While I'm on the subject of books

[prince_eric]

So, I'm ordering a copy of the Mabinogion, to get an overview of the Welsh mythos. I've also got a copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology, which covers the Greek/Roman gods pretty well, as well as copies of The Illiad and The Odyssey, and I'm also pretty sure that I've got something on the Arthurian stuff somewhere.

At this point, though, I seem to have a pretty good gap on just about everything else. Anyone have any recommendations? I'm also interested in if anyone has any info on good versions of things like the Bible (King James?), Koran, Torah, etc. I'm more interested in good, general references that cover all of a particular mythos, then in retellings of specific bits (i.e. a good, overall covering of the Norse gods and heroes, then something that covers one story in detail).

Comments

Edith Hamilton's book on the Greek myths

[prince-eric.livejournal.com]

Edith Hamilton's Mythology is easily the worst mythology book ever. It reads like a high-school essay on each of the gods, and it couldn't make the whole pantheon more boring. You're better with a child's book on the Gods than with Hamilton's book. Seriously.

That could be -- I have the book because we had it assigned as a summer reading in high school, and as I'd read just about every book on Greek and Roman myths I could get my hands on when younger, it served as a decent refresher ("Io? Who was she, again? ... Oh, yeah.").