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Folklore is the body of verbal expressive culture, including tales, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs current among a particular population, comprising the oral tradition of that culture, subculture, or group. The academic and usually ethnographic study of folklore is known as folkloristics.
History
The concept of folklore developed as part of the 19th century ideology of romantic nationalism, leading to the reshaping of oral traditions to serve modern ideological goals; only in the 20th century did ethnographers begin to attempt to record folklore without overt political goals. The Brothers Grimm, Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm, collected orally transmitted German tales and published the first series as Kinder- und Hausmärchen ("Children's and Household Tales") in 1812.
The term was coined in 1846 by an Englishman, William Thoms, who wanted to use an Anglo-Saxon term for what was then called "popular antiquities." Johann Gottfried von Herder first advocated the deliberate recording and preservation of folklore to document the authentic spirit, tradition, and identity of the German people; the belief that there can be such authenticity is one of the tenets of the romantic nationalism which Herder developed. The definition most widely accepted by current scholars of the field is "artistic communication in small groups," coined by Dan Ben-Amos a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, and the term, and the associated field of study, now include non-verbal art forms and customary practices.
More on [ Folklore ]
Folklore :: Society and Culture
Lang, Andrew :: Fairy Tales
Drink-drive mother sent to jail
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 11:43:41 -0000
A woman whose child was seen shouting "stop mummy driving" is jailed for drink-driving after crashing into a fence.
Two energy firms to raise prices
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:02:59 -0000
Energy firms E.On and Scottish and Southern Energy are to raise gas and electricity prices by up to 29%, blaming higher costs.
Message bottle found 23 years on
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 13:15:59 -0000
A man is reunited with the bottle and message he threw into the sea as a child almost a quarter of a century ago.
Teen guilty of parade bike crash
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:04:30 -0000
A teenager is convicted of injuring seven people when the motorbike he was riding crashed into a crowd.
Unknown man found dead in street
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:12:51 -0000
Detectives try to identify a man who was found dead in a street on the south side of Glasgow in the early hours of the morning.
Jail for son who murdered father
Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:28:56 -0000
A television executive who murdered his wealthy father and hid the body in a rubbish bin is jailed for life.
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Funnybones - Legends - Overview of some Scottish legends.
Legends - Selchies - Collection of links pertaining to the seal-folk of Scotland and Ireland, variously called selchies, selkies, silkies, or roanes.
Meta Description: [ Exploring Legends in History, Folklore,
Literature, Fiction, and the Arts. ]
Scottish Traditional Tales - Introduction to Scottish tales and storytelling, with bibliography, and sample tales.
The Hebridean Folklore Project - Run by volunteers to keep Scottish folklore alive and accessible, with the aim of relating Scottish culture around the world. Includes tales and photos.
The Tam Lin Pages - Dedicated to the study of the old Scottish ballad of Tam Lin, who is rescued from the fairies by a mortal woman.
Meta Description: [ A site dedicated to the collection and study of the old Scottish ballad of Tam Lin. The ballad of Tam Lin tells of a mortal woman's rescue of her lover, Tam Lin, from the faeries, and the trials she must undergo to accomplish it. ]
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