Burleigh Muten

I picked this up because it was by the woman who wrote two of my favorite compilations of goddess art/poetry/articles/references/etc. Once again, a book for Barefoot Books, making it a children's mythos book on Goddesses. The art was lovely, and the stories are wonderful for children (even though I can definitely tell where artistic license is taken with telling the tales in a format more understandable for children vs. the direct myth itself. I waffle on my thoughts about this, which bring it down from a four to w three in stars)… (mais)

American author Burleigh Mutén and British illustrator Helen Cann join forces in this lovely collection of goddess stories from around the world. The eight selections here include:

The Lady of Ten Thousand Names, which details the ancient Egyptian story of Isis, who rescued her brother/husband Osirus, when the god Set murdered him and set him afloat in a sarcophagus on the Nile...

The Princess Who Became a Goddess, in which a mortal Chinese princess named Maio Shan, being too kind and good for the world, became Kuan Yin, the goddess of compassion, going on to aid the father who had had her executed...

We Are All One Family, which sets out the story of White Buffalo Woman, a sacred spirit who came to the Lakota people of North America's great plains, bringing them the sacred pipe, and teaching them sacred rituals...

Mother of Magic, which relates the tale of the Welsh sorceress Cerridwen, whose attempt to use magic to aid her son, Great Crow, didn't go quite as she planned, leading to an unexpected second child...

The Blessing Necklace, in which the Norse goddess Freya gains a necklace of unearthly beauty from four dwarfs, thanks to her charm, only to find her new treasure stolen by Odin...

Ama-Terasu's Mirror, in which the Japanese Shinto sun goddess Ama-Terasu hides from her reckless, destructive brother in a cave, until the other deities find a way to convince her to emerge, bringing light back to the world...

The Great Mother, which tells of how the Nigerian Yoruba mother goddess, Oshun, participates in the creation of humanity...

And finally, Persephone, Demeter and Hekate, which tells the classical Greek myth concerning the kidnapping of Persephone by Hades, and the compromise which brought about the changing seasons...

The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures is the second goddess-centered collection I have read from Burleigh Mutén, following upon her Goddesses: A World of Myth and Magic. That other title was an encyclopedia of 107 deities, whereas this is an actual story collection. On the whole, I enjoyed Mutén's retelling of the tales here, all of which were already known to me. That said, the real star of this collection, for me, was the lovely artwork from Helen Cann, which captures the beauty and mystery of these stories. By itself, the text probably would have gotten a three-star rating, but such was my enjoyment of the visuals, that I added an extra star. Recommended to young folklore and mythology lovers, and to readers seeking goddess stories from around the world.… (mais)