So, Roger Lancelyn Green was in The Inklings. ...Who knew? The Inklings, right? That literary group C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were in? With a bunch of other people everybody forgets? Well, Roger Lancelyn Green was in it - at least according to the "Author File" in the back of the Puffin book. ...And Wikipedia... Of course, a little more internet sleuthing said he wasn't a member, but rather someone who was friends with other Inklings, and occasionally attended their meetings.Also, he was the first one to read the Narnia series. And give it the name "The Chronicles of Narnia." ...Dang it, sounds like a member to me.I've taught Ancient Egypt to middle school students for years now - along with Ancient Mesopotamia, The Ancient Indus, Ancient China... You know, the big ones. But there's so little time, we can't really delve into it. So: pyramids, mummies, Nile, pharaohs, hieroglyphs and we're out.And that's sad, because Egypt lasted 4000 years. Four THOUSAND. I mean, U.S. History teachers get bent out of shape because their students don't know about the XYZ Affair or the Teapot Dome Scandal. Can you imagine how the public school teachers in Ancient Egypt must have felt? All those little Egyptian kids screwing around all the time at their desks. Putting a baby crocodile on the teacher's chair.Four thousand years of continuous civilization. (Counting the Greeks and kindof counting the Romans... Not counting the Arabs. Sorry, guys.)So, I'm a little bit shaky on some of my Ancient Egypt knowledge. I'd never been required to read any of their myths, so I hadn't. Or at least, I'd read very few. I knew about the gods, and could have listed several: who they are, what they did. But I didn't really know the stories.And the stories are fascinating.I'd be interested in seeing a more direct translation now that I've read this for several reasons.First, there's so much that overlaps with Biblical narrative. In the story, Ra and his Children, for instance so much seemed similar to Genesis. The creation of the world, separating night from day, creating man and woman... People rebelling against Ra and "did evil in his sight, worshipping the dragon of darkness..." I mean, there are some differences, in the Bible when the people turn evil God saves them with an ark. In Ancient Egypt, Ra saves them with beer... so there's that...Here's another one, from the story "The Land of the Dead," and humans are being judged. Among the things they say at judgement: "I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked and a boat to him who could not cross the River..." This is very similar to Christ's discussion of the judgement in Matt. 25. And later in the same story, we hear of Apophis - the snake, the "eater of souls" who dwelt in "the Pits of Fire." Yeah, sounds familiar. I've been told not to be afraid of anyone who can kill me, but I should be afraid of the One who can destroy both my soul and body in Hell.And Christ did spend some time in Egypt, right? Right? Now, I'm not claiming Christ is taking Egyptian belief and turning it into some sort of Judeo-Egyptian syncretistic religion, or anything like that. I'm sure others have already said that. I'm just saying I found it interesting, and I'd also be interested in reading the direct translations.Ok, here's one more from the story, "The Taking of Joppa." The Egyptians are up in Palestine, trying to get Joppa and the governor says, "I swear to Jahwah, my god, that you shall be second only to myself in this new kingdom which we shall carve out of... dat da dat da daaa..." Did the Ancient Egyptian texts reference Jahwah? Or did Green add that to the story to give it an extra sense of veracity? And if he added that, did he add the other stuff? A quick search tells me he didn't add everything. But still, interested.Side note, that Jahwah part reminded me of Indiana Jones. "But in the Latin alphabet, Jehovah begins with an "I."As for the book, and the myths: I found them fascinating. I'll probably read them again sometime soon. And I may give one or two to my class to read. Don't let the cover fool you, though. This would be a challenging read for a good many middle-school students. Here's a sentence from the first page of the introduction, "The first Greek historian, whose works survive, Herodotus, visited it in about 450 BC and found that only priests could still read the ancient hieroglyphs in which inscriptions had been carved or written on the monuments since the days when Menes, the first historical Pharaoh, united the 'Two Lands' in about 3200 BC."Or this one: The natural conditions in any land are often to a large extent responsible for its religious beliefs, the form its civilization takes, and the stories that evolve into its literature.So, I might not go into buying this book thinking it will definitely be worth having your students read it. But for the teacher who is unfamiliar with the myths of Ancient Egypt, it's a great intro.
Well, I found this book certainly interesting. I've never before read about Egyptian mythology, so it was a nice break from the standard Greek and Norse. Compared to the Greek and Norse stories, these are fairly simple, without many plot twists. There aren't many characters who continue on for one or more stories unless they're Pharaohs or Gods. I really liked the Adventure tales towards the end of the book, especially the Egyptian take on the Iliad. I had no idea that they had any involvement i
Do You like book Tales Of Ancient Egypt (1996)?
