Curious Myths of the Middle Ages: Volume One – The Wandering Jew, Venusberg (The Mountain of Venus/Tannhäuser), The Man in the Moon, and Other Stories

Curious Myths of the Middle Ages: Volume One – The Wandering Jew, Venusberg (The Mountain of Venus/Tannhäuser), The Man in the Moon, and Other Stories

A treasury of medieval legends brought vividly back to life. First published by the Victorian scholar and storyteller Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924) , Curious Myths of the Middle Ages remains one of the most fascinating collections of European folklore ever assembled. With a blend of erudition and narrative flair, Baring-Gould traces the origins of the tales that haunted medieval imagination and shows how they spread, evolved, and endured. This Volume One of the expanded 1877 edition presents twelve of the most famous myths, including: The Wandering Jew — the immortal outcast cursed to roam until the world’s end. - Venusberg (The Mountain of Venus/Tannhäuser) — the legend of the knight drawn into the seductive realm of the goddess Venus. - The Man in the Moon — curious explanations for the lonely figure seen in the lunar face. - Prester John - The Divining Rod - The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus - William Tell - The Dog Gellert - Tailed Men - Antichrist and Pope Joan - St. Patrick’s Purgatory - The Terrestrial Paradise More than quaint tales, these myths reveal the anxieties and desires of the medieval mind — a world of pilgrimage and penance, visions of paradise and purgatory, and a constant tension between Christian faith and lingering pagan lore. This new Serpent Books Classics edition includes a fresh foreword by anthropologist Nikolas Arhem , situating Baring-Gould’s work within the history of folklore studies and showing why these myths continue to fascinate today. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages: Volume One is essential reading for lovers of folklore, mythology, medieval history, and the strange stories that never die.