A Thames & Hudson quality gift box collection of 16 notecards with bright white envelopes, four each of four designs featuring the exquisitely designed mythological animals from the Book of Kells. It is one of the greatest surviving objects from medieval Europe produced around the year 800 and represents a Latin text of the four gospels. It employs decoration that is extraordinary, rich and colourful and which can be seen at the Trinity College Library in Dublin. A fine quality product, colour.

Andrew Lang recounts the Homeric legend of the wars between the Greeks and the Trojans. Paris, Helen of Troy, Achilles, Hector, Ulysses, the Amazons and the Wooden Horse all figure in this magical introduction to one of the greatest legends ever told. Also included are the adventures of Theseus and his dramatic battle with the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne, and the quest of Jason for the Golden Fleece with the help of the Princess Medea, Ulysses and the Sirens and Perseus and Medusa. B/w map, paperback. 405pp.

"And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England's mountains green?" William Blake's "Jerusalem" is a popular national song, performed at the wedding of the Prince of Wales and the opening of the 2012 Olympics. Blake imagines that England is a new Jerusalem visited by characters from the Christian story, and the author of this fascinating book shows how Blake's vision is one of many attempts to provide the majesty of Britain and its empire with a mythical ancestry from ancient times. Brutus of Troy, a survivor of the Trojan War described in Homer's Iliad, was the mythical great-grandson of Aeneas, though the author shows he may also have had his origins in historical figures of the late Roman empire. In the 4th century the historian Eusebius commented that the British were claiming that the biblical Apostles reached British shores, and in the middle ages the myth was used as a charter for English kings to extend their rule across the whole of Britain. In 12th century Britain the myth of Brutus was extremely popular, propagated by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his History of the Kings of England, itself derived from the older historian Nennius and what we now know to be the pseudo-histories of Dares and Dictys. In his wanderings after the sack of Troy, Brutus and his followers arrived in England, landing at Totnes where the Brutus Stone is said to be the location of his first footfall on British soil. This classical story became linked with the myth of the wandering tribes of Israel, some of whom ended up in England, providing Queen Victoria with a speculative pedigree tracing her ancestry back to the House of David. The author suggests that a modern newspaper might report the arrival of Brutus as "Italian-born Turk leads Albanian asylum-seekers to Britain". Well researched and fascinating. 237pp, timeline, photos.

Symbolism is all around us whether religious, as insignia, symbols of historic heritage, nationalism in Druidic monuments like Stonehenge, in religious traditions, alchemy, magic and rituals. Rosicrucians published a symbolic representation of the Emerald Tablet in 1875, a circle, symbolising oneness and unity with the words' initial letters spelling out the secret of alchemy, VITRIOL. The hands symbolise an oath and above the hands are seven planets. The Sun and Moon pour life substance into a chalice which is supported by Mercury. The three shields are the three principles - sulphur is the lion, salt the seven-pointed star, and mercury the eagle. The chalice symbolises water, the lion fire, the eagle air, the star Earth. To the modern reader, grimoires usually refer to computer and fantasy games but originally they were books of instructions produced between the 13th and 15th centuries written by devout Christians containing much information about guardian angels and their teachings. Grimoires also offer spells, charms and talismans and users were keen on finding treasure, flying, becoming invisible and influencing the course of love affairs. Lengthy rituals were recorded enabling adepts aided by angels to conjure spirits and demons. Ceremonial magic required purification and preparation and robes were worn and various knives, swords, wands, candles, salt and wine were required and water and herbs prepared in containers. Chalk was needed to draw circles, triangles and other shapes. This broad very well illustrated visual history covers symbolism in art, heraldry, guilds, livery and companies, religious symbols, world calendars and time, fertility figureheads and fire, plants, food and the natural world, geoglyphs, pyramids, spirals, mazes, circles and the wheel, light, music and dance, the stars and the zodiac and more. 256 glossy pages, hundreds of colour illus., large square softback.
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Yorkshire is a county with more strangeness than you can shake a Dale walking stick at. Home of Robin Hood (born in Barnsdale), Guy Fawkes, Dick Turpin and Dracula (Bram Stoker wrote part of the vampire tale in a Whitby hotel) and, some say, the birthplace of modern civilisation began in Leeds, but you'll have to read the book to find out why. Ideal for a blowy winter night, the history begins in Jurassic Yorkshire 200,000,000BC, Britain's oldest house (8770BC), the Stonehenge of the north, St Hilda of Whitby and Caedmon the Cowherd (614); the uneducated Yorkshire lad who gave us the British Empire (1693) who was John Harrison from Wakefield, Gentleman Jack, the Luddites and what they stood for, and the Brontë connection, four exceptionally well-married daughters, a cat, a cliff and a life-saving intervention (1934), the Yorkshire accent combats Nazi propaganda, building Britain's highest motorway (1963), the Yorkshire Ripper finally caught (1981), and John Noakes gets down about Shep among the dozens of entries in this fun and readable quirky reference book. 170pp, paperback.