Egypt is one of the oldest literary cultures on earth, dating from 3200 B.C. when Menes united Upper and Lower Egypt. The tales in this book are divided into three sections. “Tales of the Gods” tell myths about ancient Egyptian deities such as Amen-Ra, Isis, Osiris, Thoth, Horus, Khnemu, and others. “Tales of Magic” relate legends about semi-historical figures in ancient Egypt like Seneferu, Khufu, Rameses the Great, and Bata. And “Tales of Adventure” contain other stories that the ancient Egyptians recorded. These tales are taken from the hieroglyphics carved on temples and tombs and the later papyri written after Demotic script superseded the old hieroglyphs. There are a few references to drinking wine and beer, but there is also a mention of Joseph and the Israelites in the prologue implying that the author considered them genuine historical entities. A time chart of Egyptian history places the different tales into their historical context, and there are several pages of facts about ancient Egyptian culture and beliefs. The book would make an excellent complement to a homeschool study of ancient Egypt. Roger Gilbert Lancelyn Green (1918–1987), born in Norwich, England, was a British biographer, children's writer, and Oxford academic who formed part of the Inklings literary discussion group along with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He had studied under Lewis at Merton College, Oxford, and remained close to Lewis until the latter’s death in 1963. In fact, when Lewis started writing his famous children’s fantasy books in the late 1940s, it was Green who encouraged him to publish it and suggested that they should be called The Chronicles of Narnia. Green became known primarily for his writings for children, particularly his retellings of the myths of Greece in Tales of the Greek Heroes (1958), The Tale of Troy (1958), and Tales the Muses Told: Ancient Greek Myths (1965); and The Tale of Thebes (1977); Norse mythology in The Saga of Asgard, later renamed Myths of the Norsemen (1960); the Arthurian legends in King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1953); the stories of Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956); and even Tales from Shakespeare (1965). His works of original fiction include The Luck of Troy (1961), set during the Trojan War, and The Land of the Lord High Tiger (1958), a fantasy that has been compared to the Narnia books. There are some in the homeschool movement who have strong objections to reading and studying mythology, claiming that it gives credence to heathen idolatry. While I respect their sincere convictions, I do not necessarily agree with their conclusions. The fact that many ancient cultures worshipped false gods and the stories that they told about those false gods are part of the history of our world, and there are many aspects of our Western culture which are drawn from them. I am convinced that we can read and study about the pagan idol gods from a purely historical standpoint without honoring them in any way or being in danger of believing in them, and can even see from learning about them how much superior the one true God who is revealed to us in the Bible truly is. I did not find Green’s Tales of Ancient Egypt to be awesome or inspiring, but I thought that they were interesting reading, and they do remind me how thankful I am that our universe is ruled over by a holy, just, reasonable, and orderly Lord rather than the hodge-podge of mystical, magical, mythical deities of ancient Egypt.
—Wayne S.
This collection brings Ancient Egypt to life with tales of journey and discovery. This book contains the beginning of Osiris, Isis and their brothers and sisters. The miraculous story of the girl with the rose-red slippers, considered the first-ever Cinderella tale and MANY more tales. This is a timeless collection of the oldest stories in the world I'm giving this 4 stars. (Originally I was going to give it 3 1/2 stars but that was because of, what I felt, the quality. But then this is more of a kid's book so.)I had tried to read this before when I was younger but I was very afraid of Ancient Egypt. The mummies and the undead and all that so I stopped after the first couple pages. This is mostly a book of different short stories but, I loved, how the Pharaohs from the different stories connected. (e.g. the Pharaoh in one story was the father of another Pharaoh in the next story.) I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the beginnings of the gods. I also loved how some of the stories were connected with Greek stories and bible stories. Overall I would recommend if 1. You wanted to learn more about Ancient Egypt. 2. You love history/historical fiction.
—Sasha (whispersofthesilentwind)
Decided to check these out after my recent trip to Egypt to learn more about the mythology. Interesting read, aimed more for children. Usually such tales have moral value and I was interested and disappointed that some rewarded the bad guys for their cunning and became 'buds' with the Pharoah. Interesting story that goes along with the Trojan War. The so-called Cinderella story's only similarity was that the Pharoah sent his men out to find the woman who's foot would fit the ruby-red slipper that was dropped by an eagle (an agent of the god Horace). This sign told the pharoah that this slipper was of a very beautiful woman and she must be his. Sure enough, she was beautiful and, once found, became his wife.
—Steven
