Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World
Csenge Virag Zalka, a Hungarian storyteller, has collected 55 folktales from around the world about supernatural abilities like superhuman strength, invulnerability, flying, heightened senses, speed, invisibility, healing, agility, precognition, telepathy, fire manipulation, teleportation, water powers, and shifting. These tales represent powers that people have dreamed of, conjured up and strived for through the ages. Many of the powers are present in popular culture, making the superheroes who wield them the direct descendants of characters such as the princess who could see through walls or the invulnerable Isfandiyar. Zalka excluded stories about magic or about gods with divine powers, and focused on less well-known stories. She included information on similar heroes, the ability in the story, sources of the powers, the origin of the story, teachings in it, the recommended age group, sources, variants, and comments.

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Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World
Csenge Virag Zalka, a Hungarian storyteller, has collected 55 folktales from around the world about supernatural abilities like superhuman strength, invulnerability, flying, heightened senses, speed, invisibility, healing, agility, precognition, telepathy, fire manipulation, teleportation, water powers, and shifting. These tales represent powers that people have dreamed of, conjured up and strived for through the ages. Many of the powers are present in popular culture, making the superheroes who wield them the direct descendants of characters such as the princess who could see through walls or the invulnerable Isfandiyar. Zalka excluded stories about magic or about gods with divine powers, and focused on less well-known stories. She included information on similar heroes, the ability in the story, sources of the powers, the origin of the story, teachings in it, the recommended age group, sources, variants, and comments.

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Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World

Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World

by Csenge Virág Zalka
Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World

Tales of Superhuman Powers: 55 Traditional Stories from Around the World

by Csenge Virág Zalka

Paperback

$25.00 
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Overview

Csenge Virag Zalka, a Hungarian storyteller, has collected 55 folktales from around the world about supernatural abilities like superhuman strength, invulnerability, flying, heightened senses, speed, invisibility, healing, agility, precognition, telepathy, fire manipulation, teleportation, water powers, and shifting. These tales represent powers that people have dreamed of, conjured up and strived for through the ages. Many of the powers are present in popular culture, making the superheroes who wield them the direct descendants of characters such as the princess who could see through walls or the invulnerable Isfandiyar. Zalka excluded stories about magic or about gods with divine powers, and focused on less well-known stories. She included information on similar heroes, the ability in the story, sources of the powers, the origin of the story, teachings in it, the recommended age group, sources, variants, and comments.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780786477043
Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date: 09/20/2013
Pages: 240
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Csenge Virág Zalka is a professional storyteller and researcher from Budapest, Hungary. Her interests focus on role-playing games as a form of storytelling, historical fiction, oral traditions and popular culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments v

Introduction: Greetings, Dreamer 1

Part I Physical Powers - Also Known as the Classics

Superhuman Strength 9

János and Rózsa 9

Alderblock 16

Invulnerability 20

Isfandiyar 21

The Fellow with the Goat Skin 27

Flight 31

The Winged Prince 32

People Who Could Fly 34

Heightened Senses 36

Green Péter 37

The Tale of Sir James Ramsay of Bamff 40

Finn MacCool and the Giants 43

Three Critical Men 49

Speed 52

Princess Szélike 53

The Giant's Ankle (or, Betcha You Didn't Know This About Achilles) 57

Invisibility 59

The Gold-Spitting Prince 59

The Tengu's Magic Cloak 64

King Laurin's Rose Garden 66

Color Changing 72

The Queen of Many Colors 72

Healing Factor, Healing Others, or Not Healing at All 75

The Prince with the Two Hearts 76

Anne Jefferies and the Fairies 78

Growth, Elasticity and Body Shaping 80

Longshanks, Girth and Keen 81

A Is for Agility and Archers 86

Ekalavya, the Archer 86

Camilla 89

Eye Beams (Yes, Really) 91

The Unfinished Story of Princess Greenleaf 91

Sonic Blast 93

The Robber Called Nightingale 93

Poison Secretion 95

The Poison Maiden 96

Part II It's All in Your Head - Mind Games, Mental Prowess, and the Power of Knowledge

Precognition, Also Known as Fortune-Telling, Future Sight, Clairvoyance and Other Fancy Words 99

Aicha, the Demon-Hunter 99

Astral Projection and Other Out-of-Body Experiences 104

Quiet Girl Becomes a Goddess 105

The Dream House 107

Telepathy 108

János Carnation-Hair 109

Michael Scott 114

Telekinesis 116

The Man Who Had No Story 117

Infinite Knowledge 119

The Serpent Wife 120

Illusion 122

The Rooster Beam 123

Technomancy 124

The Ebony Horse 124

Animal Speech 130

The Gold-Spinners 130

Part III At the Mercy of the Elements - Powers of Water, Fire, Earth and Weather (and Ice)

Fire Manipulation 137

The Daughter of the Sun 138

Pietro Baillardo 144

Water Powers 149

Fergus Mac Léti 150

The Tide Jewels 152

Earth Manipulation 158

The Son of the Hunter 158

Weather Manipulation 163

Garabonciások 164

Ice and Snow 168

Snow Daughter and Fire Son 168

Part IV Transitional Powers - From One State to Another

When Drawings Come to Life 173

The Legend of King Vikramaditya 173

Painted Dragons 176

Teleportation 178

The Three Soldiers 178

The Magic Book 184

Phasing 186

The Taoist Priest of Lao-shan 186

Shifters, Changers and Individuals of Multiple Shapes 189

Human Shifting 190

Pomona and Vertummus 190

Animal Shifting 193

Sigmund and Sinfjötli 194

Boots and the Beasts 197

The Weretiger 201

Nanaue, the Shark-Man 205

Plant Shifting 209

The Elder Tree Witch 210

Inorganic Shifting 212

Kampó Táltos 212

Multi-Shifting 214

Mestra 215

The Mad Pranks of Robin Goodfellow 217

Honorable Mentions 220

Appendix: Tales by Powers 221

Further Readings 225

Index 227

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