This book is actually two books in one volume: "Myths Every Child Should Know" and "Legends Every Child Should Know." Both books are compilations of important myths and legends that have been passed down from storyteller to storyteller for thousands of years, and hold stories that, literally, every child should know. As your child grows older, he or she will constantly run into references to characters, items, and situations present in these stories. Things like "the Midas touch" turning everything to gold, being a Rip Van Winkle and missing things everyone else knows about, or any reference to Pandora's box. * * * * While these stories vary greatly in details; they fit every climate and wear the peculiar dress of every country; it is easy to see that they are made up of the same materials, and they describe the same persons or ideas or things whether they are told in Greece or India or Norway or Brittany. Wherever they are found they make it certain that they come from a very remote time and grew out of ideas or feelings and ways of looking at the world which a great many men shared in common in many places. These stories were selected by H.W. Mabie because they throw light on the mind and character of the ages that produced them; they are part of the history of the unfolding of the human mind in the world; and, above all, they are interesting. * * * * Myths are highly imaginative and poetic explanations of the world - and of the life of man in it - at a time when scientific knowledge and habits of thought didn't exist. "Myths Every Child Should Know" contains 16 stories: The Three Golden Apples, The Pomegranate Seeds, The Chimaera, The Miraculous Pitcher, The Golden Touch, The Gorgon's Head, The Dragon's Teeth, The Paradise of Children, The Cyclops, The Argonauts, The Giant Builder, How Odin Lost His Eye, The Quest of the Hammer, The Apples of Idun, The Death of Balder, and The Star and the Lily. * * * * Legends, on the other hand, have some slight historical basis, are cast in narrative form, and told as a record of fact. They deal with incidents in the lives of holy men, places made sacred by association with holy men, or deal with some popular type of character like Robin Hood or Rip Van Winkle. "Legends Every Child Should Know" contains 19 stories: Wigwam Legend of Hiawatha, Beowulf, Childe Horn, Sir Galahad, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, Rustem and Sohrab, Guy of Warwick, Chevy Chase, The Fate of the Children of Lir, The Beleaguered City, Prester John, The Wandering Jew, King Robert of Sicily, The Beato Torello Da Poppi, The Lorelei, The Passing of Arthur, Rip Van Winkle, The Gray Champion, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. * * * * "Myths Every Child Should Know" and "Legends Every Child Should Know." were published in 1905 and 1906, respectively, and this volume contains the complete text in both books, as well as both frontispiece illustrations. * * * * Check our other Children's, Juvenile, and Adult books, and our Every Child Should Know Library, at www.FlyingChipmunkPublishing.com, or Like us on Facebook for our latest releases.