Where can you find the heroine’s journey? Which books and movies offer the purest form, step by step?
Epics Children’s and YA Books Movies, Musicals, and Television Mainstream and Classic Books Comics Fantasy Books Feminist Fairy Tale/Folktale Collections Feminism and Commentary Mythology Databases
Also try this list of Feminist Fairytales for kids and teens.
Heroine’s Journey Reading List FAQ Links
Epics
Antigone
Bacchae
The Trojan Women
Medea
Descent of Ishtar into the Lower World.
“Inana’s Descent to the Nether World.”
Hymn to Demeter and other Homeric Hymns
The Burden of Isis
The 1001 Arabian Nights
Kalidasa. “Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection.”
Apuleius, Lucius. “Cupid and Psyche.” The Golden Asse.
The Tam Lin Version Three: Child 39C
The Hell-Ride of Brynhild
The Lay of Brynhild
The Ancient Lay of Gundrun
Devî Gita
Lord, Karen, Redemption in Indigo
Devi-māhātmyam
Dudbridge, Glen. The Legend of Miao-shan. London: Ithaca P, 1978.
Emerson, N.B. Pele and Hi’iaka: A Myth from Hawaii (New York: AMS Press 1915).
Hirschfield, Jane. Women in Praise of the Sacred
Zolbrod, Paul G., Diné bahané: The Navaho Creation Story (USA: U of New Mexico P, 1984).
Cassuto, U. The Goddess Anat., Translated by Israel Abrahams. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1971.
Courlander, Harold. The Fourth World of the Hopis. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1971.
Trial of Joan of Arc. Translated by W.S. Scott. London: Associated Book Sellers, 1956.
“The Alphabet of Ben Sira.” In Rabbinic Fantasies: Imaginative Narratives from Classical Hebrew Literature Yale Judaica Series, edited by Professor David Stern and Mark Jay Mirsky, 167-202. USA: Yale U P, 1998.
Cameron, Anne. Daughters of Copper Woman. Canada: Press Gang Publishers, 1981.
Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. USA: Beacon Press, 1992.
The Internet Women’s History Sourcebook
Many strong heroines can be found in these other classic epics:
The Tain
The Mahabarata
The Ramayana
The Mabinogion
The Younger (Prose) Edda.
The Elder (Poetic) Edda.
The Nibelungenlied
Wagner’s Ring of the Niblung
The Volsung Saga
Le Morte de Arthur
Beowulf
The Kalevala
The Book of the Dead
The Bible
Nihongi
The Therigatha
The Nibelungenlied
The Qur’an
Popol Vuh
Ovid, Metamorphoses
Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings
The Decameron
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Theogony
Works & Days
Enuma Elish: The Epic of Creation
Epic of Gilgamesh
The Epic of Son-Jara : a West African tradition
The Songs of Ullikummi (Hurrian myth)
The Ozidi Saga
Sundiata
Lianja of the Mongo
Jeki la Nzambe in Cameroon
Some of the best mythology databases likewise contain these epics:
The Celtic Literature Collective: Containing the Ulster Cycle, Fenian Cycle, and more
The CELT Project: Corpus of Electronic Texts
The ETCSL Project: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
The Internet Classic Archive
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook
The Internet Sacred Text Archive
The Perseus Digital Library Project
The Theoi Project
Anatolian database
Other ancient manuscripts
European texts (though not in translation)
Ancient Texts (Greek and Roman)
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
The International Dunhuang Project: The Silk Road Online
Children’s Books
The Oz Books by L. Frank Baum
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader”
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magicians Nephew
The Last Battle
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay
The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede
Dealing with Dragons
Searching for Dragons
Calling on Dragons
Talking to Dragons
The Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce
Alanna: The First Adventure
In the Hand of the Goddess
The Woman Who Rides Like a Man
Lioness Rampant
Immortals by Tamora Pierce
Wild Magic
Wolf Speaker
Emperor Mage
The Realms of the Gods
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass
The Tiffany Aching Books by Terry Pratchett
The Wee Free Men
A Hat full of Sky
Wintersmith
The Inkheart Trilogy by Cornelia Funke
Inkheart
Inkspell
Inkdeath
Sorcery & Cecelia Series by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer
Sorcery & Cecelia
The Grand Tour
The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After
The Young Wizards Series by Diane Duane
So You Want to be a Wizard
Deep Wizardry
High Wizardry
A Wizard Abroad
The Wizard’s Dilemma
A Wizard Alone
Wizard’s Holiday
Wizards at War
A Wizard of Mars
The Abhorsen Triology by Garth Nix
Sabriel
Lireal
Abhorsen
The Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray
A Great and Terrible Beauty
Rebel Angels
The Sweet Far Thing
Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black
Tithe
Valiant
Ironside
The Great Alta Saga by Jane Yolen
Sister Light, Sister Dark
White Jenna
The One-Armed Queen
The Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey
Arrows of the Queen
Arrow’s Flight
Arrow’s Fall
The Girl Who..by Catherynne M. Valente and Ana Juan .
