Il Libro Blu delle Fate di Andrew Lang, raccolta composta e pubblicata nel 1898 dal folclorista ed erudito inglese, racchiude in sé alcune delle più belle suggestioni favolistiche della storia. Dalla favola originale che ha ispirato La Bella e La Bestia, a favole scozzesi tradotte per la prima volta in italiano, questo libro condurrà grandi e piccoli in un affascinante viaggio alle radici della cultura e della nostra immaginazione.

IL LIBRO BLU DELLE FATE

Si nous possédons les registres du procès en réhabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc (1450-1456) avec les témoignages donnés sous la foi du serment de plus de cent vingt témoins oculaires qui avaient connu la Pucelle à différentes périodes, de son enfance jusqu'à son martyre, de nombreuses zones d'ombre pèsent encore sur la vie et la mort d'un des plus célèbres personnages de l'Histoire de France. 

Le principal défaut du procès de réhabilitation est ce fait singulier, que deux personnes seulement furent appelées à donner leur témoignage sur les événements de la vie de Jeanne d'Arc, compris entre l'échec à Paris en septembre 1429 et sa prise à Compiègne en mai 1430. Aucune question ne fut posée sur cette période à son confesseur Pasquerel, par exemple, ni à son écuyer d'Aulon, omission qui ne saurait avoir son excuse dans le seul désir de ménager les sentiments du roi Charles VII. 

C'est en ce basant sur ces incohérences qu'Andrew Lang affûte au début du XXe siècle ses hypothèses, adoptant des méthodes d'investigation dignes de celles la police scientifique. Le silence sur l'action de Jeanne d'Arc entre 1429 et 1430 ainsi que d'autres faits troublants relatés dans les annexes de ce livre de 1908 donnent corps à une clef de lecture totalement originale et inédite dans les travaux publiés jusqu'ici sur la vie de la Pucelle de France.

La Pucelle de France - Histoire de la vie et de la mort de Jeanne d'Arc

The theory that Francis Bacon was, in the main, the author of "Shakespeare's plays, " has now been for fifty years before the learned world. Its advocates have met with less support than they had reason to expect. Their methods, their logic, and their hypotheses closely resemble those applied by many British and foreign scholars to Homer; and by critics of the very Highest School to Holy Writ. Yet the Baconian theory is universally rejected in England by the professors and historians of English literature; and generally by students who have no profession save that of Letters. The Baconians, however, do not lack the countenance and assistance of highly distinguished persons, whose names are famous where those of mere men of letters are unknown; and in circles where the title of "Professor" is not duly respected.

Shakespeare, Bacon, and the Great Unknown

The Iliad has had a far-reaching impact on Western literature and culture, inspiring writers, artists and classical composers across the ages. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by classicist, writer and broadcaster Natalie Haynes, author of A Thousand Ships and host of her own BBC Radio 4 show, Natalie Haynes Stands up for the Classics. Paris, a Trojan prince, wins Helen as his prize for judging a beauty contest between three goddesses, and abducts her from her Greek husband Menelaos. The Greeks, enraged by his audacity, sail to Troy and begin a long siege of the city. The Iliad is set in the tenth year of the war. Achilles - the greatest Greek warrior - is angry with his commander, Agamemnon, for failing to show him respect. He refuses to fight any longer, which is catastrophic for the Greeks, and results in personal tragedy for Achilles, too. With themes of war, rage, grief and love, The Iliad remains powerful and enthralling more than 2, 700 years after it was composed. This edition is translated into prose by Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers.

The Iliad

After the heavy rain of a thunderstorm has washed the soil, it sometimes happens that a child, or a rustic, finds a wedge-shaped piece of metal or a few triangular flints in a field or near a road. There was no such piece of metal, there were no such flints, lying there yesterday, and the finder is puzzled about the origin of the objects on which he has lighted. He carries them home, and the village wisdom determines that the wedge-shaped piece of metal is a "thunderbolt, " or that the bits of flint are "elf-shots, " the heads of fairy arrows. Such things are still treasured in remote nooks of England, and the "thunderbolt" is applied to cure certain maladies by its touch.

As for the fairy arrows, we know that even in ancient Etruria they were looked on as magical, for we sometimes see their points set, as amulets, in the gold of Etruscan necklaces. In Perugia the arrowheads are still sold as charms. All educated people, of course, have long been aware that the metal wedge is a celt, or ancient bronze axe-head, and that it was not fairies, but the forgotten peoples of this island who used the arrows with the tips of flint. Thunder is only so far connected with them that the heavy rains loosen the surface soil, and lay bare its long hidden secrets.

Folklore and Mythology

If we could see in a magic mirror the country now called Scotland as it was when the Romans under Agricola (81 A. D.) crossed the Border, we should recognise little but the familiar hills and mountains. The rivers, in the plains, overflowed their present banks; dense forests of oak and pine, haunted by great red deer, elks, and boars, covered land that has long been arable. There were lakes and lagoons where for centuries there have been fields of corn. On the oldest sites of our towns were groups of huts made of clay and wattle, and dominated, perhaps, by the large stockaded house of the tribal prince. In the lochs, natural islands, or artificial islets made of piles (crannogs), afforded standing-ground and protection to villages, if indeed these lake-dwellings are earlier in Scotland than the age of war that followed the withdrawal of the Romans.

History of Scotland

Andrew Lang's Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books constitute a twelve-book series of fairy tale collections. Although Andrew Lang did not collect the stories himself from the oral tradition, the extent of his sources, who had collected them originally (with the notable exception of Madame d'Aulnoy), made them an immensely influential collection, especially as he used foreign-language sources, giving many of these tales their first appearance in English. As acknowledged in the prefaces, although Lang himself made most of the selections, his wife and other translators did a large portion of the translating and telling of the actual stories.

The Blue Fairy Book assembled a wide range of tales, with seven from the Brothers Grimm, five from Madame d'Aulnoy, three from the Arabian Nights, and four Norse stories, among other sources.

The Blue Fairy Book

Il y avait une fois un jeune roi nommé Souci, qui fut élevé par la fée Girouette ; sans cesse elle passait d’un avis à un autre, d’un sentiments à un désir ; d’une volonté déterminée à un doute ; ainsi rien ne pouvait être fixe dans sa conduite, et par conséquent dans une cour où elle était maîtresse absolue…

Le bal des douze princesses & autres contes

Is there any human institution which can be safely called "Totemism"? Is there any possibility of defining, or even describing Totemism? Is it legitimate-is it even possible, with due regard for "methodology" and logic-to seek for the "normal" form of Totemism, and to trace it through many Protean changes, produced by various causes, social and speculative? I think it possible to discern the main type of Totemism, and to account for divergences.

IL LIBRO BLU DELLE FATE

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