Mythology & Folklore 📒📜

[CAOMouse]

• Please share me video related to mythology and folklore, I want to learn more

[CAOMouse]

For example, here is a video about Japan's Mythology from Spirited away movie

[CAOMouse]

I have some questions about this:
Is Haku from this movie also a "river god"?
If yes, then why the "mud river god" is bigger? (And is he a stronger one too?)

[darthmongoose]

Is Haku from this movie also a "river god"?

Yes. I can see why this might be confusing because in other mythologies, there might be a "god of rivers", but in Shinto, every river has its own kami. So Haku is the god of a different river.

If yes, then why the "mud river god" is bigger? (And is he a stronger one too?)

Size isn't necessarily the same thing as power when it comes to kami. In fact a running theme in a lot of anime and manga you'll see come up a lot is that when somebody "hulks out" and gains mass in a transformation, it's more often a bad thing than a good thing; it represents a loss of the integrity of your form- ie. your human identity is lost and you have become more like a monster. A lot of the time in anime, somebody's ultimate form will be normal human sized, even if previous forms had them hulking out more and more. It represents mastery of the self- the willpower to be master of your ultimate form- your own body.

[DeformedSunflower]

I highly recommend Overly Sarcastic Productions. They have an entire playlist dedicated to not only Greek myths, but also Asian, African, and European ones. Basically, it's a treasure trove for myth enthusiasts.

[draweththeraven]

@CAOMouse on kami (just the Japanese word for a spirit/deity, the Jewish/Christian/etc god is also called Kami-sama) - this is an example of immanence! Immanence is where gods live within or are manifested in the world, instead of being separated from it. I think some Indian rivers also share names with Hindu gods for this reason!

I don't watch a lot of videos on mythology/folklore because I'm used to reading about it, so I can recommend books and PDFs if you want!

[CAOMouse]

Thank you darth
This leads to a more interesting question: what's better: Simplicity or complexity?
Why life keep evolving into more complex things? (more complex will reduce survivability)

[CAOMouse]

Thank you Kirs, I will definitely take a look

[CAOMouse]

Thank you draweth, of course I would like to see it

[darthmongoose]

This leads to a more interesting question: what's better: Simplicity or complexity?Why life keep evolving into more complex things? (more complex will reduce survivability)

Well, it's worth remembering that in a lot of ways a more complex life form is actually more like a colony of small life forms working together for mutual gain. Our brains create a concept of "self", that we are a single autonomous unit, but many scientists would say that this is an evolutionary trick to preserve us; believing that the collection of different groups of specialised cells and bacteria we're made up of who share resources like a perfectly functioning communist society are all actually a single complex being and so getting parts like the bones and muscles in the arms to risk themselves to protect the heart that supplies them with blood, or the brain that coordinates the operation or the stomach and intestines that turn food into energy just makes sense for overall survival.
I'm not a biologist, but clearly at some point, these groups of cells were finding enough success to survive to start evolving into bigger groups of cells, and then integrating friendly bacteria in their communities and being such big groups of cells they needed dedicated brain and nerve cells to communicate with the different parts of the group and coordinate. If it didn't work, such beings would have died out already and definitely wouldn't have become as complex as a human.

[CAOMouse]

Thank you, that explains a lot
Now I am wonder what's better: communism or capitalism?
(I realize that our body is "communism" while our society is "capitalism", irony)

[draweththeraven]

here's a list on Reddit if you want longer stories and complex stuff!
https://www.reddit.com/r/FreeEBOOKS/comments/9qep6e/heres_a_list_of_100_free_mythology_and_folklore/

I also like archive.org and epdf.pub for finding books that are free to borrow or download. Most of them are legally sourced or self published. I would start with encyclopedias and short stories because long myths can be complex! Especially when they are translated directly from ancient epics like the Norse Eddas or the Greek Odyssey.

[darthmongoose]

Going back to the topic (because you don't want to get me talking about capitalism and communism hooo boy...) while it's not a video, I absolutely adored reading the book "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman. The audiobook is available on Audible and is narrated by Gaiman himself (who has the most lovely voice omg) and I definitely recommend either reading or listening to his translation and retelling of the Norse myths because he makes them feel so immediate, like you feel like you're sitting around a fire being told these fun big stories about Thor fighting giants and stuff. Because of my name and region of birth, I know I probably have at least some viking ancestry and it made me feel a bond with my ancestors I'd never really felt before.
"Mythology" by Steven Fry is also a really nice read, though it's... very Steven Fry so how much you enjoy it will lean heavily on how much you like him and his gently meandering style of comedy. Obviously the audiobook is read by him (because anything else would be wrong).

[nickfechter]

When it comes to mythology and folklore then you can't get any better than Joseph Campbell. Let's just say that there's reason why his work is credited with inspiring the story of the original Star Wars Trilogy:

campbellfoundation

[OttoGruenwald]

Not a video, but here's my mythology and folklore starter pack. The Book of Imaginary Beings is a good general intro as it briefly touches on everything from Fearsome Critters to Islamic folklore. Sacred texts.com is the well for when you want to go deeper. Whatever you're interested in, it has free texts about it.

https://theteacherscrate.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/borges-jorge-luis-book-of-imaginary-beings-penguin-1974.pdf

https://www.sacred-texts.com/

Now for some interesting videos:

[IdiotWithPencil]

for the spanish speakers around here =P

[CAOMouse]

Thank you draweth

[CAOMouse]

Thank you I will try his book
And you have viking ancestors? That's very cool, I just imagined you wearing viking helmet

[CAOMouse]

Thank you Nick, I will check the channel

[CAOMouse]

Thank you Otto, I will definitely watch them