id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
folklorica-3752	Ryan, W. F.	Mark Joffe and Joseph Krafczik. Perun, the God of Thunder	2021	2	.pdf	application/pdf	659	25	56	It is not that one can point to much in particular and say it is incorrect (what can be wrong in folklore or mythology, except other scholars?), but it must also be said that the book is full of sweeping comparisons and unsupported assertions, selective use of unattributed etymologies (Vasmer is listed in the bibliography but not in the text or notes, like several other items), use of bogus, frivolous, or incompetent sources (the Velesova kniga is quoted several times without even a health warning, as is the worthless ABC-CLIO Encyclopedia of Russian Slavic Myth and Legend), uncritical use of other sources (the Prince Igor’ story is discussed at some length as a twelfth-century epic with no mention that there are, at the very least, some questions about its textual integrity), failure to mention a whole range of relevant work (for example, no reference in the text to B. A. Uspenskii on the association of Veles and Perun with St Nicholas, although his book is mentioned in the bibliography, nor, at the level of bibliography of the subject, the standard serial bibliography Russkii fol’klor, or Kulikovskii’s Bibliography of Slavonic Mythology). It takes us through the (few) references to Perun in the earliest Slav and other medieval texts, and an excursus on the etymology of the name (with none of the etymologies dated or sourced); through supposed analogs in other cultures (p. 13 “Perun in his various aspects is encountered among other Aryan religions”); through various aspects of Russian culture and belief, even “The Lame Leg: A Short Digression” (with no reference to Carlo Ginzburg).	cache/folklorica-3752.pdf	txt/folklorica-3752.txt