Audiobook · read by volunteers
Myths and Legends of All Nations
Logan Marshall (1884–1937)
Read by Mark, Elizabeth Klett, David Kleparek, Lucy Lo Faro, Anna Simon, Andy, Kalynda, Graham Redman, Lizzie Driver, Leon Mire · 27 chapters · 8 h 58
About the book
From Prometheus, the friend of man, to the labours of Hercules and well beyond, this collection gathers stories from the mythologies of many peoples and ages. Logan Marshall, an American compiler of popular books, brought together tales of gods, heroes and monsters, aiming to make the great legends of the world accessible to a general audience. Whether you meet them for the first time or know them from childhood, the stories still have the power to surprise: stolen fire, impossible tasks, floods and monsters, and the sorrows and triumphs of mortals and immortals alike. The twenty-seven parts, read by ten LibriVox volunteers, last about nine hours, with titles such as Deucalion and Pyrrha and Theseus and the Centaur showing the range, so you can listen to one tale or follow the whole journey across cultures and centuries.
Introduction
Logan Marshall, who lived from 1884 to 1937, was an American author and compiler who produced a number of popular books in the early twentieth century. Myths and Legends of All Nations, published in 1914, is a collection of stories from the various mythologies of the world, drawn together for a general readership. Marshall also compiled The Sinking of the Titanic and Great Sea Disasters, published in 1912.
The book belongs to the tradition of the myth anthology, which was especially popular in the decades around 1900. Such volumes aimed to bring together stories that had been available only in scattered or specialised sources, retelling them in plain language for families and schools. The opening chapters of this one, which turn to Prometheus and to the labours of Hercules, show its taste for the best-known figures of classical tradition, and further stories take the listener to other parts of the world.
As is usual with collections of this kind, the retellings are shaped by the outlook of their time. They simplify, and they sometimes smooth over elements of the original sources, so a listener who is interested in a particular tradition may wish to follow up with a more scholarly version. At the same time, the stories are an enjoyable way to see how many themes recur across cultures.
The recording has twenty-seven parts, beginning with a preface, and is read by ten LibriVox volunteers over about nine hours. It is worth hearing today as an accessible introduction to mythology and as a glimpse of the way earlier generations presented the legends of the world.
Public domain
Logan Marshall died in 1937: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text