ILLUMINATIONS

This is an idiosyncratic bibliography I've assembled, along with a few comments. Our understanding and knowledge of history is continually being upgraded and reevaluated in the light of new data and discoveries. As a rule, the older something is, the more likely it will contain unwitting errors.

Books

Budge, E.A. Wallis. Book of the Dead. Originally published in 1895.

Although informative, one must keep in mind that the scholarship is quite old and significant advances have been made in the understanding of hieroglyphic script. Budge is not highly respected in academic circles for his accuracy. Consume with a grain of salt.
See it at Amazon!

Burl, Aubrey. The Stonehenge People. Published in 1987.

Stonehenge. And a timeline that goes back to c.4200 BC. Apparently it was once a lunar observatory which was later retrofitted to measure solar events. Nor was it built all at once. The association with burial mounds and excarnation suggest Selenim plots.

Butler, E.M. The Myth of the Magus. Originally published in 1948.

This work presents an overview of various myths and tales of magicians and traces their development through the ages.
See it at Amazon!

Copenhaver, Brian P. Hermetica. Published in 1992.

A new English translation of the Greek Corpus Hermeticum and Latin Asclepius with extensive notes. A comparison with earlier translations provides an interesting insight into the changes in scholarship over time. Can't say that it inspired many Nephilim plots to me, except indirectly via the nature of its author and why it was revealed to be in existence.
See it at Amazon!

Davidson, Gustav. A Dictionary of Angels. Published in 1967.

Lives up to its title. The bibliography is extensive. Also a good source for angel-sounding names. Of course, it has an entry for Nephilim.
See it at Amazon!

Frazer, J.G. The Golden Bough. Originally published in 1922.

There are three editions of the multivolume work, each successively larger. However, only the one-volume abridgment is readily available. There is revised abridgement to which sections were restored, overseen by the author's son. In short, a classic study in magic and religion, and thus food for thought.
See it at Amazon!

Gimbutas, Marija. The Goddesses and Gods of Old Europe. Originally published in 1974; revised and updated in 1982.

Overall, a fresh view on the archeology of the region. Mind you, interpretation of data is not without possible bias. Nevertheless, seeing different biases allows one to recognize the biases that make up "mainstream" thought. (Things started to click when I related some of the finds to Pinch's work below.)
See it at Amazon!

Graves, Robert. The White Goddess. Originally published in 1948; amended and expanded in 1966.

Graves expounds on what is essentially highly-educated guesswork. Like all things intuitive, sometimes he's brilliantly right and sometimes brilliantly wrong. Some of the archeological knowledge that he relied on has since been superceded. Nevertheless, this text may serve to illustrate how the symbolic and associative mind of a Nephilim might go about solving a mystery.
See it at Amazon!

Kieckhefer, Richard. Magic in the Middle Ages. Published in 1989.

It delivers on what the title promises. The book is regretfully a bit on the small side, but is scholarly nonetheless.
See it at Amazon!

Lawrence, Richard, trans. The Book of Enoch. Published in 1973.

This is a photographic reproduction of the 1883 edition. There are at least two other extant versions of the Book of Enoch.

Pinch, Geraldine. Magic in Ancient Egypt. Published in 1994.

This book I found intriguing; it presented a view of magical practice in Ancient Egypt quite different from what one typically obtains from other sources.
See it at Amazon!

Shenkman, Richard. Legends, Lies, and Cherished Myths of World History. Published in 1993.

A good nutshell on major points in European history for Americans who never got around to studying it. Learn how much of history really is a lie. Oh, and Marie Antoinette told them to eat brioche, not cake.
See it at Amazon!

Walker, Barbara G. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. Published in 1983.

A grand epic of a scholarly work, this is perhaps only limited by how reliable her own sources are/were. The author gives a brief bibliography with each entry, allowing one to do further research on one's own. If the thesis of this work (i.e., mythology was once matriarchal as the magic of birth was granted only to women) is validated, then there is much to doubt about mythology as it has been traditionally served to us today. If you find existing mythology a bit confining when considering plots for Nephilim, it helps to reflect on what the sides of a story that were not told.
See it at Amazon!

Westwood, Jennifer. Albion: A Guide to Legendary Britain. Published in 1985.

An excellent piece of scholarship and speculation as to the origins of many myths of the British Isles. I was lucky to have found this text at an overstock book discounter. Excellent source material for anyone interested in the fantastical, yet with a refreshing hint of skepticism not often found these days.
See it at Amazon!

Periodicals

Archaeology.

The official publication of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Fortean Times.

A monthly magazine dedicated to investigating the wierd. They are open-minded while at the same time unafraid to debunk.

KMT, A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt.

This accessable quarterly is topical, reporting on current archeological debates and progress about Ancient Egypt. It's not cheap, as it has few advertisements and plenty of color pages.

More to come...?