Book series by Time-Life Books
The Enchanted World was a series of twenty-one books published in the time period 1984-1987. Each book focused on different aspects of mythology, fairy tales or folklore, and all were released by Time-Life Books. Their overall editor was Ellen Phillips and their primary consultant was Tristram Potter Coffin, a Guggenheim Fellowship Award-winning University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus of English.
Premise.
A unique part of the series was that its books were written as stories, taking place from an "in-universe" perspective, presenting its subjects as real people, places, and things. Related to such things having once been real, a common thread through several of them was its documentation of the alleged decline of magical things from "when the world was young" to the modern day. The subjects - dragons, dwarfs, giants - are presented as being potent and strong at the dawn of time, but magical creatures grow weaker and eventually disappear as humans spread and demystify the world, though there is always the promise that the magic will return once again.
The books' subject matter often overlap; for example, while King Arthur and his knights only have one book completely devoted to them, "Fall of Camelot", they often appear in other books. Half of "Legends of Valor" is about them, and they appear in "Wizards and Witches", "Fairies and Elves", "Dwarfs", "Spells and Bindings" and "Giants and Ogres". Nonetheless, a series characteristic was that attention was also given to folklore tales, legends and fairy tales originating from other parts of the world (the until then fairly unknown ones from Eastern Europe in particular) besides the ones from Western Europe alone such as the Arthurian legends or the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, even though they remained over-represented in the series.
Christendom is often related to the decline. Though "The Enchanted World" describes it as humankind's greatest shield against those magics and beings of magic that would prove hostile to it, it proved detrimental even to good magic as people ceased to believe in the old gods in favor of Christ. According to the series, this was because Christianity was centered around a god of reason and that it promised a clearly defined universe of order and stability, a universe where there could be only one god. Magic could hardly thrive under such circumstances. It continued to exist either in opposition to Christianity or, more often, in connection to in-between places and in-between things. The series states that magic had always had a strong connection to things that were neither one thing nor another because as neither one thing nor another, such things could escape definition and be more than what they appeared.
Release overview.
The volumes in the series were known for their art and the extensive research used by their respective authors retold stories, and were executed as gold imprinted, cloth bound hardcover books, with a glued-on cover illustration. A richly illustrated series, its wealth of illustrations consisted of a mix of especially commissioned ones done by an international array of contemporary book illustrators of repute, as well as already existing ones lifted from older works from the hand of past masters, especially those from the Victorian and Edwardian ages of romanticism, which had seen a strong revival of interest in folklore, the Arthurian legends in particular. At first, the books were not furnished with dust jackets. They were however provided for the retail copies, after the regular retail bookstore channel became employed by the publisher for their book publications as well from 1991 onward, alongside their hitherto traditional Direct-to-Customer (DTC)-only distribution method.
As had been customary with the Time-Life Books series print publications, each of the original US first-edition series volumes had received two ISBNs (the second one "usually" eight numbers higher), with the lower number indicating the retail (with dust jacket)/DTC copies whereas the higher ones indicate the library binding ("lib. bdg.") copies as specified in the book colophons. The popularity of the "Enchanted World" series, resulting in multiple reprint runs for most of the individual titles, led to the subsequent followup publication of the 1987-91 "Mysteries of the Unknown" series.
International editions.
Despite the universal appeal of the subject matter, the series has not been widely translated into other languages, though French, German, and Dutch-language editions are known to have been near-concurrently released by the local "Time-Life Books B.V." Amsterdam branch. Truncated, the Dutch-language edition (as Het Rijk der Fabelen, which literally translates as ""The Realm of Fables"), did not see the last eight volumes in translation – most likely because of disappointing sales. On the other hand, it was standard issued with a dust jacket, contrary to the English, and other-language editions, which were normally issued without one for series subscribers, whereas individual title bookstore retail copies were issued with one. The same branch was also responsible for the similarly released French, German and UK English-language editions, of which the latter were also intended for all territories outside the USA/Canada and indistinguishable from the US source publications, save for their ISBNs and the use of the British versus the American spelling. Unlike their Dutch counterpart, the French and German-language series editions were completed in their entirety as Les mondes enchantés and Verzauberte Welten ("Enchanted Worlds"" – plural in both cases) respectively. Both editions were Amsterdam branch publications and while the French edition did not, the German edition carried Dutch ISBNs, confusingly the very same ones as the Dutch-language counterparts if there were any. Contrary to the French and Dutch editions though, which only saw one print run each, but like in the USA, the series was a popular one in the German-speaking territories (Germany having been the birthplace of the Brothers Grimm after all, having their folk tales featured heavily in the Time-Life release in edited form), enjoying multiple reprints; of the first title, "Zauberer und Hexen", for example, is known that there have been at least five printings. The European edition releases lagged only slightly behind the release of the US source publications.
A decade after the publication of the series by Time-Life Books, the European other-language editions were joined by two other, latter-day foreign language editions. The first concerned the 1995 second-edition German-language hardcover without a dust jacket release, licensed to Augsburg-based publisher Weltbild Verlag, carrying the series title Die geheimnisvolle Welt der Mythen und Sagen (""The mysterious world of myths and sagas") and featuring deviant cover art. Moscow-based publisher Terra followed suit one year later with a licensed Russian-language first edition, entitled Зачарованный мир ("Zacharovannyĭ mir""), a literal translation of the series title. This edition was published in its entirety, contrary to both the Dutch-language edition as well as the German second-edition release, which ran for only eight volumes.
