Most Beautiful Myths & Legends Books of 2025 – A Holiday Gift Guide
A Holiday Gift Guide
Prettiest Myths & Legends Books of 2025
☞ You might also like the Beautiful Books Guide to Collecting Myths & Legends
This year I’m breaking down my “Most Beautiful Books of the Year” annual holiday gift guides into smaller, genre-focussed chapters.
This instalment covers the best myths & legends books of 2025 – any book with a star (★) next to it is also visually reviewed in the video. If I recommend a book in this list, you can rest assured it’s not just the physical beauty that counts – I do also read the books I recommend on this site, and I only include books where I think the contents are beautiful too ツ .
Bookshop links are included below if you are interested in buying any of the books for yourself. Some of the links are affiliate links (and thank you if you use them!) but please do support your local bookstore as a priority if you can. If you’re new here, and you’d like more regular recommendations, you might also like to check out my regularly updated lists of special editions, pre-order offers, and/or subscribe to my very occasional newsletter.
And now, on to the books!
Video Overview
Myths, Legends & Folklore
Myths Rooted in Place
★ Mighty Myths – Thiago de Moraes
This picture book format myth book is perfect if you want a family-friendly overview of myths from all over the world. The tone is energetic and accessible, and the illustrations are bold and fun.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
★ Celtic Myths - Martin Macintyre, illustrated by Katie Ponder
This is the latest edition in the gorgeous DK Ancient Myths series. It retells Celtic stories focussing on gods, creatures like selkies, and heroes of windswept islands. The text gives you that traditional, almost oral-storytelling feel, while the art is rich and stylised. I love every one in this series.
➤ Find US edition at Amazon | Barnes & Noble
➤ Find UK edition at Amazon | Waterstones
☞ See the DK Ancient Myths page for more in this series.
★ Monsterland - Nicholas Jubber
Monsterland is a mythological travel guide. Nicholas Jubber is a travel writer who talks to locals, storytellers and scholars to explore how stories of giants, dragons, zombies and other creatures emerge from specific historical anxieties, landscapes and social tensions.
There’s a nice balance here between creepy and curious: he’s obviously interested in fear and horror, but the fascination is in what these monster stories say about humanity – about guilt, colonisation, audacity.
➤ Find US edition at Amazon | Barnes & Noble
➤ Find UK edition at Amazon | Waterstones
The Slavic Myths - Noah Charney & Svetlana Slapšak
This exploration of Slavic folklore actually came out in late 2023, but didn’t make it over here until this year, so I hope you forgive me including it because I think it’s a nice change from the usual Greek and Norse collections that are more commonly produced. The stories are a great mix of scholarship and accessibility, and the woodcut style illustrations are perfectly atmospheric.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble
★ Classical Mythology of the Constellations - Annette Giesecke, illustrated by Jim Tierney
This beautifully illustrated guide to 88 constellations retells the Greek and Roman myths behind the stars, with star charts and striking illustrations by Jim Tierney. As usual with these collections there is more of a focus on the northern hemisphere because of course they are Greek and Roman myths, but I appreciated the inclusion of some of our southern hemisphere constellations as well.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
★ Spirit Worlds - The Library of Esoterica - Jessica Hundley
This sixth volume of The Library of Esoterica series by Taschen focuses on the art, rituals, and global mythologies of the spirit realms, examining beliefs around death, rebirth, ghosts, demons, and angels. The book is full of archival and modern imagery from private collectors, libraries, and museums, accompanied by scholarly essays and interviews with practitioners.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
Book of Magic and the Occult
This is a big, glossy, image-rich survey of magic across human culture. Structured as an illustrated visual history, it moves from prehistoric ritual and ancient spellwork through witches, wizards, healers and alchemists, then into modern expressions of magic and the occult.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
➤ Find special edition with sprayed page edges at Barnes & Noble
Fair Folk & Otherworldly Beings
★ Briggs’s Dictionary of Fairies – Katharine Briggs, illustrated by Fee Greening
This fairy field guide is a redressed classic from the 1907s. Katharine Briggs collected an enormmous amount of British and Irish fairy lore, and this guide ranges from friendly household spirits, to ominous beings that haunt crossroads. The updated jacket and illustrations by Fee Greening manage to keep an antiquarian look while making Katharine’s scholarship accessible to new readers.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
★ Faedom - Agnes Monod-Gayraud & Lorna White, illustrated by Nadzeya Makeyeva
Another title that actually came out late last year but only made it out here this year is this lush, oversized visual exploration of faery realms. It’s a dreamy artbook with gorgeous illustrations.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Waterstones
★ Macmillan's Collector's Library of Myths and Legends – edited by Jean Menzies
This series includes pocket-sized curated selections of myths and legends from around the world.
Sadly, they don’t have any illustrations, but the text is accessible, their tiny size makes them great for commuting, and the whole series is pretty cute.
