Yucatan Before and After the Conquest by Diego de Landa, tr. William Gates [1937]
The best primary source on the Maya, ironically by the monk who burned most of their books.

The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel by Ralph L. Roys [1930]

The Mayan Calendar

The Book of the People: Popol Vuh
by Delia Goetz and Sylvanus Griswold Morley from Adrián Recino's translation from Quiché into Spanish [1954, copyright not registered or renewed]

Maya Hieroglyphic Writing (excerpts)
by J. Eric S. Thompson [1950]

The Popul Vuh excerpt from The Mythic and Heroic Sagas of the Kichés of Central America, by Lewis Spence; London [1908] 79,023 bytes

The Myths of Mexico and Peru by Lewis Spence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popol_Vuh

The Popol Vuh (K'iche' for "Council Book" or "Book of the Community"; Popol
Wuj in modern spelling; IPA: [popol wu?]) is a book written in the
Classical Quiché language containing mythological narratives and a
genealogy of the rulers of the post classic Quiché Maya kingdom of highland
Guatemala.

The book contains a creation myth followed by mythological stories of two
Heroic Twins: Hunahpu (Junajpu) and Xbalanque (Xb'alanke). The second part
of the book deals with details of the foundation and history of the Quiché
kingdom, tying in the royal family with the legendary gods in order to
assert rule by divine right.

The book is written in the Latin alphabet but is thought to have been based
on an original Maya codex in the Mayan hieroglyphic script. The original
manuscript which was written around 1550 has been lost, but a copy of
another handwritten copy made by the Friar Francisco Ximénez in the early
18th century exists today in the Newberry Library in Chicago.

The significance of the book is enormous since it is one of a small number
of early Mesoamerican mythological texts-it is often considered the single
most important piece of Mesoamerican literature. The mythology of the
Quiché is believed to correspond quite closely to that of the Pre Classic
Maya, as depicted in the San Bartolo murals, and iconography from the
classic period often contains motifs that are interpretable as scenes from
the Popol Vuh.

*************snipped******************

History
The original manuscript, called "The manuscript of Quiché," was written in
Santa Cruz Quiché around 1550-1555. It is thought to have been written down
from an oral recitation of a hieroglyphic manuscript that has since been
lost. It was obviously written after the first missionaries arrived in
Santa Cruz Quiché in the 1540s and is assumed to have been written before
1558. Judging from the genealogical part of the work, in which a prominent
place is given to the Kaweq lineage, the author may have belonged to this
lineage as opposed to the other royal Quiché lineages, the Nijaib, the Tam
and the Ilok'ab lineages. Some have speculated that the author was a
certain Diego Reynoso, also the author of another Quiché document, the
Titulo de Totonicapán. Van Akkeren (2003) discards Reynoso as the author of
the Popol Vuh, since the viewpoint in the Titulo de Totonicapan is biased
against the Kaweq lineage - he thinks that the authors were in fact the
heads of a faction of the Kaweq lineage called the Nim Ch'okoj.

Whoever the original authors were, The Quiché Manuscript was found in the
Chichicastenango by the Dominican priest Francisco Ximénez in the early
18th century. He translated and copied the manuscript and added it as an
appendix to his grammatical work "Arte de Tres Lengvas: Kaqchikel, Quiché y
Tzutuhil". This manuscript was kept in a neglected corner of the
Universidad de San Carlos library in Guatemala City, until it was
discovered by Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg and Carl Scherzer in 1854.
However, "the Chichicastenango manuscript" has disappeared from history.
Brasseur and Scherzer published French and Spanish translations a few years
later.

Brasseur de Bourbourg in Rabinal found another copy of the Chichicastenango
manuscript, also made in the early 18th century. Brasseur de Bourbourg
brought the manuscript to Paris. Following his death, it was sold and
resold and eventually wound up in the Chicago Newberry Library. This copy
of Ximenéz' copy of the original Quiché manuscript is the earliest extant
manuscript of the Popol Vuh.

Since Brasseur de Bourbourg's and Scherzer's first translations, the Popol
Vuh has been translated into English and other languages. The Popol Vuh is
considered one of the literary treasures of the Americas.

**************snipped***************

Summary
This is a very general summary; divisions depend on text version
Part 1

Gods create world.
Gods create first "wood" humans, they are imperfect and emotionless.
Gods destroy first humans in a "resin" flood; they become monkeys.
Twin diviners Hunahpu & Xbalanque destroy arrogant Vucub-Caquix; then
Zipacna & Cabracan.
Part 2

Diviners Xpiyacoc and Xmucane beget brothers.
HunHunahpu & Xbaquiyalo beget "Monkey Twins" HunBatz & HunChouen.
Cruel Xibalba lords kill the brothers HunHunahpu & VucubHunahpu.
HunHunahpu & Xquic beget "Hero Twins" Hunahpu & Xbalanque.
"Hero Twins" defeat the Xibalba houses of Gloom, Knives, Cold, Jaguars,
Fire, Bats.
Part 3

The first 4 "real" people are made: Jaguar Quiché, Jaguar Night, Naught, &
Wind Jaguar.
Tribes descend; they speak the same language and travel to TulanZuiva.
The tribes language becomes confused; and they disperse.
Tohil is recognized as a god and demands life sacrifices; later he must be
hidden.
Part 4

Tohil affects Earth Lords through priests; but his dominion destroys the
Quiche.
Priests tried to abduct tribes for sacrifices; the tribes tried to resist
this.
Quiche found Gumarcah where Gucumatz (the feathered serpent lord) raises
them to power.
Gucumatz instituted elaborate rituals.
Genealogies of the tribes

