Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore (for Babylon)
Dragons to Mother Goose, May Day to Michaelmas, this reference work is an absorbing and entertaining guide to English folklore. It is also an authoritative reference source on such legendary characters as Cinderella, Jack the Giant Killer, and Robin Hood. It gives entertaining and informative explanations of a wide range of subjects in folklore: oral and performance genres such as cheese rolling, morris dancing, and rushbearing; superstitions such as crossing fingers and wishbones; beliefs like fairy rings and frog showers; and calendar customs from April Fool's Day to St. Valentine's Day.
While best known for his translations of classical literature and as a collector of folk and fairy tales, Lang also wrote poetry, biographies, histories, novels, literary criticisms and even children's books. Lang was one of the first to apply anthropological findings to the study of myth and folklore. His versatility was also shown in his valuable works on folklore and on primitive religion. The earliest of these works was Custom and Myth. Contents: The Method of Folklore; the Bull-Roarer; The Myth of Cronus; Cupid, Psyche, and the Sun-Frog; A Far-Travelled Tale; Apollo and the Mouse; Star Myths; Moly and Mandragora; The Kalevala; The Divining Rod; Hottentot Mythology; Fetichism and the Infinite; The Early History of the Family; and The Art of Savages. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Added by: jaybeere | Karma: 320.01 | Fiction literature | 1 September 2007
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Folk-lore and Legends, Russian and Polish by C. J. T. (Rare Book Collection)
In this volume selections presented are made from the Russian chap-book literature, and from the works of various Russian and Polish collectors of Folklore — Afanasief, Erben, Wójcicki, Gliński, etc. The chap-book tales, and many of those of Gliński, are, there is little doubt, of foreign origin, but since Russia and Poland are the countries in which these tales have found their home, and since they have there been so adapted by the people as to incorporate the national customs and lore, they appear to belong properly to the present volume.
Added by: jaybeere | Karma: 320.01 | Fiction literature | 28 August 2007
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Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin (Rare Book Collection)
Twenty folk tales representing hundreds of years of the collective Irish imagination transport readers to a world where everything is alive and anything can happen! Vivid descriptions of battles with giants, dead men who come back to life, humans imprisoned in animals' bodies, heroes with incredible strength, and more.
The myth tales in this volume were collected by the author in the West of Ireland, in Kerry, Galway, and Donegal, during the year 1887.
Polish Fairy Tales by A. J. Gliński translated by Maude Ashurst Biggs; illustrated by Cecile Walton (Rare Book Collection)
The frog princess.--Princess Miranda and Prince Hero.--The eagles.--The whirlwind.--The good ferryman and the water nymphs.--The princess of the Brazen Mountain.--The bear in the forest hut
These are selections from a large collection made by A. J. Gliński, printed at Wilna in 1862. These fairy tales come from a far past and may even date from primitive Aryan times. They represent the folklore current among the peasantry of the Eastern provinces of Poland, and also in those provinces usually known as White Russia.
They were set down by Gliński just as they were related to him by the peasants. In the translation it was of course necessary to shorten them considerably; the continual repetition — however quaint and fascinating in the original—cannot easily be reproduced. Portions, too, are often told in rhyme, or in a species of rhyming prose that we associate with the ancient ballad. The obvious likenesses between these and the folklore of Germany, the Celtic nations, or to the Indian fairytales, will strike every reader.