➤ Find Fairies, Elves and Sprites at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
➤ Find Mermaids, Sirens and Selkies at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
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Pair these with earlier volumes in the same series:
➤ Find Witches, Wizards and Sorcerers at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
➤ Find Dragons, Wyverns and Serpents at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
★ Faeries of Tasmania - Terry Whidborne
These beautiful fairy art books won’t be well known outside of Australia, but I thought it would be nice to get it a wider audience here since the second volume was released this year. The illustrations are haunting and ephemeral, and the production quality is gift-worthy
➤ Find vol 1 at FortySouth
➤ Find vol 2 at FortySouth
★ Wild Folk – Jackie Morris & Tamsin Abbott
Jackie Morris brings her poetic, elemental voice to a lyrical collection of short pieces on the spirits that live in hedgrows, hills and woodlands, accompanied by Tamsin Abbot’s artwork that feels rooted in folk art and stained glass.
➤ Find US edition at Amazon | Barnes & Noble
➤ Find UK edition at Amazon | Waterstones
The Story of Witches: Witchcraft, magic and the occult - Willow Winsham, illustrated by Katie Ponder
A stunningly illustrated chronicle of witches across history, from mythic archetype to modern reclamation. It moves from fairy-tale witch queens and haunting folk stories, through the brutal realities of witch trials, and into contemporary spiritual practice and seasonal observance.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
The Goddess Atlas: An Illustrated Guide to Female Deities, Myths, and Sacred Feminine Stories from Around the World - Anette Pirso & Israel Gonzalez
Beautifully illustrated profiles of 90 female deities from myths, legends, and spiritual traditions around the globe, with notable quotes, origins and typical portrayals in art and literature.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
Faeries: A History in Art, Verse, and Lore - Nikki Van De Car
An introduction to faeries throughout history and literature, displayed through paintings and illustrations by legendary artists including Ruben, Turner, Rodin, Blake, and Millais, and stories shared through oral tradition.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
Nature Lore & Everyday Magic
★ Bird Lore: The myths, folklore and meaning of birds – Sally Coulthard
A pretty look at birds through the lens of myth and folklore: framed as a tour through what myths, magic and symbolism different cultures have believed about around 50 bird species. An interesting mix of cultural history and symbolic meaning,
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
The Folklore of Birds - Alison Davies, illustrated by Sarah Wildling
Interesting tidbits and facts about birds across countries and cultures, with lovely illustrations. This one is a little more compact, and leads more into story-like anecdotes and tales than the Bird Lore volume.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
★ Mythic Plants: Potions and Poisons from the Gardens of the Gods - Ellen Zachos
A tour of plants associated with gods, heroes, witches and healers that explores their real-world properties and the stories spun around them. The book leans into that “potions and poisons” angle in a way that feels fun and a little magical, without coming across as a how-to manual.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
Enchanted Plants: A Treasury of Botanical Folklore and Magic - Varla A. Ventura
An illustrated tour of mystical, magical and folkloric gardens, from cottage borders to marshes and poison plots. Entries blend fairy-tale excerpts, myth and legend, and discuss the plant’s legendary magical and medicinal properties
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
Old Stories, New Voices (Retellings)
★ Dark Fairy Tales - Viktor Wynd, illustrated by Luciana Nedelea
Viktor Wynd is known for his work with eccentric collections and his London museum of curiosities. His fairy tale collection reflects his passion for the weird and odd. These are adult fairy tales – focusing on the grim, strange and grotesque lore from different cultures around the world. It includes a guide to the art of recounting fairy tales, and each chapter opens with a story about how the author came to learn the story.
It’s illustrated with black inked artworks by Transylvanian artist Luciana Nedelea that capture the mysticism and macabre elements of the tales. The foiling and decorative page edges help it look nice and sinister on the shelf.
➤ Find it at Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones
★ Old Songs: Stories of Love and Death from Traditional Ballads - Amy Jeffs and Gwen Burns
This is a gorgeous compendium of traditional British ballads, or story songs, rei,agined by medieval historian Amy Jeffs. The main players are fiddlers, spell-workers, fairies, bards, and of course maidens, mothers and crones. The themes focus on love and death – which, let’s be honest, is where a lot of the best ballads live. The storytelling is atmospheric and literary, but still very readable.
It’s illustrated by artist Gwen Burns, who has a background in costume design, and the visuals give it a really strong sense of mood and place.
If you get the audiobook for this one, it also includes recordings of the original ballads performed by Natalie Price!
➤ Find it at Amazon | Waterstones
➤ Find audiobook edition at Amazon
More posts in this series: Children’s Books | Classics | Fiction | Myths & Legends | Fantasy & SciFi | Non-Fiction & Gift Books | Pop-Ups & Paper Engineering | Something Special
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