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An Underworld Reading List

Sax

12:00 / 21.06.06

*Cross posted with Books forum*

Gimme all you know on books and/or internet sites about hell, be it the Christian hell but also hells of other religions and mythologies, guides to demons, academic sources. Don't be afraid to be obvious (Dante etc), esp if you provide links or suggestions for good editions.

trouser the trouserian

12:20 / 21.06.06

Sax

Elaine Pagel's The Origins of Satan is pretty good on the early development of Satan from - particularly in relation to radical groups like the Essenes. The book's probably out of print by now but you could probably find it on Amazon.

I'd also recommend Bruce Kapferer's A Celebration of Demons - (published by Berg, I think) a contemporary ethnographic study of Demon exorcism in Sri Lanka. Haven't read it in depth yet but it looks good.

grant

17:22 / 21.06.06

There's a Dante discussion in the Books forum here, but I think I was the most enthusiastic. Much of our modern concept of Hell comes from (or is present in) Dante. There's very, very little about Hell in the Bible itself.

Try New Advent's Catholic Encyclopedia. Lose yourself in antiquated prose and unbelievable people. You'll also get a lot of mileage out of the good old Catechism.

There's a very different Jewish Encyclopedia online that'll give you all kinds of interesting material (since Hell isn't really a Jewish concept).

nyarlathotep's shoe horn

14:43 / 22.06.06

Milton's Paradise Lost

not necessarily explicit Hell, but the Faerie Queene has its moments in the underworld.

Also, the Dresden Codex, one of the Mayan tales not destroyed by the Conquistadors, which includes the creation myth, as well as two journeys through the underworld.

Apocalypstick from th'Invisibles has some nice underworldy bits.
Seasons of Myst - from Neil Gaiman's Sandman

Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Doris Lessing.

check mythological sources for tales from the Underworld.

Tibetan Book of the Dead which offers a different view of the nature of demons, and hell and suffering.

have fun

Quantum

19:24 / 22.06.06

Hellblazer and Sandman both have... oh wait, wrong forum.
Just the Christian hell? Hades is interesting, and a lot of folklore on hell is informed by Greek myth. Some religions have hundreds of thousands of hells.

Kiltartan Cross

20:37 / 22.06.06

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle did a "modern" version of Inferno. I remember it as being very good, although admittedly I was young at the time and my literary taste buds were maybe slightly less discriminating... I fear it is out of print, although Amazon have second-hand copies.

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