Spirits, Fairies, Gnomes and Goblins: An Encyclopedia of the Little People

I love this book.

This compilation of Mythic beings and creatures of legend is both informative and interesting. The pure amount of entries and the variety from which cultures they came makes this encyclopedia a must have for any reference seeker. I often find myself looking through the pages and reading at random but I also often find it quite useful when I am looking for a certain important thing. The encyclopedia is very well written and includes an immense amount of connection between alike sources making it very interesting to see how different cultures and people used a diety for the same purpose. A great source of enjoyment and informative reference that any conosieur of myth or folklore should own and share with others. I would reccomend also reading Carol Rose's other encylopedia "Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth"

This is an amazingly comprehensive volume cataloguing spirits--supernatural beings less powerful than deities--from cultures around the world.A book like this is hard to summarize in a review, but it suffices to say that this is a wonderfully broad overview of the subject, covering every culture and every spirit you can think of, with only a little bit of oversimplification. (Durga, for example, is referred to as evil, which is somewhat less than accurate.) Spirits, demons, djinns, faeries, and their kin are all present and accounted for. Use this as a first reference, then make sure to look more deeply into whatever interests you most.

It seems Carol Rose went through every culture to collect all the entries. Its very hard, these days, to find good resource materials for mythological beings but this book has it all. No fairy tale aspects, just facts:) Definetly recommended for the fantasy writer or fantasy fanatic.

This book is superb. It is comprehensive, authoritative, and an invaluable reference guide for writers and other researchers. I was hesitant when I saw the listed reading level as age 4-8. That's clearly an error. This is a book for adults, and a really good one.

This book is incredible. It not only contains thousands of entries, encyclopedia-style, but it cross-references them geographically and by type of creature. I've learned tons. I read this book not only for fun, but as a resource in my work as a writer of fantasy. I have other books like it, but this one is essential.