Content area
Full Text
RR 2015/089 Encyclopedia of Imaginary and Mythical Places Theresa Bane McFarland Jefferson, NC 2014 vii + 194 pp. ISBN 978 0 7864 7848 4 (print); ISBN 978 1 4766 1565 3 (e-book) £44.95 $55
Available in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Africa from Eurospan
Keywords Encyclopedias, Myths, Topography
Review DOI 10.1108/RR-10-2014-0299
"This encyclopedia of imaginary places and mythical lands may not be the first of its kind, but I feel it is one of the best available to academics and serious researchers". Well, that is an obviously self- confident claim, perhaps one that might tempt any reviewer to try and knock it down: what truth is there to it? To judge it against any self-imposed criteria, one has to examine an interesting but rather diffuse preface and similar introduction. Books which list places from modem fiction and television adaptations are dismissed rather summarily and invented places in modem literature (Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm is quoted as an example) are categorically excluded. The concentration is, therefore, on the "[...] heavens and hells from the varied world religions as well as a plethora of fairy realms and mythological locales, such as from Arthurian lore and time-tested fairy tales". Added to that are "[. . .] a few of the kingdoms located 'far, far away', named in fairy tales and relevant political works such as Sir Thomas More's Utopia and Plato's Atlantis from his works Critias and Timaeus". The logic of this kind of selection is that the stories are ones which have survived for hundreds of years or more and are still told, read or studied, meaning that the choices are ones made by society. Finally, "The book of my vision contained only those places spoken of in our...