Rivers and lakes, wells and deep pools, the endless horizon of the sea. Countless folkloric beings are bound to water: horses and ships that carry the dead across dark lagoons into the underworld, and creatures that inhabit the waters themselves, from spirits of wells to mermaids. Frequently associated with the subterranean realm and the dead, water runs through an immense body of popular tradition. We cannot live without it: water gives life and nourishes everything that grows upon the earth. Yet it can also dissolve, drop by drop, beneath an apparently harmless surface. Folklore knows magical waters capable of healing death itself, but also floods that sweep everything away; and when water disappears, nothing can live. Benevolent or otherwise, its mystery and beauty continue to fascinate people throughout the world.