Octoberfest of Folklore Books

I am wearing my pumpkin colored sweater, drinking a Pumpkin spiced latte, full of Knockwurst and Munich Gold from this weekend's Octoberfest revelry in New Hampshire.

I am afraid all my updates are only lists of books.   But, you know, lists of books are kinda cool.

• Diana - Fay Glinister.  From the series "Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World."  Routledge.
• When Women Held the Dragon's Tongue: And Other Essays in Historical Anthropology - Hermann Rebel.   Berghahn Books.
• Letting Stories Breathe: A Socio-Narratology - Arthur W. Frank.  University of Chicago Press.
• Encyclopedia of Jewish Folklore and Traditions - Raphael Patai and Haya Bar-Itzhak, eds.   M. E. Sharpe.
• Media, Myth, and Society - Arthur Asa Berger.  Palgrave Pivot.
• Warrior Ways: Explorations in Modern Military Folklore - Eric A. Eliason and Tad Tuleja, eds.   Utah State University Press.
• Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship - Jo Eldridge Carney.  Palgrave MacMillan.
• Cherokee Stories of the Turtle Island Liar's Club - Christopher B. Teuton.  The University of North Carolina Press. 
• The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry - Daniel W. Patterson.  Richard Hampton Jenrette Series in Architecture and Decorative Arts, The University of North Carolina Press. 
• Passing It On: Folklore of St. Louis - John L. Oldani.  2nd Edition, Revised and Updated, Reedy Press. 
• Where is My Home?: Slovak Immigration to North America (1870-2010) - M. Mark Stolarik.  Peter Lang.
• Transgressive Tales: Queering the Grimms - Kay Turner & Pauline Greenhill, eds.  In Fairy Tales, Wayne State University Press.
• Tales of Magic, Tales in Print: On the Genealogy of Fairy Tales and the Brothers Grimm - Willem de Blecout.  Manchester University Press.
• South Central Pennsylvania Legends and Lore - David Puglia.  The History Press. 
• The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures - Karl Bell.  Boydell Press.
• Americo Paredes: Culture and Critique - Jose E. Limon.  University of Texas Press.
• Traditional Stories from Binandere in Oro Province, Papua New Guinea - Anita Tago.  Buai Series 3, University of Papua New Guinea Press.

Folklored: A Don Cossack "kurenj" hut. Quick notes.

Evgenia Samsonova has a very informative blog about Slavic folklore over at Folklored.   I encourage you to check it out!


Folklored: A Don Cossack "kurenj" hut. Quick notes.: The photos below show typical examples Don Cossack hut "kurenj" architecture seen around the southern regions of the Russian steppes. Mov...

Building a Better Folklore Library

I am always on the lookout for more folklore books.   I want them all!    Here are the new releases for July of this year.

• Folklore and Nationalism in Europe During the Long Nineteenth Century - Timothy Baycroft, ed.  National Cultivation of Culture, Brill Academic Pub.
• Legends of the Caucasus - David Hunt.  Saqi Books.
• Saints of Sage and Saddle: Folklore Among the Mormons - Austin E. Fife and Alta Stephens Fife.  Literary Licensing, LLC.
• Pop Mythology: Collected Essays - Laura A. Shamas.   Telemachus Press.
• Transatlantic Roots Music: Folk, Blues and National Identities - Jill Terry and Neil A. Wynn, eds.  American Made Music Series, University Press of Mississippi.  
• Kachina Tales from the Indian Pueblas - Gene Meany Hodge.  Sunstone Press.
• Gawain and the Grail Quest: Healing the Waste Land in Our Time - Jeffrey John Dixon.  Floris Books.
• Spirit Memory: An Ancestral Journey through Aboriginal and European Transformation - Mary Tasi.  Influence Publishing.
• Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen: Travellers' Songs, Stories and Tunes of the Fetterangus Stewarts - Elizabeth Stewart.  Compiled by Alison McMorland.  University Press of Mississippi/Elphinstone Institute.

Hot Folklore Fun in the Summertime: Folklore Reads on the Beach

Summertime.    And the fish are jumping.   Summertime.

Summertime, summertime, sum-sum-summertime.   Summertime.

Hot fun in the summertime.

Here are some folklore books to bring to the beach.  

• Post-Revolutionary Chicana Literature: Memoir, Folklore and Fiction of the Border, 1900-1950 - Sam Lopez.   Latino Communities: Emerging Voices - Political, Social, Cultural and Legal Issues, Routledge.
• Folklore in Action: Essays for Discussion in Honor of MacEdward Leach - Horace Palmer Beck and MacEdward Leach, eds.  Literary Licensing, LLC.
• The Art of Mythical Composition and Narration: Dagara White Bagr - Alexis B. Tengan.   European Interuniversity Press.   
• American Proverbs About Women - Lois Kerchen.  Booklocker.
• Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome - E. M. Berens.   Indoeuropean Publishing.
• What Happens Next?  Contemporary Urban Legends and Popular Culture - Gail Arlene de Vos.  Libraries Unlimited.
• Tales from 1,001 Nights: Aladdin, Ali Baba and Other Favorites - Anonymous.  Translated by Malcolm C. and Ursula Lyons.   Penguin Classics.
• Yes and No: The Intimate Folklore of Africa - Alta Jablow.  Literary Licensing, LLC.
• Norse Romance I: The Tristan Legend; Norse Romance II: The Knights of the Round Table; Norse Romance III: Haerra Ivan - Marianne E. Kalinke, ed.  Arthurian Archives, D. S. Brewer.   
• Archaeology and Folklore - Amy Gazin-Schwartz and Cornelius J. Holtorf, eds.   Theoretical Archaeology Group, Routledge.

