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Das Buch der Mythen und Märchen: 78 inspirierende Geschichten aus aller Welt

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Bezaubernder Geschichtenschatz für mehr Verbundenheit und Verständnis
Dieses farbenfroh illustrierte Buch feiert den Geschichtenschatz der Menschheit. In 78 spannenden Erzählungen begegnen uns japanische Sagengestalten und afrikanische Gottheiten, griechische Mythologie und die Welt von Tausendundeine Nacht, die Schneekönigin, Gilgamesch und viele andere faszinierende Figuren. Diese Geschichten aus aller Welt schlagen eine Brücke zwischen den Kulturen, fördern unser Verständnis füreinander und bieten uns wichtige Einsichten in die menschliche Natur. Yoshi Yoshitani lässt die Märchen und Mythen in ihrem liebevoll zeitgemäßen Stil in Wort und Bild lebendig werden. Der respektvolle Umgang mit anderen Kulturen und starke Frauenfiguren liegen ihr dabei besonders am Herzen.

177 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2020

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Yoshi Yoshitani

19 books152 followers

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5 stars
839 (40%)
4 stars
834 (39%)
3 stars
358 (17%)
2 stars
51 (2%)
1 star
7 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews
Profile Image for Pam.
578 reviews97 followers
October 9, 2023
78 myths, stories and folk tales from different parts of the world in a book of 176 pages. This means the re-tellings are very short and compressed. I wouldn’t have thought such a thing even possible but the author carries it off well. Many stories and legends are familiar through shared lore, fairy tales and well known mythology. Some are more obscure. The South American contingent gets short shrift. There were Native American and Inuit stories I’d not heard before.

The big plus here are the author’s illustrations. They’re terrific.
Profile Image for Kelsey Brennan.
263 reviews2 followers
Read
February 5, 2022
"They can make themselves as small as silkworms or as large as the universe."

First things first: this is a gorgeous book. The art is amazing, and was what drew me to pick this up in the first place. Regardless of the stories, the art is worth the price.

The stories themselves: meh. Each story is given a page, which makes for a good layout with the pictures and stories making up 2-page spreads, but felt like it was short thrifting a lot of the actual storytelling. The writing itself is also very straightforward, and the stories seem to be told in a simplistic way. I still enjoyed reading them, particularly as it was easy to pick up for a quick story or two, but I'm not sure how much I got out of the collection as a whole.
Profile Image for Laura AP.
786 reviews
November 1, 2020
The illustrations on these are absolutely STUNNING. I loved every single one of them, and it was so interesting to see their myths correlated to what the tarot cards represent.

I do wish the text had been better edited. I understand the text part wasn't as important as the illustrations, which means a lot of the stories were abridged, but in abridging them, they lost some coherence and depth. The tales, even if summed up, could be stronger and more well written, and I wish they had felt more personal.
Profile Image for Jordan Wilson.
328 reviews10 followers
May 4, 2022
This was such a delightful collection of fairy tales, myths, and stories. I learned about the origin of multiple tales I have already heard of and absolutely adored the beautiful illustrations that came with each of them!
Profile Image for Victoria.
297 reviews23 followers
September 28, 2023
3.5 Sterne

Gleich beim ersten Blick ins Buch war ich geflasht. Die Vielfalt an verschiedenen Kulturen ist mir gleich beim Inhaltsverzeichnis ins Auge gesprungen und ich fand es schön, dass die Geschichten so bunt und divers waren. Auch die Illustrationen waren super schön.

Das Buch ist so aufgebaut, dass man jeweils auf der linken Seite eine Illustration und auf der rechten eine Zusammenfassung des Märchen/Mythos hat. Wenn man sich auf ausführliche Erzählungen einstellt, ist man leider falsch. Es ist wirklich nur auf einer Seite erzählt, was ich denke ich viele vielleicht etwas stören könnte. Vielen Erzählungen wird diese eine Seite nicht immer gerecht, aber sie geben einen Anreiz selbst nachzuforschen und die originale Erzählung zu lesen. Vor allem für junge Leser sehe ich in diesem Buch deswegen auch eine Zielgruppe. Ich hab neben ein paar altbekannten Geschichten auch komplett neue entdeckt, was ich immer wieder sehr schön finde. Dabei haben mich besonders die Märchen und Mythen aus dem Raum Indien und Asien sehr begeistert.

