Ancient Origins articles related to History. In the sections we bring you all the powerful civilizations; from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Indus Valley, to the fearsome yet sophisticated society of the Vikings and beyond.
A bard travels through the streets, gathering an audience as he goes, and then starts to recall the adventures of heroes and the tales of the gods. In the ancient world, word of mouth was one of the...
The faeries appear in folklore from all over the world as metaphysical beings, who, given the right conditions, are able to interact with the physical world. They’re known by many names but there is...
One of the most intriguing and perplexing legends of the Australian Aboriginal people is that of the Wandjinas, the supreme spirit beings and creators of the land and people. The land of the Wandjina...
Humans have always styled their hair in a multitude of creative and symbolic ways, and the various cuts, colors, and presentations reflected across the ages are nearly unlimited. But does hair serve...
Did giants ever really exist in the British Isles? Can legends of giants building Stonehenge really be true? Why does the establishment deny that giants of Great Britain ever existed? Here is a...
When ancient Egypt and Ireland are spoken about in the same breath it usually results in the rolling of eyes, polite exits and the sound of murmurs citing pseudo-history and new age babble. At least...
Mount Shasta is not the tallest or most beautiful mountain in the Cascade Range; but it is the most legendary. In terms of weirdness and strangeness, the unusual stories surrounding the mountain will...
From the lush oases of Africa’s Ethiopia, across the planet to the sweltering jungles of Mexico, beyond the horizon to the primordial coasts of Hawaii, and back again to the gardens, olive groves,...
The Maori people (Māori) are the natives of New Zealand who, like other societies, have myths that are related to the creation of the world and mankind. These Maori creation stories were memorized...
The Aborigines of Australia are considered one of the oldest continuously surviving cultures in the world, encompassing hundreds of diverse cultural groups, each with their own creation stories...
The Māori, or the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand , use a special word Matariki , which identifies the cluster of stars known to astronomers as the Pleiades, and to mythologists and...
There is no doubt that most of us, in our childhoods and later in life, heard all about the stories and legends of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. For many, the stories of Arthur and...
The existence of mystery schools in the Viking Age (800-1200 CE) is deduced from myth and folklore. The poems of the Edda display the structure and content of cultic texts used within the framework...
Every culture has an explanation about how we got here. The ancient Greeks were no different. The dramatic story of the origins of humanity in Greek mythology involves love, pain, and a hefty dose of...
“One day you will be old enough to read fairy tales again!” – CS Lewis All my life I’ve been fascinated by faeries, as I grew up with European fairy tales, Walt Disney’s Tinker Bell and movies like...
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (in Middle English as Sir Gawayn and þe Grene Knyȝt ) is one of the most famous Arthurian legends. As the name of the poem suggests, the story is about Sir Gawain, one...