Folklore Dump

Here are some links that are of interest to me:

• Bad Archaeology - A Snopes for the people who try to tell you the world will end in 2012 or that the pyramids were built by space aliens.
• Know Your Meme - This is how the youths communicate with one another.   
• John Miles Foley, RIP - founder of one of my favorite journals and author of a number of influential books on oral literature has passed.
• 100 Years of Titanic Songs - not counting Celine Dion.
• Paganfest - who are more ridiculous: pagans or juggalos? Discuss.
• Iran's Epic - new book out about the Shahnameh.   There can't be enough books about the Shahnameh, IMHO.  
• Eefing - American folk tradition.   If you don't know it yet, then start clicking!
• More Titanic Music (NO CELINE DION!)
• Блатная Песня - who doesn't love Russian prison songs?   
• Peasant Culture in Russian Cartoons - look, there's a metafilter about this.

Spring Reading List

I have just recently discovered that because I possess a coveted Boston Public Library card I am able to access on-line thousands of articles in "The Journal of American Folklore," "Western Folklore," etc.   Loading up my Kindle!   It's almost like I am back in academia without all the backbiting and politicking!

Here are the spring folklore books I want you to buy for me:

• The Seven Tengu Scrolls: Evil and the Rhetoric of Legitimacy in Medieval Japanese Buddhism - Haruko Wakabayashi.   University of Hawaii Press.   
• Miraculous Plenty: Irish Religious Folktales and Legends - Sean O Suilleabhain, ed.   Trans. by William Caulfield.   Scribhinni Bealodis/Folklore Studies Series, Folklore of Ireland Council.  
• Folk Tales of the Maldives - Xavier Romero-frias.   Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
• Enchanted Legends and Lore of New Mexico: Witches, Ghosts & Spirits - Ray John de Aragon.  The History Press.
• The Magical Imagination: Magic and Modernity in Urban England, 1780-1914 - Karl Bell.   Cambridge University Press.
• The Case of the Animals versus Man Before the King of the Jinn - ed. by Lenn E. Goodman and Richard MacGregor.   Oxford University Press.
• The Irish Fairy Tales: A Narrative Tradition from the Middle Ages to Yeats and Stephens - Vito Carrassi.   Trans. by Kevin Wren.   University of Delaware Press.
• Don't Shoot the Albatross!: Nautical Myths and Superstitions - Jonathan Eyers.  Adlard Coles.
• The Voice of the People: Writing the European Folk Revival, 1760-1914 - ed. by Matthew Campbell and Michael Perraudin.   Anthem World History, Anthem Press.
• The Victorian Press and the Fairy Tale - Caroline Sumpter.   Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture, Palgrave MacMillan.
• A Lark for the Sake of Their Country: The 1926 General Strike Volunteers in Folklore and Memory - Rachelle H. Saltzman.  Manchester University Press.
• The Ancient Mythology of Modern Science: A Mythologist Looks (Seriously) at Popular Science Writing - Gregory Schrempp.   McGill-Queen's University Press.
• The Denver Folk Music Tradition: An Unplugged History, from Harry Tuft to Swallow Hill and Beyond - Paul A. Malkoski.   The History Press.
• Exploring American Folk Music: Ethnic, Grassroots, and Regional Traditions in the United States - Kip Lornell.   American Made Music Series, University Press of Mississippi.
• The Irresistable Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre - Jack Zipes.   Princeton University Press.
• Intimate Distance: Andean Music in Japan - Michelle Bigenho.   Duke University Press Books.
• Villages on Stage: Folklore and Nationalism in the Republic of Moldova - Jennifer R. Cash.   Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia, LIT Verlag.
• A Companion to Folklore - Regina F. Bendix and Galit Hasan-Rokem, eds.   Wiley-Blackwell Companions to Anthropology, Wiley-Blackwell.
• Fairy Tales Framed: Early Forewords, Afterwords and Critical Words - Ruth B. Bottigheimer.   State University of New York Press.

Happy readings!

Folklore TV on the Interwebs

Sometimes I don't know how things like this can go under my radar for so long, but there was a charming television show produced by North Carolina Public Television called "Folkways" hosted by musician David Holt.

I came across this by reading the latest Foxfire collection, which I recommend picking up.

You can find the show here at UNC-TV online. Viewing these episodes requires Realplayer, and I don't like Realplayer. But, happily, they are also available -FOR FREE! - on iTunes. I already have a few episodes loaded on my iPod for my next trip to the gym.