John Bierhorst

Over one hundred stories showcasing the wisdom and artistry of one the world’s richest folktale traditions—the first panoramic anthology of Hispano-American folk narratives in any language. Gathered from twenty countries and combining the lore of medieval Europe, the ancient Near East, and pre-Columbian America, the stories brought together here represent a core collection of classic Latin American folktales. Among the essential characters are the quiet man's wife who knew the Devil's secrets, the three daughters who robbed their father's grave, and the wife in disguise who married her own husband—not to mention the Bear's son, the tricksters Fox and Monkey, the two compadres, and the classic rogue Pedro de Urdemalas. Featuring black-and-white illustrations throughout, this Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library edition is unprecedented in size and scope, including riddles, folk prayers, and fables never before translated into English.

Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions

Latin American Folktales

Annotation El folclore re ne las leyendas, supersticiones, mitos, proverbios y relatos que han ido transmiti ndose en forma oral de una generaci n a otra, en el transcurso de mucho tiempo. Este interesante libro incluye relatos folcl ricos de veinte pa ses latinoamericanos, cubriendo un espacio que se extiende por cinco siglos. Aqu se encuentran mitos arraigados en el per odo colonial, as como narraciones orales que hasta hoy d a pueden escucharse en California, Florida, Texas y Nuevo M xico. Esta completa antolog a tambi n incluye algunos relatos tradicionales que tienen sus ra ces en la Europa medieval, Medio oriente y la Am rica precolombina. La maravillosa capacidad de sobrevivencia de estas narraciones orales tambi n se manifiesta en la forma como han perdurado las expresiones y los modismos que les dieron forma en su origen. Por su contenido y cuidadosa preparaci n este texto representa un logro significativo en la difusi n del folclor latinoamericano.

fábulas de las tradiciones hispanas e indígenas

Cuentos folkloricos latinoamericanos

Doctor Coyote

In this important book, the author uses native testimony and native texts to show how 'animal masters' and natural gardening protect the land from overuse, how living space is patterned, how human reproduction is controlled, and how the sun is viewed as the overlord of a closed energy system from which nothing may be removed without 'payment.'

Native America and the Environment

The Way of the Earth

The Lenape, or Delaware, are an Eastern Algonquian people who originally lived in what is now the greater New York and Philadelphia metropolitan region and have since been dispersed across North America. While the Lenape have long attracted the attention of historians, ethnographers, and linguists, their oral literature has remained unexamined, and Lenape stories have been scattered and largely unpublished. This catalog of Lenape mythology, featuring synopses of all known Lenape tales, was assembled by folklorist John Bierhorst from historical sources and from material collected by linguists and ethnographersÑa difficult task in light of both the paucity of research done on Lenape mythology and the fragmentation of traditional Lenape culture over the past three centuries. Bierhorst here offers an unprecedented guide to the Lenape corpus with supporting texts. Part one of the "Guide" presents a thematic summary of the folkloric tale types and motifs found throughout the texts; part two presents a synopsis of each of the 218 Lenape narratives on record; part three lists stories of uncertain origin; and part four compares types and motifs occurring in Lenape myths with those found in myths of neighboring Algonquian and Iroquoian cultures. In the "Texts" section of the book, Bierhorst presents previously unpublished stories collected in the early twentieth century by ethnographers M. R. Harrington and Truman Michelson. Included are two versions of the Lenape trickster cycle, narratives accounting for dance origins, Lenape views of Europeans, and tales of such traditional figures as Mother Corn and the little man of the woods called Wemategunis. By gathering every available example of Lenape mythology, Bierhorst has produced a work that will long stand as a definitive reference. Perhaps more important, it restores to the land in which the Lenape once thrived a long-missing piece of its Native literary heritage.