[edit] Creation Myth
The book begins with the creation myth of the K'ichee' Maya, which credits
the creation of humans to the three water-dwelling feathered serpents:

There was only immobility and silence in the darkness, in the night. Only
the Creator, the Maker, Tepeu, Gucumatz, the Forefathers, were in the water
surrounded with light. They were hidden under green and blue feathers, and
were therefore called Gucumatz...
and to the three other deities, collectively called "Heart of Heaven":

Then while they meditated, it became clear to them that when dawn would
break, man must appear. Then they planned the creation, and the growth of
the trees and the thickets and the birth of life and the creation of man.
Thus it was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of
Heaven who is called Huracán. The first is called Caculhá Huracán. The
second is ChipiCaculhá. The third is Raxa-Caculhá. And these three are the
Heart of Heaven.
who together attempted to create human beings to keep him company.

Their first attempts proved unsuccessful. They attempted to make man of
mud, but man could neither move nor speak. After destroying the mud men,
they tried again by creating wooden creatures that could speak but had no
soul or blood and quickly forgot him. Angered over the flaws in his
creation, they destroyed them by tearing them apart. In their final
attempt, the "True People" were constructed with maize. The following is an
excerpt of this myth:

They came together in darkness to think and reflect. This is how they came
to decide on the right material for the creation of man. ... Then our
Makers Tepew and Q'uk'umatz began discussing the creation of our first
mother and father. Their flesh was made of white and yellow corn. The arms
and legs of the four men were made of corn meal.

[edit] Today
The Popol Vuh continues to be an important part in the belief system of
many Quiché. Although most are now Catholic, they continue to blend
Christian and indigenous beliefs. The original text is seen as difficult to
understand, and a simplified version, Popol Vuh: A Sacred Book of the Maya,
has now been published in English, Hungarian and Spanish, targeted towards
adult and children who are unfamiliar with the Maya.


[edit] Other sources
Classic Maya pottery shows some of the main characters of the mythological
part of the document, such as the Maya Hero Twins and the Howler Monkey
Gods. Certain scenes have been interpreted as referring to the 16th-century
version of the myth, in particular the shooting of Vucub-Caquix and the
restoration of the Twins' dead father (see Maya maize god). This opens up
the possibility that the accompanying sections of hieroglyphical text are
ancestral to passages from the Popol Vuh. Some stories from the Popol Vuh
continued to be told by modern Maya as folk legends; some stories recorded
by anthropologists in the 20th century may preserve portions of the ancient
tales in greater detail than the Ximénez manuscript.


[edit] Cultural References
The myths and legends contained within Louis L'Amour's novel "The Haunted
Mesa" are largely based on the Popol Vuh.

Extracted from the fantastic Landa Book referenced above--

http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/maya/ybac/ybac60.htm

In these Spain followed the universal custom of conquering or expanding
empires, allowing to the local chieftains or rulers as full a measure of
their former headship and privileges as possible, subject to, and in
proportion to their degree of recognition of political suzerainty, the
right to economic exploitation and support, and as necessary incident, the
social recognition of the new masters as 'superior beings.' Thus did in
succession the Romans, the British, the Dutch, and others, the degree and
nature of the resulting dominance over the acquired 'subjects' depending on
the nature or character, plus the real or professed purposes of the
'occupation.'

Ancient Rome, Holland, Britain sought the spread of empire and trade, and
leaving the essentials of life, religion and local customs, as nearly
untouched as possible; giving in return protection. The occupied lands, in
most cases the field of destructive internecine wars such as would be the
case in India today save for the handful of Indian regiments protecting
both the raj and the people, lost superior suzerainty (actually
non-existent in the country) in exchange for the order of a firm
administration. To the common man one far distant Emperor is the same as
another, so long as the currents of local life go along and the customs and
'gods of our fathers' are respected-whether the ryot, the fellahin or the
masehual be in Ceylon, Egypt or Mexico. The emperor may then be Akbar in
Delhi, Edward in London, or Charles in Spain; the only further thing asked
is that he protect the defenseless people from the wanton murders,
tortures, rapings and burnings of the foreign 'public enemies' set loose
among them. If this is not done, the work of the Diego de Landas and the
Pedro de Alvarados will only breed revolts that must end either in total
annihilation as in Cuba, or in final freedom, however late.

To these demands Spain however added that of enforced conversions to
Christianity and the "blessings of European civilization" (as professed by
others today in their thirst for conquest), all "by the divine command"
that justifies all 'necessary' means to save men from the eternal hell
ordained by God for those who cannot recognize his image of peace and love
in the autos de fé and the hangings-escapable however by humbleness and gold.

Yet these people even in the later days, of the Sixteenth Century, were
higher in polity, science and all that really makes civilization, than the
invaders-who only had gunpowder, horses, lusts, and (heaven save the mark)
the Cross. In these words lies the whole story of the lands south of us,
where now in these last ten years only, is the long debt to the Indian race
beginning to be paid by seeking to make him once more a free working
citizen of his own country, educated in the things that lead to economic
prosperity for the individual, the local community, and the State. For
Mexico is today making the Indian again a 'man'-while we in this country
manufacture and offer him roseate white-man's plans for his anthropological
welfare instead of liberty; keep him against his helpless will the slave of
the most generations-long intrenched bureaucracy in our whole log-rolling
system, that wastes, and worse, his property, while we decimate him by our
imported immoralities, and exploitations.