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
The Kairos and Chronos Series by Madeline L’Engle
Kairos
First-generation (Murray) (Time Quartet)
A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Many Waters
Second-generation (O’Keefe)
The Arm of the Starfish
Dragons in the Waters
A House Like a Lotus
An Acceptable Time
Chronos
Meet the Austins
The Moon by Night
The Young Unicorns
A Ring of Endless Light
Troubling a Star
Beneath the haunting sea/Beyond the shadowed earth by Joanna Ruth Meyer.
Empire of Sand byTasha Suri
Alpha Goddess by Amalie Howard
Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown
Forest of A Thousand Lanterns by Julie C. Dao
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.
The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust.
Starless by Jacqueline Carey
Shorter Series
Wildwood Dancing and Cybele’s Secret by Juliet Marillier
Mairelon the Magician and Magician’s Ward by Patricia Wrede
Solstice Wood by Patricia A. McKillip
Tehanu by Ursula K. LeGuin
The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll
Foiled and Rats! Foiled Again by Jane Yolen
Coraline by Neil Gaimen
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Abarat
Ella Enchanted
The Secret Garden
A Little Princess
Calico Captive
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Charlotte’s Web
Homecoming and Dicey’s Song
The Island of the Blue Dolphins
A Girl Named Disaster
Julie of the Wolves
Number the Stars
Shabanu: Daughter of the Wind
Caddie Woodlawn,
Little Women
Anne of Green Gables
Pippi Longstocking
The Paper Bag Princess
Movies, Musicals, and Television
Labyrinth
Mirrormask
The Wizard of Oz
Return to Oz
The 10th Kingdom
Xena: Warrior Princess
Dark Angel
Torchwood
Babylon 5
Wicked the Musical
Tinman
Into the Woods
Cats
Stargate seasons 9-10
Pan’s Labyrinth
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Ever After
Inkheart
Coraline
Pretty Woman
The Last Unicorn
The Snow Queen
The Mists of Avalon
Lilo & Stitch
The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Dark Crystal
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Shrek Trilogy (Shrek / Shrek 2 / Shrek the Third)
Sailor Moon
The Powerpuff Girls
Catwoman
Elektra
Supergirl
Vixen
Hex
Mother of Tears
The Nine Lives of Chloe King
Once Upon a Time (ABC)
Agents of SHIELD
Agent Carter
Whale Rider
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Star Wars: Rogue One
Mad Max
Mainstream and Classic Books
Till We Have Faces
Wicked
Jane Eyre
Tess of the D’Umbervilles
Gone With the Wind
Romeo and Juliet
All’s Well that Ends Well
Measure for Measure
As You Like It
Roxanna
Ariadne
Medea
The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser
Lives of the Greek Heroines by Louisa Menzies
The Handmaid’s Tale
Beloved
Their Eyes were Watching God
Like Water for Chocolate
Daughters of Copper Woman
The Awakening
Beloved
The Color Purple
The Joy Luck Club
The Woman Warrior
The Stand
The Scarlet Letter
To Kill a Mockingbird
Comics
(While the outfits and proportions are unfortunate, as is the tendency for someone like “Batgirl” to be cast as a sidekick, there is often a strong heroine’s journey arc for the characters, especially on their own series.)
