Can people please give me notes and web resources for mythical creatures such as elves, dragons, all that fun stuff, from different parts of the world? Thanks.

adam it depends what u want

moden fatasy elves or traditional

westen dragons or easten

The older the better, from everywhere.

Encyclopedia Mythica (http://www.pantheon.org/mythica.html)

by moden elves i mean the magical, fair and wise creatures u see in LOTR + type fantasy

for the other sort read shakepear

they were tricky little creatures who played pranks on people

Your "modern" Elves are nothing more than fantasy creatures from a book, Asguard. Hardly what you'd term "mythical" in the sense that Adam is asking.

what EXACTLY is mythology???

storys told?????

whats the difference between moden fanstay and mythology?

the age?

The primary difference between modern fantasy and myth is that modern fantasy is by and large just a story set in a fantastical world, whereas myth is larger world-structure that attempts to explain truths, such as the creation, of THIS world. Current usage of the word aside, "myth" does not simply mean "fictional story." Myth refers to a larger structure of beliefs, used to explain the world.

It should be noted that Tolkien's middle-earth actually IS myth in that it fulfills these requirements. Tolkien, in writing about middle-earth was attemtping to create an native english mythology. Middle-earth is actually just a prehistoric myth of THIS earth. That is other forms of fantasy like books based on D&D fall short of being myth, as they are entirely fantastic worlds with no relation to this one, besides the fact that they are all entirely derivative and lack the depth of middle-earth or other myth structures.