Among the 20 cards to cut out and keep feature the cat, badger, eagle, horse, bear, blackbird, bee, hawk and stag. The internationally acclaimed expert on Celtic tradition John Matthews has written hundreds of books on the Arthurian legends, tarot, folklore and mythology and we were thrilled to discover this book on the bargain market. He explains ancient stories of shamanic helpers and how to access their wisdom, tales of animal tricksters, boasters and heroes all dwell here, amidst the dazzling universe of Celtic lore. Play the drumming music, using the weblink included in the book, and allow yourself to be safely carried on a wave of sound to experience your own shamanic journey. In this gentle trance you can seek out your own Totem Animal, while the accompanying cards will help you choose animal helpers for particular situations. Ask for guidance on life issues, self-empowerment, and paths to healing. Some of the names of the nine classic Celtic stories included are The Crane of Moy Leana, The Hawk of Achil and Cormac and the Wolves. Personalise your journey through the hands of an expert. Fully illustrated softback, 160pp.

This book contains over 40 of the best-loved fairy stories, beautifully illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Favourites such as Jack the Giant-killer, Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, The Three Little Pigs and The Babes in the Wood are all here among many others, but stories from different traditions also make their appearance, including The Three Bears and Little Red Riding Hood. 256pp. Paperback.

A spellbinding collection of literature, lore, art, recipes and projects in a fanciful anthology to delight unicorn lovers. Unicorns embrace the magic of the forest, living as they do among wild mushrooms and toadstools near sparkling waterfalls. Their ghostly silhouettes can be seen ambling amid patches of lacey ferns and wild orchids, and gently brushing against pungent wild ginger. The horn of a unicorn is a great treasure because of its rarity and powerful properties. It can detect poison, and if dipped in poisoned food or drink, it will neutralise the toxin. Make a lavender horn and a jewelled unicorn coronet, and in the food section unicorn tears of milky oats and mimosa flowers and bright pink icing. Discover unicorns in poetry, heraldry, the lady and the unicorn as muse in dozens of beautiful mediaeval artworks and tapestries here reproduced in full-page colour images, unicorns on Noah's Ark and in the Bible, in antiquity, arts and culture, and unicorn movie stars. Plus forest bathing, making holographic lip balm, enchantress body nectar, stars in her mane hair mist and other beautifying potions to enchant a unicorn. There are unicorn inspired make-up ideas for the traditional, dark or otherworldly unicorns in the fashion and beauty section, unicorn of the stars and Pegasus and their narwhal cousins. With gold edged pages, tipped in illustration on the front, a heavyweight, pale pink beautifully bound hardback of 232 page with satin pagemarker. Supersensual and magical imagery and colour photos.
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Part travelogue, part history, part memoir of a life-long affair with the northern lands and seas, traveller and scholar Charles Moseley describes a haunting world where the voices of the past are never quiet. From his account of the last days of the Viking settlements in Greenland to his own experiences on the melting glaciers of Spitsbergen, he reminds us how deceptive human ideas of permanence are, and how fragile are the systems of these starkly beautiful lands. The pull of the poles is more than magnetic. It reaches into our soul. 'So what I write, discursive, anecdotal, unsystematic as it is, is in a sense a notation, the shards, of a 40-year-long love affair with the purity, the clarity, of that world of cold seas and light and ice...Memories crowd in of Olaf the Peacock, and Hallgerd Hoskuldsdottir, of Melkorka the Irish princess captured and enslaved, memories of Ngal and his patience, of Gunnar Hamundarson's fatal love for Hallgerd, of Skarp-Hedin's twisted smile, and of Grettir and his grim fate - their ghosts were all around me when I first went to Iceland...' 303pp.

This solid, beautifully produced book contains a perfect facsimile of the 15th century manuscript created by the Venetian mariner Michael of Rhodes, with each folio reproduced at its actual size, including a number of blank pages. Michael of Rhodes joined the Venetian navy as an oarsman in 1401, and over the next 40 years he was constantly at sea on voyages with Venice's commercial and military fleets, fighting in several battles and rising to the highest ranks available to someone who was not an aristocrat. In 1434 he began to write a manuscript distilling the knowledge he had acquired, including commercial mathematics, astrology, portolans, and the first extant treatise on shipbuilding. Some parts of the manuscript, particularly the sections on shipbuilding, were copied in the succeeding century, after which the manuscript disappeared for several hundred years until 1966 when it suddenly appeared at Sotheby's and passed into private hands. In 2000 it was sold again to a collector who made it available to the Dibner Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and this facsimile is the first in a three-volume series by MITC. The second volume transcribes and translates the manuscript, and the third collects scholarly studies discussing the world of Michael Rhodes, his mathematics, use of visual imagery, portolan, shipbuilding text, calendar, almanac and system of time reckoning. This first facsimile volume is beautiful to look at, not only because of the elegance of the script but also because of Michael's attractive illustrations, particularly the colourful signs of the Zodiac. 519 facsimile pages in colour.