Have you ever wondered if dragons were real? Author Ronesa Aveela grew up in Bulgaria, terrified by tales of dragons capturing beautiful girls for their brides. Her grandmother armed her with protective herbs and performed rituals passed down from generation to generation. Dragons, the third book in the series, takes you across Eastern Europe to discover folkloric beliefs, fairy tales, customs, and rituals about the dragons who once lived in the land, and still do within the hearts of many. You’ll learn historical facts, discover intriguing and horrifying stories, and enjoy beautiful illustrations to gain a complete experience of these magnificent creatures. Here are a few topics you can expect to find within the book’s pages: *Learn about how dragons or the idea of dragons developed. Did they ever exist in some form in the past? *Explore the lives of dragons: their purpose, how they live, how to defeat or appease them. *Discover the stories, facts, and fiction behind several popular dragon slayers. Dragons is an enlightening nonfiction cultural study in the Spirits and Creatures series. If you like impeccable research, chilling stories, and clever humor, then you’ll love Ronesa Aveela’s educational folklore series. Explore the pages of Dragons today to discover a world of wonders.

Have you ever wondered if dragons were real? Author Ronesa Aveela grew up in Bulgaria, terrified by tales of dragons capturing beautiful girls for their brides. Her grandmother armed her with protective herbs and performed rituals passed down from generation to generation. Dragons, the third book in the series, takes you across Eastern Europe to discover folkloric beliefs, fairy tales, customs, and rituals about the dragons who once lived in the land, and still do within the hearts of many. You'll learn historical facts, discover intriguing and horrifying stories, and enjoy beautiful illustrations to gain a complete experience of these magnificent creatures. Here are a few topics you can expect to find within the book's pages: * Learn about how dragons or the idea of dragons developed. Did they ever exist in some form in the past? * Explore the lives of dragons: their purpose, how they live, how to defeat or appease them. * Discover the stories, facts, and fiction behind several popular dragon slayers. Dragons is an enlightening nonfiction cultural study in the Spirits and Creatures series. If you like impeccable research, chilling stories, and clever humor, then you'll love Ronesa Aveela's educational folklore series. Explore the pages of Dragons today to discover a world of wonders.

T.D. Kokoszka grew up in Texas with a Jewish mother and a Polish-American father. While he was aware of roots going back to Eastern Europe from both families, he found it hard to learn very much about them. He knew that Polish people would whack one another with palm leaves around Easter, and he knew that his great-grandmother purportedly believed in forest spirits known as borowy. However, it wasn't until he was in his teens that he became vaguely aware of an ancient people known as the Slavs who gave rise to the Polish, Ukrainian, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovakian, Slovene, and Czech languages. It quickly became clear to him that this was a family of cultures currently under-represented in popular culture, and even in western scholarship. Not simply a regurgitation of scholarship from the Soviet period - and presenting new analyses by using previously neglected resources - Bogowie: A Study of Eastern Europe's Ancient Gods offers one of the most painstaking scholarly reconstructions of Slavic paganism. These new resources include not only an overview of folklore from many different Slavic countries but also comparisons with Ossetian culture and Mordvin culture, as well as a series of Slavic folktales that Kokoszka analyzes in depth, often making the case that the narratives involved are mythological and shockingly ancient. Readers will recognize many European folktale types and possibly learn to look at these folktales differently after reading this book.

Once upon a time ... dragons lived in castles and captured beautiful princesses. The majestic dragon is a popular fairy-tale character. This collection of old tales made new introduces you to the creatures from Eastern Europe, many unknown to the Western world. These tales may have been told "once upon a time," but they remain cherished treasures to those who passed them down generation after generation. If you enjoy this book and would like to learn more about dragons, check out our nonfiction book on the subject: A Study of Dragons of Eastern Europe.

The collection of well-researched essays assesses the uses and misuses of history 25 years after the collapse of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. As opposed to the revival of national histories that seemed to be the prevailing historiographical approach of the 1990s, the last decade has seen a particular set of narratives equating Nazism and Communism. This provides opportunities to exonerate wartime collaboration, casting the nation as victim even when its government was allied with Germany. While the Jewish Holocaust is acknowledged, its meaning and significance are obfuscated. In their comparative analysis the authors are also interested in new practices of ?Europeanness?. Therefore their presentations of Slovak, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian post-communist memory politics move beyond the common national myths in order to provide a new insight into transnational interactions and exchanges in Europe in general. The juxtaposition of these politics, the processes in other parts of Europe, the modes of remembering shaped by displacement and the transnational enable a close encounter with the divergences and assess the potential of the formation of common, European memory practices. ÿ

Seductive. Beautiful. Dangerous! Or are they innocent and looking for love? Discover the allure of Slavic mermaids - Rusalki. If Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had grown up in Eastern Europe, his soul would have longed for the secrets of the rivers, lakes, and marshes, rather than the sea. And the pale, beautiful maidens residing there would have been the ones who sent “a thrilling pulse” through him, instead of the heart of the great ocean. And who are these lovely maidens? … Rusalki, a Slavic version of mermaids. If only the modern-day Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” had been born one of them. She would already have had legs, and not a fish tail, and wouldn’t have had to give up her voice! Well, maybe. It’s more than legs that makes the Rusalki different from what you know about mermaids. · Discover their origins. · Learn how to protect yourself from their enchantments. · Read about terrifying encounters. Through folklore, literature, music, videos, and illustrations, you’ll uncover the secrets of these spirits who have haunted Eastern Europe for centuries. The “Spirits and Creatures” series has been called “brilliant,” “fascinating,” “well researched,” “humorous,” “intriguing,” “engaging,” “lyrically written,” “beautifully organized,” and “informative.” It’s the perfect book for those who want to learn about Eastern European folklore, but don’t want to read a dry, academic book.

Presents an introduction to dragonology that includes spells for catching dragons, their natural history, and descriptions of legendary dragons and dragonslayers.