Die Illustrationen, ich kann es nur wieder und wieder sagen, sind so wunderschön gewesen. Mal waren sie sehr bunt, mal etwas düster, aber der klare Stil der Künstlerin zieht sich konsequent durch. Ich hätte gerne ein paar davon groß als Poster, um sie mir in meine Wohnung zu hängen.

Fazit

Wer Lust auf viele bunte, verschiedene und facettenreiche Erzählungen hat und tolle Illustrationen, macht mit diesem Buch nichts verkehrt. Jedoch gehen mit der groben Raffung der Geschichten leider ein bisschen die Märchenvibes verloren. Von mir gibt es 3.5 Sterne.

Bis bald ihr Bücherdrachen
eure Vici

Hiermit kennzeichne ich diesen Beitrag als Werbung, da es sich um ein Rezensionsexemplar handelt.
Profile Image for Noelle Menigoz.
76 reviews132 followers
September 30, 2020
OH MY GOSH
THIS WAS SO GOOD
I knew that I loved mythology, but this book marries it so seamlessly (almost accidentally?) to bits of anthropology that I found myself reflecting on the vastness and diversity of the world's cultures and stories, and yet at the same time finding so many threads of commonalities between them.
And-- AND-- to find out that the art and story selection was in-part inspired by tarot, AND that there's an accompanying tarot deck (which I will be buying asap)???? Get out of town, I am obsessed. Truly, I was captivated by the uniqueness of the curated selection just as much as the stories themselves. So many of these tales are myths I've never heard of at all; what a treat. The stories range from dark, raw, and extreme, to bright, lovely, and uplifting. The combination of collecting tales from cultures all over the world, highlighting a broad spectrum of emotions and themes, and sharing them through the thinly veiled lens of tarot philosophies is absolutely breathtaking.
What a gorgeous (GORGEOUS), entrancing, and well-researched read. I wholeheartedly loved it.
Profile Image for Raelynn.
83 reviews12 followers
April 14, 2021
2.5 stars-Because each entry was only a page long and just a few paragraphs, they were just short synopsis of each story. I would have rather had the author chosen less stories and fleshed them out in greater detail.
Profile Image for Sam.
240 reviews14 followers
April 16, 2022
This was a fascinating and beautifully diverse set of stories!!!!! It gives such good insight to other cultures around the world, especially the ones I wasn't already familiar with!!!!!
Profile Image for Sahitya.
1,125 reviews239 followers
December 29, 2021
More of a 3.5.

I picked this up on a whim because I’m not in the mood to read any of my tbr books in this week before the New Year and this seemed like a short and nice one.

First things first, the artwork in this book is gorgeous. It’s bright and colorful and vibrant and I loved each and every one of them. I love the idea of each story having representative art to accompany it. As for the myths and legends, the stories are concise and do the job of introducing us to these myriad of tales from around the world, many of which we may have never heard of, and I really enjoyed getting to know them. But that’s what they felt like - introductions. None of the stories go over a page, so we might feel like we are only getting some basic knowledge of the tale. And I have to say, seeing both the Mahabharata and Ramayana be summarized in a page made me feel very amused.