Guide and Texts

Mythology of the Lenape

The growing economic and political influence of Native American tribes has brought religious issues, once little noted, increasingly to the fore. Timeless in their basic structures, the continent's principal myths are now emerging as sacred histories that have contemporary significance. In this wide-ranging volume, John Bierhorst carefully delineates eleven mythological regions--from the Arctic to the Southwest and from California to the East Coast--presenting the gods, heroes, and primary myths of each area. First published in 1985, this indispensable guide has been updated to reflect the latest scholarship in Native studies. In a new Afterword, Bierhorst describes the recent impact of ancient myths in the arena of American Indian affairs and shows how Native Americans have successfully used mythology as oral evidence to reclaim land rights and to repatriate grave goods. Citing specific cases, he shows how new legislation and changing attitudes "have provided a basis for bringing myth to the negotiating table and into the courtroom." Detailed maps show tribal locations and the distribution of key stories. Indian artworks illustrate the texts and samples of differing narrative styles add enrichment, as some of the world's purest and most powerful myths are made more accessible--and more meaningful--than ever before.

With a New Afterword

The Mythology of North America

With an Analytic Transcription and Grammatical Notes

A Nahuatl-English Dictionary and Concordance to the Cantares Mexicanos

Compiled in 1582, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain is one of the two principal sources of Nahuatl song, as well as a poetical window into the mindset of the Aztec people some sixty years after the conquest of Mexico. Presented as a cancionero, or anthology, in the mode of New Spain, the ballads show a reordering—but not an abandonment—of classic Aztec values. In the careful reading of John Bierhorst, the ballads reveal in no uncertain terms the pre-conquest Aztec belief in the warrior's paradise and in the virtue of sacrifice. This volume contains an exact transcription of the thirty-six Nahuatl song texts, accompanied by authoritative English translations. Bierhorst includes all the numerals (which give interpretive clues) in the Nahuatl texts and also differentiates the text from scribal glosses. His translations are thoroughly annotated to help readers understand the imagery and allusions in the texts. The volume also includes a helpful introduction and a larger essay, "On the Translation of Aztec Poetry," that discusses many relevant historical and literary issues. In Bierhorst's expert translation and interpretation, Ballads of the Lords of New Spain emerges as a song of resistance by a conquered people and the recollection of a glorious past. Announcing a New Digital Initiative http://www.lib.utexas.edu/books/utdigital/ UT Press, in a new collaboration with the University of Texas Libraries, will publish an interactive digital adaptation of the Ballads that will expand the scholarly content beyond what is possible to publish in book form. The web site, to launch in conjunction with the book in July 2009, includes all of the printed book plus scans of the original codex, a normative transcription, and space to interact with the author and other scholars, as well as art, audio, a map, and other related material. The digital Ballads will be open access, bringing one of the university’s rare holdings to scholars around the world.

The Codex Romances de Los Senores de la Nueva Espana

Ballads of the Lords of New Spain

Twenty myths and legends recount events from the Creation to the Spanish Conquest and express Incan values and culture

Legends of the Incas and Myths of Ancient Peru

Black Rainbow

In a framework different from the other two Bierhorst mythology volumes, the Mexico and Central American volume provides complete translations of 20 'basic myths' of this region and shows how they have influenced the artistic, literary, and political life of modern Mesoamerica. Bierhorst introduces readers to myths from the Aztec and Maya of pre-Columbian times to the Indian groups that survive today. In a new afterword, Bierhorst discusses how in the late 1980s and 1990s, native mythology has been recast to shed light on themes placed in the foreground of publicconsciousness - democracy, cultural pluralism, religious freedom and environmentalism. Mythology energizes native politics from the high-profile political activisim of the Zapotec Indians against the World Trade Organization to the Nobel Prize winning Quiche Maya activist Rigoberta Menchu. Effortsto demystify the region's mythology include the criticism and investigation of the legend of Juan Diego and the ever-popular Virgin of Guadeloupe. The book includes a glossary, pronunciation guide, notes, bibliography, index, maps. and photos.

John Bierhorst

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