All Fall Down
The Avengers
Batgirl
Batwoman
Birds of Prey
Black Widow
Captain Marvel
Catwoman
Darna
Donna Troy
Elektra
Fray
Huntress
Ms. Marvel
Power Girl
Rising Stars
Runaways
She-Hulk
Spider-Girl
Spider-Woman
Supergirl
Superhero Girl
Squirrel Girl
Teen Titans
Wonder Girl
Wonder Woman
X-Men
Fantasy Books
The Mists of Avalon and The Fall of Atlantis
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Otherland Series by Tad Williams
The Compass Rose Series
Kushiel’s Legacy by Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Dart
Kushiel’s Chosen
Kushiel’s Avatar
—
Naamah’s Kiss
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop
Daughter of the Blood
Heir to the Shadows
Queen of the Darkness
—
The Shadow Queen
The Tir Alainn Series by Anne Bishop
The Pillars of the World
Shadows and Light
The House of Gaian
The Ephemera Series by Anne Bishop
Sebastian
Belladonna
The Troy Game by Sara Douglass
Hades’ Daughter
Gods’ Concubine
Darkwitch Rising
Druid’s Sword
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Summer Tree
The Wandering Fire
The Darkest Road
The Secret Texts by Holly Lisle
Diplomacy of Wolves
Vengeance of Dragons
Courage of Falcons
The World Gates by Holly Lisle
Memory of Fire
The Wreck of Heaven
Gods Old and Dark
The Halfblood Chronicles by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey
Elvenbane
Elvenblood
Elvenborn
The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Julliet Marillier
Daughter of the Forest
Son of the Shadows
Child of the Prophecy
Heir to Sevenwaters
The Bridei Chronicles by Juliet Marillier
The Dark Mirror
Blade of Fortriu
The Well of Shades
The Great Alta Saga by Jane Yolen
Sister Light, Sister Dark
White Jenna
The One-Armed Queen
The Obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory
The Outstretched Shadow
To Light a Candle
When Darkness Falls
The Heralds of Valdemar by Mercedes Lackey
Arrows of the Queen
Arrow’s Flight
Arrow’s Fall
(For many trilogies, book one is a perfect representation of the heroine’s journey, and the entire trilogy likewise follows such an arc. Also, many in this section are meant for mature audiences.)
Feminist Fairy Tale/ Folktale Collections
Agha-Jaffar, Tamara. Women and Goddesses in Myth and Sacred Text. USA: Pearson Education, Inc, 2005.
Barchers, Suzanne I. Wise Women: Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World. Libraries Unlimited, Colorado, 1990.
Kate Bernheimer. Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales.
Chinen, Allan B. Waking the World : Classic Tales of Women and the Heroic Feminine. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1996.
Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O’ Rushes, abstracted and tabulated. London: David Nutt for the Folklore Society, 1893. ©Heidi Anne Heiner, SurLaLune Fairy Tales February 1, 2006 http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/cinderella/marianroalfecox/index.html
Estes, Clarissa Pinkola. The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Wise Old Woman Archetype. New York: Random House Large Print, 1996.
Gonzenbach, Laura. Beautiful Angiola: The Great Treasury of Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales Collected by Laura Gonzenbach. Jack Zipes, translator and editor. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Jurich, Marilyn. Scheherazade’s Sisters: Trickster Heroines and Their Stories in World Literature. Greenwood Press. Westport, Conn. 1998.
King, Coretta Scott. Her Stories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales, and True Tales.
Lambert, Johanna, Ed. Wise Women of the Dreamtime: Aboriginal Tales of the Ancestral Powers. Collected by K. Langloh Parker. Inner Traditions International: Rochester, Vermont, 1993.
Lurie, Alison. Clever Gretchen.
Monaghan, Patricia. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines. New York : Dutton, c1981. 40
Phelps, Ethel Johnston. Tatterhood.
Phelps, Ethel Johnston. The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World. Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston: New York, 1981.
Rush, Barbara. The Book of Jewish Women’s Tales. University of California Press: USA, 1994.
Ragan, Kathleen. Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters. WW Norton and Co.: New York, 1998.
Yolen, Jane. Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls
The Woman in the Moon: And Other Tales of Forgotten Heroines
The Serpent Slayer and Other Stories of Strong Women
Folktales of Strong Women (Audio Cassette)
Tatterhood and Other Tales: Stories of Magic and Adventure
Cut from the Same Cloth: American Women of Myth, Legend and Tall Tale
Feministsf.org a wonderful directory of bibliographies, links, and criticism.
Women in Mythology, Religion, and Herstory goddess legends
New Fairy Tales by Rosemary Lake with a feminist spin
Snow White Scholarly research on this popular tale.
Feminism and Commentary
Agha-Jaffar, Tamara. Women and Goddesses in Myth and Sacred Text. New York: Pearson Education, 2005.
Allen, Paula Gunn. Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman’s Sourcebook. Boston: Beacon, 1991.
