Gods, Demigods & Heroes

I recently acquired a free copy of the 1979 (7th printing) of the old "Supplement IV" Gods, Demi-Gods and Heroes booklet for the original D&D. Let me tell ya, it's in good shape too. Written by Robert J. Kuntz and James Ward (two of my favorites), this book is the precursor to the more popular AD&D book, Deities & Demigods.

While it is the same as later deity books in content such as stats on gods, artifacts and mythical monsters, this one might exceed its descendants in volume of deities presented. This is because the text is small, the info light, and the art is sparse. This is not to say the art is bad; the cover (see above) is in color for one while the b&w interior art looks like classical woodcuts or etchings which I dare say is nearly superior to the more familiar D&D illustrations that would follow.

What mythos are here? Here's the rundown:

Egyptian
Indian
Greek
Celtic
Norse
Finnish
Robert E, Howard's Hyborea
Elric and Melnibone
Meso-American
Eastern Mythos

Deities & Demigods would later drop Hyborean and add monster myths, Nehwon, Cthulhu and Arthurian lore. Of course, by the next printing it also dropped Cthulhu and Melnibonean unfortunately. I find the information on Hyborea to be invaluable if you are into Cthulhu mythos since they are contemporary. The real world myths go into greater detail on pantheons of female deities and general heroes and legendary monsters, where later editions probably relegated that stuff to the Monster Manual.

I can tell by forging through there real world myths and adding popular fiction, it made TSR's job of creating homebrew D&D gods like the Greyhawk pantheon much easier. The only other book from this series I own is Blackmoor. I may need to dig it out and see what I'm missing!