The symbols and strange images that we find in our cemeteries, religious structures, banks and in our parks are the same symbols that have been part of the framework of the human psyche for thousands of years. While contemporary man may think that they are simply decorative manifestations of a by-gone era, they represent the fears, dreams, ideas, beliefs and struggles that humankind has endured since we began to walk upright. This book surveys many of these icons and will give a meaning for them both in the context of ancient history and folklore as well as a meaning that is suitable for our contemporary times. Illustrated with dozens of photographs, this book will be of interest to anyone interested in historic preservation, ancient symbolism, the Green Man and the universal application of imagery. Gary R. Varner has written numerous books on ancient traditions, folklore, the environment and contemporary issues. He is a member of the American Folklore Society and the Foundation for Mythological Studies.

A photo story of the archetypal symbols present on many of Kentucky's 19th century buildings, including gargoyles, Green Men and other strange and grotesque images carved in stone. Includes over 40 illustrations, index and bibliography.

Two complete projects, fascinating history and myth, and 26 additional full page patterns for creating functional and decorative gargoyles from wood. Learn to carve a traditional water-spouting gargoyle and classic grotesque with step-by-step instructions. Includes 10 additional patterns for mythical creatures incorporated into architectural elements, like a working doorknocker.

Gargoyles are an architectural feature designed to throw rainwater clear of the walls of a building. Widely used on medieval churches, these water spouts were often richly decorated, and fashioned as serpents' heads and other fanciful shapes. Today, the term gargoyle is also popularly applied to any carved decorative head or creature high up on a building and this book is an exploration of all of these enchanting features. Written by an academic and stonecarver, it is the perfect introduction to this fascinating subject. Gargoyles aims to provide a concise introduction to the stone carvings often found on religious and secular buildings in Britain from the medieval period to the modern. It will explore the typical imagery, some of the theories put forward to explain them, as well as consider the carvings within their architectural and social contexts. Incorporating recent and current research, the book will nevertheless be accessible to the general reader.

An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time. On a burn ward, a man lies between living and dying, so disfigured that no one from his past life would even recognize him. His only comfort comes from imagining various inventive ways to end his misery. Then a woman named Marianne Engel walks into his hospital room, a wild-haired, schizophrenic sculptress on the lam from the psych ward upstairs, who insists that she knows him – that she has known him, in fact, for seven hundred years. She remembers vividly when they met, in another hospital ward at a convent in medieval Germany, when she was a nun and he was a wounded mercenary left to die. If he has forgotten this, he is not to worry: she will prove it to him. And so Marianne Engel begins to tell him their story, carving away his disbelief and slowly drawing him into the orbit and power of a word he'd never uttered: love.

Inside this full-color digital edition: ALTERNATIVE NEWS Life and Death in a Nuclear Powered World By Jerry Decker Checking the Newest Claim for Oldest Stone Tools By Michael Cremo Fighting to Forget Is Terrorism a Symptom of Planetary Amnesia? By MARTIN RUGGLES The Surveillance State How much of your Freedom is at Stake By MARIE D. JONES & LARRY FLAXMAN The Otherworld in the Andes A Global Tradition of Secret Initiatory Rites and Peru's Iconic Sacred Sites By FREDDY SILVA Gothic Wonders The Magic of the Cathedrals Amazes Still By KAREN RALLS, Ph,D. Fairie Factors vs Materialism Fact or Fantasy: What's the Truth? By PATRICK MARSOLEK The Foundations of Reality What Do We Know For Sure? By WILLIAM B. STOECKER Hominids & Humbug Trouble in the House of Darwin? By SUSAN B. MARTINEZ, PH.D. HOW DID THE ICE AGE END? With a Bang, Not a Whimper, Believes Maverick Researcher Randall Carlson By CYNTHIA LOGAN Ice-Age-EndS cenarios A Much -- Cited Geologist Weighs In on the Evidence By ROBERT M. SCHOCH, Ph.D. Columbus and the Brothers Pinzon The Untold Story of America's Other Discoverers By STEVEN SORA Jupiter in Virgo Lightning Bolts and Staves of Wheat By Julie Loar DVD LIFE BEYOND THE GRAVE? How Much Does This Life Depend on Influences from Those No Longer Here? By Marsha Oaks

The three central chapters of the book each examine a different type of error or anomaly: a mismeasured giant, a self-defeating experiment, an erring citation of Virgil. These apparently trivial discrepancies are linked, the author suggests, to much larger questions. What is the status of mimetic realism in Dante's poem? By what right does a poet pretend to represent the order of God's mind? Where does aggressive allegoresis cross over into interpretive error? Through the study of error, the author offers an alternative account of Dante's poetic project, one that gives priority to wit and self-irony rather than didactic seriousness.