Apart from these two foreign language licensed editions, the UK too saw a partial second-edition release in 2003-2005, licensed to the London-based Caxton Publishing Group under a full license from the European "Time-Life Books B.V." Amsterdam branch (as specified in the colophons of the UK volumes), which managed to stay in business a few years longer after the American "Time-Life Books, Inc." mother division had gone defunct in 2001 as a dedicated book publisher. As with the German second-edition release, this British second-edition was only a partial reprint of the series (only six second-edition titles are known), likewise featuring deviant cover art but furnished with a dust jacket. Both the UK and German reiterations were bookstore/retail-only releases.
Volume titles of "The Enchanted World".
"In order of publication; the UK and German-language editions have their first-edition ISBN listed first, followed by the second-edition ISBN where applicable:"
"Wizards and Witches" (1984, ).
Brendan Lehane's book opens stating that in the earliest days the world was not yet fully ordered and the process of creation not yet completed. Since reality was fluid, it was relatively easy for mighty wizards such as Finland's Väinämöinen, Taliesin, Manannán mac Lir, Math the Ancient and Gwydion to cast their magic. Magic in those days was almost instinctual and inborn; it was an art. Those days ended with Merlin, the last of the old wizards, famous for his mentorship of King Arthur and the realm of Camelot. When he withdrew from the world, magic itself began to withdraw, and the wizards retreated from human sight.
As Christianity came to define the world, the use of magic became much more difficult and even dangerous. It was now no longer an art to be understood instinctively, but a science that required years of study, and perhaps presumed too much: to reshape the order of reality was to challenge God (the author of that reality), and, more often than not, a wizard found himself taking the aid of devil himself. Some wizards earned their powers legitimately and used them responsibly; Roger Bacon is one example, as revealed in one tale. Others, such as Michael Scot, gambled their souls by attending the Scholomance, the school of black magic. Still others, such as Faustus, took the quick and easy way and made deals with the Devil, always with grisly results.
Concurrent with the scholar wizards were their more humble cousins, the witches. Unlike their male counterparts, their magic retained links to the natural world. Some witches were good and were called white witches, cunning folk, and fairy doctors. They tended to be good Christians and they used their powers for good; their spells were often indistinguishable from prayers. The White Paternoster is just one example. They were needed to counterbalance and oppose their evil sisters who used their powers for the sake of greed, revenge, or even just cruel pleasure. They more often than not placed themselves in the service of the devil and served as his perfect followers. The Witches' Sabbath was their chief pleasure.
Lehane closes that as time marched on and witches retreated from humankind, their magic was forgotten and relegated to stories for scaring children. Even so, their ancestors, the sleeping wizards, are still alive and waiting for the time to awaken.
The book contains 143 pages and is divided into the following three chapters, which each contain sub-chapters and side bar stories.
UK edition: "Wizards and Witches" (1984, 2003, )
Dutch edition: "Heksen en tovenaars" (1984, )
German edition: "Zauberer und Hexen" (1984, )
French edition: "Sorcières et magiciens" (1984, )
Russian edition: "Kolduny i vedʹmy" (1996, )
"Dragons" (1984, ).
"Dragons" opens recounting the legends of Apep, Tiamat, Jörmungandr, Nidhoggr, and Typhon. Born before time began, these creatures were sons of chaos, and so the gods did battle with them, for only when they were beaten could order prevail and the universe be born. Across various cultures, the same story was told with Set and Ra, Marduk, Thor, and Zeus playing the same role. The gods ultimately did prevail and these cosmic dragons were destroyed but the fight was not yet over because they left descendants with whom mortals would do battle. Cadmus's dragon was one example.
Chinese dragons and other Asian dragons were an exception to all this; unlike their western cousins, they never lost their semi-divine status and, again unlike them, they were mostly benevolent. The creator goddess Nu Kua was herself partly dragon, and the Emperor of China sat on the Dragon Throne. The Dragon Kings governed wind and water and for the rain they sent the Chinese people loved them.
No such love was present for European dragons. While not always evil as seen with the Laidly Worm, dragons were nearly always a threat, and even when they were not, they guarded treasures that man sought, whether gold or water or something else. They had to be destroyed and Christianity, "the hammer of the dragon race", proved one of the most powerful weapons against them because it promised a world in which dragons, creatures of appetite, could have no place. Some saints killed their dragons, such as Saint Margaret, while other saints, such as Carantoc, tamed theirs. Regardless of the good intentions of men like Carantoc, however, peaceful coexistence between man and dragon was almost impossible as the tale of Saint Martha and Tarasque shows. The dragonslayers rose up to destroy them as well. Saint George is the most famous example. A dragonslayer could expect to win gold, women, and everlasting glory, but it was usually a quest for survival. In the end, humans civilized the world and drove dragons to extinction.
The book contains 143 pages and is divided into the following four chapters, which each contain sub-chapters and