Creation Myths
There are many
internet sites on mythology.
However it is work to find websites written by people with expertise in
the field.
Many sites may have
valid information and a professional/attractive look but we can not rely on the
information they provide if the author is not an expert.
So how do you tell if the author is an expert?
ü Look for sites written by college
professors or authoritative organizations (e.g. colleges, literary publishers like Bartleby,
government institutions.)
ü When you find sites that you think are put
up by a reputable institution-remember that if a URL has the tilda symbol (~),
the site is not part of the institution listed before the tilda.
ü Try to google the author of the website
(not just the article on the website-but who put it there) and see if they have
a resume or published works in the field.
Here are a few websites that are credible:
ü Folklore and Mythology:
Electronic Texts http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
An extensive collection of tales from around the
world, many edited or translated by D. L. Ashliman, a professor of Germanic
Languages and Literature. The alphabetical listing is by author, country of
origin, and categories (such as frog kings and princes, human sacrifice,
multiple birth, nightmares, werewolf and witchcraft legends, and Aarne-Thompson
categories). Includes stories from Aesop, Bulfinch, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Grimm
Brothers, Andrew Lang, Longfellow, the Volsunga Saga , and more.
ü
World
Myths and Legends in Art
http://www.artsmia.org/world-myths/
This collection of images brings together 26
works of art in the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts inspired by
mythology around the
world." The site provides an essay about what is myth, and information and
images of art from various world cultures and for mythological themes, such as creation myths and hero myths. Also
includes a glossary, bibliography, and materials for teachers.
Can you tell me why I
did not include Encylopedia Mythica, MythWeb, or Godchecker?
While these may have been sufficient for elementary school, why don’t
they pass muster now? If
you can find more sites to use, please let me know.
Our online databases and e-books provide a vast source of
scholarly information, already vetted for you. Look at the following:
Use terms such as “Norse mythology” or ‘Creation myths”
When you click on a book in the results you can further search terms in that book under “search” tab on the upper right hand side.
An example of a search is as follows
Put in the search term in the FIND box “Norse Mythololgy”
On the left hand side, “Narrow by Subject Terms” has a list of subjects
Click the one, “Mythology, Norse”
Further narrow the search by adding the terms: “And Creation”
Remember in EBSCO, you need to put the word and because EBSCO searches for words as a phrase unless you click the box at the bottom of the initial search page “automatically and all terms” or include the word and in your search
An example of a search is “Japanese Mythology”. I looked at the fifth result “Ancient Japanese Mythology” which gave a lot of information on creation myths.
http://find.galegroup.com/menu/commonmenu.do?userGroupName=pl2950
An example of a search is as follows:
Before you put in a search term, just click “submit”
Then the tabs on the resulting Basic search page at the top will have a “subject guide search option”- Click it
Then put in the term “Mythology” and scroll through all the mythology subjects
Use the term “creation myth”
On the results page you can also go to the section on the right side “Journals and Magazines” and click it.
http://www.powerlibrary.org/Interface/POWER.asp?ID=PL2950