Dictionary of Mythical Beasts?

[Palanan]

Can anyone recommend a dictionary or compilation of creatures from folklore? Ideally I'd like something as comprehensive as possible--a treasury of fabulous creatures from a broad variety of cultures.

All suggestions welcome, though I'd prefer something which goes into detail about the cultural and linguistic history of each creature, maybe with a comparison of patterns and motifs between cultures. Is there anything like this available?

[Lethologica]

Although it's maybe a little more general than that, I've only ever heard good things about the various editions of Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

[factotum]

I have a book called "The Encyclopaedia of Things that Never Were" somewhere, which is also a more general work (e.g. covers things other than beasts) but is pretty good.

When I entered "mythical bestiary" into a search engine one of the top entries was this one:

The Mythic Bestiary: The Illustrated Guide to the World's Most Fantastical Creatures

I've not read it myself but it seems to have some good reviews out there.

[Serpentine]

I have a couple I'll look at when I get home. You might also be interested in the Time Life Enchanted World series - it doesn't really go into the etymology or anything like that, but it even features creatures from native Australian and Inuit cultures!

I will note that if you're wanting really comprehensive AND from all over the world, you're probably going to be looking at a large multi-volume series or a number of completely different books divided up by either location (creatures of the Dreaming, say) or theme (fairies or dragons or whatever).

[Aotrs Commander]

Can anyone recommend a dictionary or compilation of creatures from folklore? Ideally I'd like something as comprehensive as possible--a treasury of fabulous creatures from a broad variety of cultures.

All suggestions welcome, though I'd prefer something which goes into detail about the cultural and linguistic history of each creature, maybe with a comparison of patterns and motifs between cultures. Is there anything like this available?

Well, depending on what you intend to use it for, wikipedia is actually pretty good for this these days and is moderate comprehensive (and usually, if you google something less well-known, you can often find the odd place where there's more detail - I found that with the rather more obscure Rabisu from Etruscan myth, for example). I have made regular use of it as the source for my complete bestiary revision for my campaign world (which was defined as "toss out Monster Manual, re-imagine creatures from mythical source material scratch). Otherwise, I picked out things from various greek/roman mythology works, Rolemaster's (2nd ed edtition) or Creatures & Treasuress (which had a list of other mythological beats they'd not put stats for) etc.

[F.H. Zebedee]

A Book Of Creatures is very in depth about each individual subject, typically discussing everything there is to know about them and their background. It's far from complete, because it's an ongoing project that started like a year or two ago, but they've got DOZENS of obscure entries you won't find anywhere else.

https://abookofcreatures.com/

It's much narrower in scope, but Matthew Meyer has a SUPER comprehensive guide to all yokai.

http://yokai.com/

Those are two golden resources I see frequently overlooked.

[Kislath]

The Mythical Creatures Bible: The Definitive Guide to Legendary Beings
400 pages!

[Serpentine]

So beside The Enchanted World and collections of myths from different areas, the main relevant book I have is Encyclopedia of Monsters (and Encyclopedia of Ghosts) by Daniel Cohen. It has a good mix, and also an annotated bibliography. Actually, the bibliography of The Enchanted World is really good, too (if likely a bit out of date nowadays).

[Talakeal]

Giants, monsters, and dragons by Carol Rose.

[Razade]

This one. I own it. It's great. (https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ZHrJ6UmlJLcC&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gl=US&gclid=COHy1Izc38oCFYHBfgod5IYE5w&gclsrc=ds)

[lt_murgen]

AD&D Monster Manual
AD&D Monster Manual II
AD&D Fiend Folio
AD&D Dieties and Demigods

[TheThan]

AD&D Monster Manual
AD&D Monster Manual II
AD&D Fiend Folio
AD&D Dieties and Demigods

hahah


anyway i just use wikipedia.

[McStabbington]

I've heard this one (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLzig4KJnEE) is pretty good. You just have to stroke the spine first.