Frazer. Golden Bough (short edition)

Today's free book is The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer. This is the short edition; the complete third edition is in 12 volumes. I've provided links below that correspond to the expanded version.

For the table of contents, check at the bottom of this post below the image. The most convenient version online is the one at Sacred Texts Archive; the links below are to that edition, except for the links to the expanded edition (in yellow).


See PART I for the following topics:


Chapter 1. The King of the Wood.
Section 1. Diana and Virbius.
Section 2. Artemis and Hippolytus.
Section 3. Recapitulation.

Chapter 2. Priestly Kings.

Chapter 3. Sympathetic Magic.
Section 1. The Principles of Magic.
Section 2. Homoeopathic or Imitative Magic.
Section 3. Contagious Magic.
Section 4. The Magician's Progress.

Chapter 4. Magic and Religion.

Chapter 5. The Magical Control of the Weather.
Section 1. The Public Magician.
Section 2. The Magical Control of Rain.
Section 3. The Magical Control of the Sun.
Section 4. The Magical Control of the Wind.

Chapter 6. Magicians as Kings.

Chapter 7. Incarnate Human Gods.

Chapter 8. Departmental Kings of Nature.

Chapter 9. The Worship of Trees.
Section 1. Tree-spirits.
Section 2. Beneficent Powers of Tree-Spirits.

Chapter 10. Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe.

Chapter 11. The Influence of the Sexes on Vegetation.

Chapter 12. The Sacred Marriage.
Section 1. Diana as a Goddess of Fertility.
Section 2. The Marriage of the Gods.

Chapter 13. The Kings of Rome and Alba.
Section 1. Numa and Egeria.
Section 2. The King as Jupiter.

Chapter 14. The Succession to the Kingdom in Ancient Latium.

Chapter 15. The Worship of the Oak.

Chapter 16. Dianus and Diana.

Chapter 17. The Burden of Royalty.
Section 1. Royal and Priestly Taboos.
Section 2. Divorce of the Spiritual from the Temporal Power.

Chapter 18. The Perils of the Soul.
Section 1. The Soul as a Mannikin.
Section 2. Absence and Recall of the Soul.
Section 3. The Soul as a Shadow and a Reflection.

See PART II for the following topics:


Chapter 19. Tabooed Acts.

See PART III for the following topics:



See PART IV for the following topics:


See PART V for the following topics:

Chapter 48. The Corn-Spirit as an Animal.
Chapter 49. Ancient Deities of Vegetation as Animals.

See PART VI for the following topics:


Chapter 55. The Transference of Evil.
Chapter 56. The Public Expulsion of Evils.

See PART VII for the following topics:


Chapter 61. The Myth of Balder.

Chapter 62. The Fire-Festivals of Europe.