exploring world mythology they provide an invaluable resource. Similarly Penelope
Farmer’s Beginnings: Creation Myths of the World (1978) and John Bailey’s Gods and
Men: Myths and Legends from the World’s Religions (1981) although spare and tightly
told are useful springboards for further research.
Each year new versions of mythic and heroic literature are published for the children’s
market. Geraldine McCaughrean in 1989 produced a lively and dramatic retelling of the
story of a hero whose exploits were the subject of medieval manuscripts of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries in Latin, Hebrew, Arabic and Spanish, El Cid. In 1992 appeared
Margaret Hodges’s adaptation of the Cervantes novel Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
(1605–1615) as a ‘literary’ hero tale. Among notable picture book additions to the field is
Margaret Early’s William Tell (1991).
The loom of myth and legend is seemingly never still, even today. The mythos of south-
east Asia, Third World countries, the Middle East, Australia and Papua New Guinea, for
example, are slowly being woven from their oral sources. In time they will take their
place with those from Europe, the Near East and the old world to provide children the
world over with a fabric which is both timeless and multicultural.
ReferencesBlishen, E. (1979) ‘The impulse to story’, in Saxby, M. (ed.) Through Folklore to Literature, Sydney:
IBBY Publications.
Campbell, J. (1988) The Hero With a Thousand Faces, London: Paladin.
Cook, E. (1976) The Ordinary and the Fabulous, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crossley-Holland, K. (1977) The Faber Book of Northern Legends, London: Faber.
Egoff, S. (1981) Thursday’s Child: Trends and Patterns in Contemporary Children’s Literature,
Chicago: American Library Association.
Graves, R. (1960) The Greek Myths, London: Penguin.
Hazard, P. (1947) Books, Children and Men, trans. M.Mitchell, Boston: American Library
Association.
McCaughrean, G. (1992) The Orchard Book of Greek Myths, London: Orchard.
Saxby, M. (1989) The Great Deeds of Superheroes, Sydney: Millennium.
——(1990) The Great Deeds of Heroic Women, Sydney: Millennium.
Smith, L. (1953) The Unreluctant Years: A Critical Approach to Children’s Literature, Chicago:
American Library Association.
Steele, M. (1989) Traditional Tales: A Signal Bookguide, South Woodchester: Thimble Press.
Further ReadingArmour, R.A. (1986) Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, Cairo: The American University in Cairo
Press.
Brunel, P. (ed.) (1992) Companion to Literary Myths, Heroes and Archetypes, London: Routledge.
Butler, B. (1975) The Myth of the Hero, London: Rider.
Cotterell, A. (ed.) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends, London: Marshall.
Davidson, H.R. E. (1964) Gods and Myths of Northern Europe, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Larve, G.A. (1975) Ancient Myth and Modern Man, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Lévi-Strauss, C. (1978) Myth and Meaning, London: Routledge.
TYPES AND GENRES 171