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£64.99

The Legend, Lore and Spirit of the Water Horse

From Ancient Myth to Celtic Folklore
By: Stephen Miller

£64.99

This book explores the legends of the water horse in mythology, folklore, and art. It delves into the romance and mystery of water as a sacred, cleansing element and also as an untamed, disruptive force. How are these manifestations linked to the human psyche?

This book brings together the various legends and traditions of the water horse that have arisen over the centuries, in mythology, folklore, literature and the…
£64.99
£64.99
1-0364-5248-4 , , ,
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This book brings together the various legends and traditions of the water horse that have arisen over the centuries, in mythology, folklore, literature and the visual arts. It is concerned with the meaning of such stories and with the identification and association of such phenomena with natural, supernatural and mythical presences. The many connected folk tales and legends of such water spirits share an ambiguous moral teaching, conjuring with the romance and mystery of water, as a sacred, cleansing and also untamed and disruptive natural and supernatural agent. Are such seeming incompatible manifestations linked? And what is their relationship with the human psyche and their place in the cosmological order of things?

Stephen Miller is an alumnus of King’s College London and the author of four previous monographs, including, The Book of Angels: Seen and Unseen (2019) and The Green Man in Medieval England (2022), nominated for the Katharine Briggs Annual Book Award. He has contributed to a wide selection of theology, folklore and art journals and periodicals, as well as various articles/essays for De Gruyter’s Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (CHOICE ‘Outstanding Academic Title’ recipient, 2020).

Hardback

  • ISBN: 1-0364-5248-4
  • ISBN13: 978-1-0364-5248-3
  • Date of Publication: 2025-07-31

Ebook

  • ISBN: 1-0364-5249-2
  • ISBN13: 978-1-0364-5249-0
  • Date of Publication: 2025-07-31

Subject Codes:

  • BIC: JFHF, HRKP2, HRKP
  • THEMA: JBGB, QRST, QRRT1, QRSV, QRS
154
  • "Here is a stable of wondrous steeds from three thousand years of ocean and dark pools. Neptune’s horses crashing in sea-foam, the quaint cartouches of old naval charts, the fatal kelpie and the maned monster of the loch are all harnessed for your imagination from legend, art, myth and cryptozoology."
    - Jeremy Harte, Author of Fairy Encounters in Medieval England
  • "Finally, the Kelpie has found a biographer worthy of it! From the lochs of the north to its tangled genealogy in Classical Antiquity, Miller’s book tells the story of the scariest of all British ‘frights’."
    - Simon Young, Folklorist, author of The Boggart
  • "An absolute delight of a book to swim through, alive with erudition, myth, folklore, and even a dip into the subject of watery cryptozoology. Spanning ages and lands, from the hippocampi of the classical world to Scottish water kelpies, to Nessie and beyond, Stephen Miller has provided us yet again with another entrancing volume and a feast to feed the imagination. I enjoyed every moment of my plunge into it."
    - Addison Hodges Hart, Author of Patapsco Spirits and Silent Rosary
  • "A fabulous, enthralling and yet authoritative study of the persistent mythology of the water-horse, from ancient times to more recent folklore."
    - Francis Young, Historian of religion and the supernatural; author of Twilight of the Godlings and Silence of the Gods

Meet The Author

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