Product Description

Are there any legends about cats? Is Cinderella an English story? What is a Mumming Play? The subject of folklore covers an extremely wide field, with connections to virtually every aspect of life. It ranges from the bizarre to the seemingly mundane. Similarly, folklore is as much a feature of the modern technological age as the ancient world, of every part of the country, both urban and rural, and of every age group and occupation. Containing 1,250 entries, from dragons to Mother Goose,May Day to Michaelmas, this reference work is an absorbing and entertaining guide to English folklore. Aimed at a broad general readership, the dictionary provides an authoritative reference source on such legendary characters as The Sandman, Jack the Giant Killer, and Robin Hood, and gives entertaining and informative explanations of a wide range of subjects in folklore, from nosebleeds and wishbones to cats and hot cross buns. 'From an exemplary, clear, and concise introduction to an admirably comprehensive, yet selective, bibliography, but above all from more than 1,250 A-Z entries in between, it is good to know that Oxford University Press can still commission and publish new standard reference titles. .. A welcome degree of scholarly rigour...coverage is excellent...the quallity of the entries is also outstanding...It is all very readable, concise, and clear throughout - another one of those reference works one can wish to read from cover to cover...a huge amount of fascinatingmaterial in this clearly and attractively designed, deceptively concise and reasonably priced volume. It becomes at once a new standard reference book in its field...As such it belongs in any reference collection in or about England, and any collection dealing with folklore.' Library Review

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1451941 in Books
• Published on: 2003-10-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 432 pages

From Amazon.co.uk
Popular opinion might side with academic prejudice in thinking that there is hardly such a thing as English folklore, and certainly nothing worth studying--just a few superannuated old customs such as morris dancing. Certainly nothing to compare with the rich folk heritage of the Celtic countries. A Dictionary of English Folklore triumphantly proves that viewpoint wrong. It is a wonderful book--lively, authoritative and packed with fascinating information. It both collates the work of many scholars over the last 150 years, and establishes a new ground level for research and comment in the future.

Bot of the authors are leading folklorists who know the field inside out, and readers can have confidence that their views are based on the most reliable sources. They--sometimes reluctantly--debunk various common misconceptions about the origin and meaning of folk customs and superstitions. "Ring-a-ring-a-roses" is not anything to do with the Great Plague--the first English versions were recorded in the 1880s; the New Year ceremony in Allendale, Northumberland, in which the men march through the village with blazing tar barrels, is not a pagan custom--it only started in 1858.

By displacing romantic fancies with hard facts the authors do not take the fun out of their subject. Instead, they bring out with shining clarity the vitality of folklore, and its remarkable ability to adapt to new means of transmission such as the Internet. There are entries here on all kinds of ancient folk customs such as well dressing and harvest festivals, but also on photocopylore, the Tooth Fairy and the folklore of sex.

This is an indispensable reference book that does for English folklore what Jan Harold Brunvand's American Folklore: An Encyclopedia did for that of the USA--providing a reliable summary of modern scholarship in a form that is itself entertaining and provocative. --Neil Philip

From Library Journal
Containing more than 1200 alphabetically arranged entries, this folklore dictionary spans familiar beliefs, from the earliest cultural traditions to more familiar subjects, such as Mother Goose. The authors, esteemed British folklore experts with many publications to their credit, include a broad range of oral genres, calendar customs, festivals, life-cycle customs, and supernatural and superstitious beliefs. Everyday lore is fully explored, from the Tooth Fairy and Godiva to the modern tales of wonderment such as "The Vanishing Hitchhiker." Fairies, mermaids, hobgoblins, and changelings are examples of the supernatural forces surveyed. The historical foundations of folk cures and old wives' tales, as well as classic legendary characters (e.g., Robin Hood) are identified and traced. Other topics include festivals, past and present, that are celebrated throughout English literature, as well as children's games, "fakelore," cross-dressing, mumming, and more. All are provided with dependable information and references, and the many See and See Also citations add considerably to the book's richness as a reference source. The one drawback to this solidly researched work is its exclusively British approach, which will limit its appeal to American readers. Students and researchers, however, will find it valuable. Recommended for inclusive and extensive library collections.DRichard K. Burns, MSLS, Hatboro, PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
This scholarly dictionary begins with a broadly inclusive definition of what constitutes folklore . Briefly, the editors have chosen to include oral and performance genres of common culture, calendar customs, life-cycle customs, and supernatural and superstitious beliefs, dating from antiquity through current day. Not included are traditional foods, sports, games, fairs, or obsolete customs. There is only limited coverage of children's lore, fairies, and plants. English has a much narrower definition: England and England only. The folklores of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Isles are not considered, nor are those of any of the ethnic groups that form part of English society. Researchers will find no references to banshees or Nessie but will find detailed entries concerning strictly British inventions such as boy bishops, Farthing Bundles, the Lambton worm, and Stir-Up Sunday.The 1,250 alphabetically arranged definitions range from a sentence or two to more than a page, with the focus on factual documentation as opposed to analytical interpretation. Footnotes appear at the end of each entry, referring to more than 350 academic resources detailed in the bibliography. These sources mostly date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (although some are as early as the fourteenth century) and include standards of folklore scholarship, unpublished doctoral treatises, reference works, and folklore periodicals.There are just eight illustrations, and the scholarly approach makes for rather dry prose. Text is arranged in a no-nonsense double-column format, with indexed terms appearing in boldface. There is no index, but see and see also references guide readers to appropriate entries. An asterisk next to a term indicates that the term is the subject of a separate entry.Although the concentration on English folklore might seem to limit this source's research value, the bibliography alone should warrant interest in academic and specialized collections. General public and school collections might be better served by one of the broader works currently available: for example, David Pickering's A Dictionary of Folklore [RBB My 15 00], originally published in England as the Cassell Dictionary of Folklore , or The Larousse Dictionary of World Folklore, by Alison Jones (1996). Still, this represents a unique contribution to the body of work about folklore and should be considered by academic and large public libraries. RBB
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