Overall, this is a good one to start with so that you can explore the folktales and mythological stories which interest you in depth by yourself. But if you like collecting beautiful books, then this book filled with stunning art deserves a place on your shelf.
Profile Image for Laura Hoffman Brauman.
2,823 reviews44 followers
January 1, 2021
Beneath the Moon is a gorgeous collection of fairy tales, myths, and legends from around the world. Some I was familiar with (basically the Euro-centric ones and a few of the Indigenous ones from the US) and many that were new to me. This collection is not really a collection of the works -- each story gets a stunning illustration and a one page synopsis of the tale. It is an excellent launching off point to direct the reader to stories that they would like to dig deeper into. It was interesting when reading these synopsis back to back to see similar themes from folklore that you see in the tales across many of the cultures. I'm glad to have added this to my collection and will be looking for works that give me full versions of many of these tales.
Profile Image for Rebecca.
3,804 reviews71 followers
April 21, 2021
This is truly beautiful, and it does serve as a good introduction to a wide variety of world myths, legends, and folktales. There are some definite liberties taken with a few of them that I can more or less understand, but unfortunately sometimes that age-appropriate tinkering results in female characters losing their nuance. (Typically this is when they're side characters in someone else's story, like Morgan le Fay or Medusa.) Still, it's a nice jumping off point for introducing younger readers to world literature, and the illustrations almost bump this up to four stars all on their own.
Profile Image for Ailin Struyve.
6 reviews1 follower
July 28, 2022
- Beautiful drawings
- Nice little introduction to different folk tales/myths from all around the world (however, every story is only one page long, which makes it difficult to really get into the tales)
38 reviews
January 30, 2022
I loved this it was so cool to see all the different tales and mythology from all over the world alongside some of the most gorgeous illustrations I’ve ever seen. Really fed my inner 5 yr old desire to read picture books more
Profile Image for Sami.
81 reviews284 followers
December 28, 2021
Okay yes this was brilliant but I worry about small inaccuracies in some of the legends. I caught one or two in the Hindu/Indian ones, like the exclusion of Shatrugna in Sita's story, and wonder if it was done purposefully or not and if these small mistakes were also apparent in the other stories.
Profile Image for Abby.
208 reviews36 followers
April 3, 2021
⋆⋆⋆⋆½

Stories connect us. Across continents, across cultures, it's something that brings us together. Did you know that the legend of the Phoenix, the firebird who lives for centuries and then kills itself in a fire only to be reborn once again as a chick amongst the ashes, is found in more than five cultures across the world? In Russia, the firebird drops its brilliant feathers as it flies -- feathers that hold incredible power, leading many to hunt for them against all odds. In Egypt, where the myth is believed to have originated, the gorgeous "Bennu" bird burst out of Osiris's heart.

In this collection, Yoshitani regales us with fascinating stories from all corners of the earth, replete with beautifully rendered illustrations. Some of the tales were familiar to me -- Vasilisa the Beautiful, who goes up against Baba Yaga; Sleeping Beauty, pricking her finger on the spindle; the tragic Crane wife and more -- but many others I'd never encountered before. What I found particularly exciting was the inclusion of and focus on places beyond the Western world.

I loved, for example, reading about White Buffalo Woman, who taught the Lakota peoples prayers and sacred rites, as well as teaching them how the Buffalo could provide them with everything they could ever need. Or Princess Kaguya, who was discovered as a tiny baby in a stalk of glowing bamboo. There's Anansi, the trickster spider God of the Akan peoples, who gets up to many naughty things, too clever for his own good. Not to mention a tale including Tu'er Shen, the Rabbit God who is the patron of same-sex couples.

My only criticism is the brevity of the stories within. I understand that there were many to cover, but I would have liked to feel a bit more involved in the lives of these myths and legends. I think that each story could've done with even half a page more, simply to give us a deeper insight into the meaning or message behind each tale.

Overall, however, it was a rewarding read. I would love to see more -- we could use a second edition, I think! The art is lovely and totally vibrant, capturing the essence of the characters within. Highly recommended!
23 reviews
January 12, 2022
I adore this book with such fervor. It really makes an effort to share a large collection of various tales, folklore, and beliefs from vastly different and diverse cultures and locations, and the result is magnificent. I loved and paid attention to each and every story in this book and plan on researching all of them, familiar or not. The artwork is also just spectacular; I could stare at it all for hours. It's so impressive that the author was able to produce both as well as research such interesting stories. I'm so glad I came across this book and it makes me love folklore so much than I already do.

