Synopses & Reviews
Popol Vuh, the Quiché Mayan book of creation, is not only the most important text in the native languages of the Americas, it is also an extraordinary document of the human imagination. It begins with the deeds of Mayan gods in the darkness of a primeval sea and ends with the radiant splendor of the Mayan lords who founded the Quiché kingdom in the Guatemalan highlands. Originally written in Mayan hieroglyphs, it was transcribed into the Roman alphabet in the sixteenth century.
This new edition of Dennis Tedlock's unabridged, widely praised translation includes new notes and commentary, newly translated passages, newly deciphered hieroglyphs, and over forty new illustrations.
Review
"[This] volume is required reading for everyone seriously interested in Native
American literature or in Meso-American cultural history. Its
publication is a major event." The
Los Angeles Times
Review
"Popol Vuh is one of the great books about the creation of the world. It is the Mayan Bible." Carlos Fuentes, author of The Death of Artemio Cruz
Review
"Dennis
Tedlock's splendid version...[is] the work of a brilliant anthropologist
who is also a true 'poet of performance,' himself trained by a native
Quiché master....Superb notes and glossary....An event of quite
exceptional importance." William Arrowsmith, Robert W. Woodruff
Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature, Emory University
Review
"Tedlock's translation is sensitive, precise, and illuminating. It will greatly help the
Popol Vuh achieve its rightful place as a masterpiece of
religious writing, familiar to all those who seek a message that
transcends ordinary concerns." Vine Deloria, Jr., author of
Custer Died for Your Sins
About the Author
Dennis Tedlock is
McNulty Professor of English and Research Professor of Anthropology at
the State University of New York at Buffalo. He is the coeditor of
American Anthropologist and the author of several books.