Good Resources on Mythical Creatures

[Susannosaurus]

I'd love to read a good book on mythical creatures, but I tend to find mostly children's books or else not-so-intruiging encyclopaedias. Can anyone recommend a good book on mythical beasts which is neither too superficial nor dry? (The place of origin of the lore doesn't matter.) I've read The Penguin Book of Dragons, but it was just a collection of dragon stories without any explanation of dragon properties etc.
Thanks

 

[Mad Swede]

I've never come across a single book which covers mythical creatures in a readable way. Some books mention a few such creatures. One of the issues is that mythical creatures vary by region, by country and sometimes even by locality within a country. Mythical creatures can also be separated by language and even by dialect, in that the same creature can have different names in different countries and sometimes within a country. So you'd need to find several books covering different regions if you want information about as many creatures as possible.

 

[pmmg]

I good source for mythical creatures, listings, lore, descriptions and all that is RPG materials like the monster manual. There are lots and lots of them in there.

 

[Karlin]

Classic of Mountains and Seas - Wikipedia Classic of Mountains and Seas - Wikipedia

I've never read it. Onlybaware that it exists

 

[Aldarion]

Blogs are probably the best you will find, and the best I know of is this one:

A Book of Creatures

A Complete Guide to Entities of Myth, Legend, and Folklore

abookofcreatures.com

 

[A. E. Lowan]

My go-to to start a search. I love this because the physical book is quite large and this is searchable. It's possible it's gone out of print in physical form.
https://www.amazon.com/Element-Encyclopedia-Magical-Creatures-Fantastic-ebook/dp/B003IDMUMW/

Also good, if more focused.
Amazon.com: An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures eBook : Briggs, Katharine: Kindle Store

But, I suspect what you're really looking for is this set. They're all out of print. Cloth binding. I grew up on this collection and I still have most of them. Also, great Works Cited in the back.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/080945212X?

Hope this helps and welcome to Scribes. Enjoy!