Auerbach, Nina, and U. C. Knoepflmacher, editors. Forbidden Journeys: Fairy Tales and Fantasies by Victorian Women Writers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Barchers, Suzanne I. Wise Women: Folk and Fairy Tales from Around the World. Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 1990.
Bernheimer, Kate. Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: Women Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales. New York: Anchor Books, 1998.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.
Birkhauser-Oeri, Sibylle. The Mother: Archetypal Image in Fairy Tales. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1988.
Bly, Robert, and Marion Woodman. The Maiden King. New York: Henry Holt, 1998.
Bolen, Jean Shinoda. Crossing to Avalon: A Woman’s Midlife Quest for the Sacred Feminine. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.
_____. Goddesses in Everywoman. New York: Quill, 2004.
_____. Goddesses in Older Women: Archetypes in Women Over Fifty New York: Quill, 2009.
Bottigheimer, Ruth B., ed. Fairy Tales and Society. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1986.
Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973.
Campbell, Joseph, with Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth, edited by Betty Sue Flowers. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
Caputi, Jane. Gossips, Gorgons, and Crones. Santa Fe: Bear, 1993.
Carriger, Gail. The Heroine’s Journey. San Francisco: Carriger, 2020.
Cashford, Jules, Anne Baring, and Laurens Van Der Post. The Myth of the Goddess: Evolution of an Image. London and New York: Arkana, 1993.
Chervin, Ronda. The Woman’s Tale: A Journal of Inner Exploration. New York: Seabury Press, 1980.
Chinen, Allan B. Waking the World: Classic Tales of Women and the Heroic Feminine. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1996.
Coffin, Tristram Potter. The Female Hero in Folklore and Legend. New York: Seabury Press, 1975.
Cohen, Betsy. The Snow White Syndrome. New York: Berkley, 1989.
Condren, Mary. The Serpent and the Goddess. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.
Dexter, Miriam Robbins. Whence the Goddesses: A Source Book. New York: Pergamon, 1990.
Dinnerstein, Dorothy. The Mermaid and the Minotaur. New York: Other Press, 1999.
Douglas, Susan J. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media. New York: Crown, 1994.
Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade. New York: HarperOne, 1988.
Estés, Clarissa Pinkola. Women Who Run with the Wolves. New York: Ballantine, 1992.
Frankel, Valerie Estelle. Bloodsuckers on the Bayou: The Myths, Symbols, and Tales Behind HBO’s True Blood LitCrit Press. July 2013.
_____. Buffy and the Heroine’s Journey, McFarland. 2012.
_____. Choosing to Be Insurgent or Allegiant: Symbols, Themes, and Analysis of the Divergent Trilogy LitCrit Press. Dec 2013.
_____. Chosen One: The Heroine’s Journey of Katniss, Elsa, Tris, Bella, and Rey Smashwords. March 2016.
_____. Doctor Who and the Hero’s Journey: The Doctor and Companions as Chosen Ones Thought Catalog. Nov 2013
_____. Empowered: The Symbolism, Feminism, and Superheroism of Wonder Woman. LitCrit Press.April 2015
_____. From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey through Myth and Legend, McFarland. 2010.
_____. Harry Potter and Myth: The Legends behind Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts, and all the Hero’s Journeys LitCrit Press, Sept 2016.
_____. Inside the Captain Marvel Film: The Comics, the Symbols, the Feminism…and Easter Eggs Too, LitCrit Press, April 2019.
_____. Myth and Motifs of The Mortal Instruments Zossima Press. July 2013.
_____. Orphan Black and the Heroine’s Journey: Symbols, Depth Psychology, and the Feminist Epic. LitCrit Press, Aug 2017.
_____. Red, Blue, and Bronze: Inside the Symbols of the Wonder Woman Film. LitCrit Press, July 2017.
_____. A Rey of Hope: Feminism, Symbolism and Hidden Gems in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. LitCrit Press. Jan 2016.
_____. Superheroines and the Epic Journey: Mythic Themes in Comics, Film and Television McFarland and Co. March 2017.
_____. The Girl’s Guide to the Heroine’s Journey Spero Press. July 2013.
_____. The Many Faces of Katniss Everdeen: Examining the Heroine of The Hunger Games. Zossima Press. Table of Contents and First Chapter May 2013.
