

Stunning book on most of the awesome mythic beasts of folklore and legend.The historical significance and literary explanations are rather brief. Yet,it's still an excellent pictorial collection of beastly creatures of lore and epic tales.

Featuring over 100 color illustrations and line drawings

Featuring over 100 color illustrations and line drawings, The Mythic Bestiary is an illustrated guide to fantastic creatures from worldwide folklore. Each entry features several pages that summarize the legends and history of a given mythic animal, told in an eminently readable prose style. What distinguishes The Mythic Bestiary is that equal time is given not only to well-known fantasy monsters like the dragon, minotaur, phoenix, and so forth, but also many more obscure creatures of worldwide legends, from the winged shedu & lammasu spirits of ancient Mesopotamia and Persia, to the tupilak devil-dolls of the arctic circle, to the cynocephali dog-headed people of medieval legend, and much more. A handy index rounds out this welcome reference book, highly recommended especially for fantasy authors and game master searching for an untapped lode of new ideas!