For my present game project, I would like to add in lots of content taken from classic folktales, fairy tales, myths and legends from various cultures around the world (although probably primarily European given the context of the game setting). In order to provide the appropriate background, I plan to get a few more books. While I already know a few classics that I should probably get (such as Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, various anthologies of regional folktales), are there any other suggestions for good books that I should consider?

I thought that the The Uses of Enchantment was an interesting book, even if it's author, Bruno Bettelheim, is controversial.

For myths and legends, don't forget Aesop. See also fable. Here is a good reference with a lot of links about myth. See also, Thomas Bulfinch and Joseph Campbell.

Try the following link. It has a ton of information.

Clicky

Thanks for the links. I hadn't checked what was on Wikipedia, but reading through the entries there I also realised I'd forgotten about Project Gutenberg, which is probably the best place for me to start.

LessBread:
Wow, I didn't know Bettelheim got translated into English. very nice.
I have to second your recommendation. The one book I got from him (well, my mother, actually), defended the theory that dumbing down the "gore" elements of children tales is essentially a bad move. At length he analyses all the great classics, and their symbolic meaning. Explaining the effect of, essentially, removing the soul of the tales. Ah, it seems it's the book you recommend [embarrass]

I personally adore books illustrated by Brian Froud. If you like fairies, you will love his works. There is one book I cannot remember the name of, where there is actually a story (most of his books are port folios).

The roleplaying game Changeling, by White Wolf, although never really succesful, was based around the idea of playing Faeries in a world that has no need for them anymore (and indeed, where the ambient morosity destroys them).
The game itself rehashes lots of classics, so looking up a bibliography for it would probably be useful?

Mmmh, I am afraid most of the books I have are in French, and amazingly illustrated, which is probably not what you want.
Here is a bibliography (I have quite a number of those books). I suppose you could still lookup the ISBN, you never know, you might like the pictures :-P
You could maybe find an equivalent booklist on Amazon?
This one is my favourite, although sadly the picture they show you is very poor :(

Anyway, I suppose it's not really pictures you want :-7

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Original post by ahw LessBread: Wow, I didn't know Bettelheim got translated into English. very nice. I have to second your recommendation. The one book I got from him (well, my mother, actually), defended the theory that dumbing down the "gore" elements of children tales is essentially a bad move. At length he analyses all the great classics, and their symbolic meaning. Explaining the effect of, essentially, removing the soul of the tales. Ah, it seems it's the book you recommend [embarrass]

I'll have a look at this one. There appears to be a copy in one of the university libraries over here, so I'll track it down.

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I personally adore books illustrated by Brian Froud. If you like fairies, you will love his works. There is one book I cannot remember the name of, where there is actually a story (most of his books are port folios).

I'll see what I can find. There's actually meant to be one of his books in the art library, but its present status is "lost" (i.e. "stolen"), so I'll see if I can find one somewhere else.

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The roleplaying game Changeling, by White Wolf, although never really succesful, was based around the idea of playing Faeries in a world that has no need for them anymore (and indeed, where the ambient morosity destroys them). The game itself rehashes lots of classics, so looking up a bibliography for it would probably be useful?

Interesting. I'll have a look for this too, thanks!

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Anyway, I suppose it's not really pictures you want :-7

Well, in a way I do too. Although my present art skills are poor, I'm hoping to build them up to the point where I can do the artwork for my game as well, and it would be fantastic if I could capture the feel of a professional fairy-tale illustrator; that's how I envision the game in my mind right now.

Thanks for all the titles! In a week or so I think I'll be having another book buying binge on Amazon, so I'll see how many of these are affordable.

A lot of those books are out of print, or simply old, you will have better luck with eBay. That's how I got my Changeling book, anyway. Froud is too popular (as you can see from your library [grin]) to be easy to find on eBay, but I suppose with a bit of luck you could find it on the Amazon marketplace or something like it.

And if you don't mind not being able to read French, then I really, really encourage you to try and find a copy of that French book and its sequel. I have been into this sort of books since I was a kid, and this is probably the best drawn and presented I have ever seen. Simply fabulous. Even better than Froud (although not as original). The one I mentioned above (the Halloween book) is slightly less about Faeries, and more about the sort of creatures associated with Halloween (the Unseelie court of faeries, if you are familiar with this sort of things).

Good luck!

Pantheon

So far it hasn't disapointed me when I needed to know something.

wow, man, that's a great link!
I can't believe I never came across it before!
Thanks so much :)

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Original post by ahw wow, man, that's a great link! I can't believe I never came across it before! Thanks so much :)

Agreed. That's a great link! I've added it to my list of story-based bookmarks.

ahw: I'll have a look at that book, although I don't know a lot of French. I suppose it doesn't hurt to have an excuse to learn [smile].