_____. The Avengers Face Their Dark Sides: Mastering the Myth-Making behind the Marvel Superheroes LitCrit Press.April 2015
_____. Turning Darkness to Light: She-Ra: The Classic, the Reboot, and the Heroine’s Journey LitCrit Press, August 2019.
_____. Winter is Coming: Symbols and Hidden Meanings in A Game of Thrones, Thought Catalog. May 2013.
_____. Xena and the Heroine’s Journey: Symbols, Archetypes, and Deeper Meaning LitCrit Press, Dec 2016.
Friday, Nancy. My Mother/My Self: The Daughter’s Search for Identity. New York: Delacorte, 1977.
Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.
George, Demetra. Mysteries of the Dark Moon: The Healing Power of the Dark Goddess. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Language of the Goddess. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1989.
Gould, Joan. Spinning Straw into Gold. New York: Random House, 2005.
Haase, Donald. Fairy Tales and Feminism: New Approaches (Series in Fairy-Tale Studies). Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2004.Chesler, Phyllis. Women & Madness. New York: Avon, 1972.
Hall, Nor. The Moon and the Virgin: Reflections on the Archetypal Feminine. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.
Harding, M. Esther. The Way of All Women. New York: Putnam’s, for the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytic Psychology, 1970.
_____. Women’s Mysteries Ancient and Modern. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.
Harries, Elizabeth Wanning. Twice Upon a Time: Women Writers and the History of the Fairy Tale. Princeton: Princeton University, 2001.
Husain, Shahrukh. The Goddess. Boston: Little, Brown, 1997.
Johnson, Robert A. Owning Your Own Shadow San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993.
Jung, Carl. Collected Works, Vol. 9, pt. 1, 2nd ed., translated by R. F.C. Hull. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1968.
_____, ed. Man and His Symbols. New York: Doubleday, 1964.
_____. Memories, Dreams, Reflections, edited by Aniela Jaffe, translated by Clara Winston. New York: Vintage, 1989.
Jung, Emma and M-L. von Franz. The Grail Legend, translated by Andrea Dykes. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.
Jurich, Marilyn. Scheherazade’s Sisters: Trickster Heroines and Their Stories in World Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998.
Kinsley, David. The Goddesses’ Mirror: Visions of the Divine from East and West. New York: State University of New York Press, 1989.
Kolbenschlag, Madonna. Kiss Sleeping Beauty Goodbye. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1979.
Lao, Meri. Seduction and the Secret Power of Women: The Lure of Sirens and Mermaids, translated by John Oliphant. Rochester, VT: Park Street, 1998.
Larrington, Carolyne, ed. The Feminist Companion to Mythology. Great Britain: Pandora, 1992.
Leavy, Barbara Fass. In Search of the Swan Maiden. New York: New York University Press, 1994.
Lederer, Wolfgang. The Kiss of the Snow Queen: Hans Christian Andersen and Man’s Redemption by Woman. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.
Levorato, Alessandra. Language and Gender in the Fairy Tale Tradition: A Linguistic Analysis of Old and New Story-telling. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Lundell, Torborg. Fairy Tale Mothers. New York: Peter Lang, 1990.
Minard, Rosemary. Womenfolk and Fairy Tales. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1975.
Monaghan, Patricia. The Book of Goddesses and Heroines. New York: Dutton, 1981.
Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.
Nelson, Gertrud Mueller. Here All Dwell Free: Stories to Heal the Wounded Feminine. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
Neumann, Erich. Amor and Psyche: The Psychic Development of the Feminine. Bollingen Series 54, translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956.
_____. The Great Mother, translated by Ralph Manheim. Whitefish, MT: Kessinger, 2004.
Olson, Carol. The Book of the Goddess Past and Present. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland, 2002.
Paradiz, Valerie. Clever Maids: The Secret History of the Grimm Fairy Tales. New York: Basic, 2005.
Perera, Silvia Brinton. Descent to the Goddess. Toronto: Inner City, 1981.
Phelps, Ethel Johnston. The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World. New York: Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 1981.
Potter, Tristram. The Female Hero in Folklore and Legend. New York: Seabury Press, 1975.
Prioleau, Elizabeth. Seductress: Women Who Ravished the World and Their Lost Art of Love. New York: Penguin Group, 2004.
Ragan, Kathleen. Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.
Reis, Patricia. “The Dark Goddess.” Woman of Power 1, no. 8, (Winter 1988): 24–27, 82.
_____. Through the Goddess: A Woman’s Way of Healing. New York: Continuum, 1991.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Rusch-Feja, Diann D. The Portrayal of the Maturation Process of Girl Figures in Selected Tales of the Brothers Grimm. New York: Peter Lang, 1995.
Schaefer, Carol. Grandmothers Counsel the World. Boston: Trumpeter, 2006.
