Mythology

Lang approached the study of mythology from multiple angles: as a Homeric scholar and translator, as an anthropologist with interests in the origin of religion, as a folklorist and fairy tale scholar, and as a creative writer. There is thus a natural overlap between the titles on this page and the titles on the pages on anthropology, classics. fiction and drama, poetry, and the science of religion. Titles specifically on fairy tales are not listed on this page, unless they are clearly linked to Lang’s mythological studies.

Homeric Scholarship

  • Homer and the Epic (Longman’s, Green, 1893)
  • Homer and His Age (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1906)
  • “Homer and Anthropology.” Anthropology and the Classics: Six Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford by Arthur J. Evans, Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, F. B. Jevons, J. L. Myres, W. Warde Fawler. Edited Robert Ranulph Marett. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908. pp. 44–65. See WorldCat.

Scholarship on Mythology

  • Custom and Myth (Longmans, Green, 1884) [The Internet Archive Scan is of the 1893 new edition.
  • Household tales; their origin, diffusion, and relations to the higher myths. [London]: William Clewes and Son, 1884]. Separate pre-publication issue of the “introduction” to Bohn’s edition of Grimm’s Household tales. See this item in WorldCat.
  • La Mythologie Traduit de L’Anglais par Léon Léon Parmentier. Avec une préface par Charles Michel et des Additions de l’auteur. (Paris 1886) According to Wikipedia, “Never published as a complete book in English, although there was a Polish translation. The first 170 pages is a translation of the article in the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica’. The rest is a combination of articles and material from ‘Custom and Myth’.”
  • Myth, Ritual and Religion (2 vols., Longmans, Green, 1887) ( 1, 1887) (The vol. 2 scan is the 1913 reprint. Lang revised and expanded the book in 1899.) Myth, Ritual, and Religion. Second edition. New Edition. [Rewritten and enlarged.] 1, The volume 2 scan is from 1901.
  • Modern Mythology; A Reply to Max Müller (Longmans, Green, and Co., 1897)
  • The Making of Religion (Longmans, Green, 1898) (Second edition, 1900, with a new preface, Third edition, with a new preface, 1909)
  • Magic and Religion (Longmans, Green, 1901). Lang is arguing particularly against theories by E. B. Tylor and J. G. Frazer.
  • The Origins of Religion (London: Watts, 1908) [Essays, mainly reprinted. The last essay, “Theories of the Origin of Religion,” was new.]

Translations

Creative Writings

  • Helen of Troy. (Longmans, Green 1882). (See also the 1913 reissue.)
  • The World’s Desire (Longmans, Green, 1890) with H. Rider Haggard. Lang also wrote the prefatory and concluding poems. The Internet Archive scan here is from 1918. A manuscript, with clear differences between Lang and Haggard’s handwriting, is preserved by the Norfolk Record Office.

Adaptations

  • The Story of the Golden Fleece (Charles H. Kelly, 1903) [Juvenile Audience.] See this entry in WorldCat.
  • Tales of Troy (Longmans, Green and Co., 1910) [Longmans’ Class-Books of English Literature]

Introductions:

  • Adventures of Ulysses, by Charles Lamb. (London: E. Arnold). Introduction. See WorldCat.
  • The Traditional Poetry of the Finns. [Il Kalevala, o la Poesia tradizionale dei Finni.] By Dominico Comparetti. Translated by Isabella M. Anderton. With introduction by Andrew Lang. (Longmans, Green, 1898). See WorldCat Full text is available from Internet Archive.
Please feel free to contact me with any corrections.  
Return to Andrew Lang’s book publications.
See the list of Andrew Lang’s periodical publications.