The only thing that I didn't find perfect was that I couldn't find any place where I could trace the sources or where the author received the stories, because I would have loved to do some further research as well as explore the different variations. I could have just missed that though.
Profile Image for Molly Who.
222 reviews1 follower
May 18, 2021
Wonderful stories and beautifully illustrated, I loved every new story that I learned.
I only wish that there was a pronunciation guide for the names and that some of the stories were longer because I feel like some of the details got lost, but I think that it's a good jumping-off point for many young readers to learn about more tales than some of the westernized versions that Disney is famous for.
But let me just highlight the artwork - visually it's stunning! I have never been more in love with this artwork, there were small details that I didn't notice until my second or third time reading the story. There is a matching tarot card deck that has the illustrations from this book that I'm tempted to buy purely because of how much I loved the artwork.
Profile Image for syd.
150 reviews6 followers
March 9, 2022
firstly, the art was beautiful, and i experienced so many wonderful tales from all around the world. i will say that I do wish that the tales had been elaborated on and were not confined to one page. and for me, personally, I wish there had been an inclusion of the history of the stories and myths if possible, such as explaining that the story of the bear king is actually derived from the myth of eros and psyche or listed the different endings of a story that had multiple. stories presented in this book are stories that have changed and are still changing to this day, so wish the book reflected this more.

i also wish there was a bibliography but that's neither here nor there.
Profile Image for Jacky.
63 reviews5 followers
August 21, 2022
Great book in my humble opinion. I got it as a companion book to the tarot deck "Tarot of the Divine" and I love how the tales intertwine with the meanings of their cards as well.

The tales are short and concise, stretching over one page per story. Due to that, though, a lot of details and subtext gets lost. It doesn't bother me, because I did not expect the full tales of each story and I enjoyed the format of this book.

Instead it motivated me to look into the tales separately and read more into them.
Profile Image for Meagann.
359 reviews50 followers
January 26, 2021
Beneath the Moon is an introduction to myths and legends from around the world. Each story has beautiful illustrations and a page to tell the story. Each story has been simplified and is easy to read. I see this as a stepping off point to go more in depth to stories that interest you. There are stories from around the world and I loved reading tales that I was not exposed too.
Profile Image for exlibrisjessica.
166 reviews124 followers
August 15, 2022
I had such a wonderful time reading these stories over a couple of nights. There were a few I recognised but many more that were interesting to learn of with such a variety of places, mythology and folklore.

The art was absolutely beautiful!!! And the fact that the author has been inspired by tarot and has a matching tarot set is so lovely.

I will say that the stories are abridged which means that you get a little taste of each rather than the whole tale but considering how many different stories were in this I didn’t mind and it’s always an opportunity to be inspired to read the tales in full.

Such a charming book! I very much recommend
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Profile Image for Abby.
49 reviews5 followers
January 1, 2022
The illustrations alone make this book worth it. Myths, fairy tales and folklore have always been fascinating to me because they tell us so much about ourselves as people and that was evident throughout this book. I deeply appreciated the variety of stories and cultures in this as well.
Profile Image for andrea.
863 reviews164 followers
February 26, 2023
the art in this was pretty freaking fantastic. fun to read about myths i'd never heard of though i'd seen the ideas explored in other works of fiction. neat!
Profile Image for ⭐️.
312 reviews19 followers
April 4, 2023
Stunning illustrations (with a nod to the tarot) and a great compilation/summarization of fairy tales, myths, and divine stories from around the world.
Profile Image for Lisa van Nuland.
24 reviews
October 1, 2024
Ik las hiervan bijna elke avond voordat ik ging slapen een sprookje uit. Heel leuk want zijn sprookjes van over de hele wereld en allerlei culturen. Ook super mooie illustraties. Soms waren ze alleen lastig te volgen omdat ze zo zijn ingekort tot een pagina
Profile Image for Sarah.
549 reviews31 followers
September 13, 2020
4.5 stars, rounded down to 5 stars.

Review to follow.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 381 reviews

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