Schectman, Jacqueline M. The Stepmother in Fairy Tales: Bereavement and the Feminine Shadow. Boston: Sigo Press, 1993.
Sellers, Susan. Myth and Fairy Tale in Contemporary Women’s Fiction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.
Sharma, Arvind, and Katherine K. Young, eds. Feminism and World Religions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Spretnak, Charlene. Lost Goddesses of Early Greece: A Collection of Pre-Hellenic Myths. Boston: Beacon, 1992.
Starhawk, and Hilary Valentine. The Twelve Wild Swans. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2000.
Stevenson, Pamela S. “Wolff ’s Four Forms of the Feminine Psyche: Toward a Clinical Application.” Ph.D. diss., University of California-Berkeley, 1983.
Stone, Merlin. Ancient Mirrors of Womanhood. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.
_____. When God Was a Woman. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1976.
Tatar, Maria M. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. New York and London: W.W. Norton, 2002.
_____. The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.
_____. Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Thomas, Ann G. The Women We Become: Myths, Folktales, and Stories about Growing Older. Rocklin, CA: Prima, 1997.
Trask, Haunami-Kay. Eros and Power: The Promise of Feminist Theory. Philidelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986.
Von Franz, Marie-Louise. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion. New York: Wildman, 1983.
_____. The Feminine in Fairy Tales. Boston: Shambhala, 2001.
_____. The Grail Legend, translated by Andrea Dykes. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1970.
_____. Individuation in Fairy Tales. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.
Waelti-Walters, Jennifer R. Fairy Tales and the Female Imagination. Montreal. Canada: Eden, 1982.
Walker, Barbara G. The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1988.
Warner, Maria. From the Beast to the Blonde. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1994.
Weston, Jessie L. From Ritual to Romance. New York: Peter Smith, 1941.
Windling, Terri, ed. The Armless Maiden and Other Tales for Childhood’s Survivors. New York: Tor Books, 1996.
_____. “Ashes, Blood, and the Slipper of Glass.” The Journal of Mythic Arts, The Endicott Studio (Summer 2007), <http://www.endicottstudio.com/rdrm/forashs.html>.
_____. “Beauty and the Beast.” The Journal of Mythic Arts, The Endicott Studio (Summer 2007), <http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/forbewty.html>.
_____. “Married to Magic: Animal Brides and Bridegrooms.” The Journal of Mythic Arts, The Endicott Studio (Summer 2004), <http://www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrMarried ToMagic.html>.
Wolff, Toni. Structural Forms of the Feminine Psyche, translated by P. Watzlawik. Zurich: Students Association, C.G. Jung Institute, 1956.
Woodman, Marion. The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1985.
_____. The Ravaged Bridegroom: Masculinity in Women. Toronto: Inner City Books, 1990.
Zipes, Jack. Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales. New York: New American Library, 1989.
Feministsf.org a wonderful directory of bibliographies, links, and criticism.
Women in Mythology, Religion, and Herstory goddess legends
New Fairy Tales by Rosemary Lake with a feminist spin
Snow White Scholarly research on this popular tale.
345 variants on Cinderella
Matrifocus articles A great magazine for women in myth
Journal of Mythic Arts
Databases
Specific Collections
The Celtic Literature Collective: Containing the Ulster Cycle, Fenian Cycle, and more
The CELT Project: Corpus of Electronic Texts
The ETCSL Project: The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature
The Internet Classic Archive
The Internet Medieval Sourcebook
The Internet Sacred Text Archive
The Perseus Digital Library Project
The Theoi Project
Mythology General
Myths and Legends
Encyclopedia Mythica
Encyclopedia of Monsters
The Open Directory Project
Regional Folklore and Mythology
Norse Mythology
Yggdrasil: the Norse mythology interactive worldtree.
Norse Mythology: key points from figures to runes.
Norse Mythology
Fairy Tales Online
Surlalune Fairy Tales: The best fairytale website for commentary, collections, and retellings
GrimmFairyTales.com Flash presentations of delightful tales.
Hans Christian Andersen All his fairy tales, plus resources.
Folklore, Myth, and Legend Hundreds of online fairy tales.
Cinderella Resources
Cinderella Stories by Continent
Fairy Tale Links
Fairy Tales: A Guide to Resources on the Web
Folklore, Fairy Tales, and Mythology Links
Fairy Tale Bibliography
Fairy Tale Review
Valerie Estelle Frankel's Author Page 