Best of
Folklore

1989

The Talking Eggs: A Folktale from the American South


Robert D. San Souci - 1989
    A Southern folktale in which kind Blanche, following the instructions of an old witch, gains riches, while her greedy sister makes fun of the old woman and is duly rewarded.

Lon Po Po: A Red-Riding Hood Story from China


Ed Young - 1989
    "Absolutely splendid." -- Kirkuse Reviews. "An extraordinary and powerful book." -- Publisher's Weekly.

The Mitten: An Old Ukrainian Folktale


Alvin Tresselt - 1989
    And that lost mitten stretches and stretches -- and stretches -- to provide shelter for many woodland creatures. A Ukrainian folk tale.

Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales


Jack D. Zipes - 1989
    Readers experience the unique charm of this story in its original form--as a 17th century French fairy tale! This Signet Classic edition also contains other beloved tales, such as "Cinderella", "Sleeping Beauty", "Little Red Riding Hood", and "Puss in Boots", conveying all the excitement and timeless appeal to forever keep and cherish.

The White Cat


Robert D. San Souci - 1989
    The White Cat helps the youngest prince win his father's throne.A retelling of Madame D'Aulnoy's La chatte blanche.

Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath


Carlo Ginzburg - 1989
    Weaving early accounts of witchcraft—trial records, ecclesiastical tracts, folklore, and popular iconography—into new and startling patterns, Carlo Ginzburg presents in Ecstasies compelling evidence of a hidden shamanistic culture that flourished across Europe and in England for thousands of years.

Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by Native American Women


Paula Gunn Allen - 1989
    Allen set out to understand why this was so and, more importantly, to remedy the situation. The result is this powerful collection of traditional tales, biographical writings, and contemporary short stories, many by the most accomplished Native American women writing today, including: Louise Erdrich, Mary TallMountain, Linda Hogan, and many others.

Bali: Sekala and Niskala : Essays on Religion, Ritual, and Art (Bali--Sekala & Niskala)


Fred B. Eiseman Jr. - 1989
    The essays cover a wide range of topics, from magic and trance healing to cockfighting and seaweed farming. The author, who has lived on Bali for 28 years, is widely recognized as a self-taught guru of Balinese folk traditions.

Frederick and His Friends: Four Favorite Fables


Leo Lionni - 1989
    In this volume, meet Frederick, the poet field mouse whose happy memories help his family endure through the darkest days of winter; Swimmy, the imaginative minnow who uses his small size in a big way; Alexander, the mouse who learns the magic of friendship; and a fish who discovers that life in a small pond isn’t so bad after all.Lionni’s complete texts and illustrations are included along with an introduction from Eric Carle and a CD reading in this elegant, inviting gift edition.

Mushrooms & Other Fungi of Great Britain & Europe


Roger Phillips - 1989
    Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe (A Pan original)

The Lion and the Mouse


Aesop - 1989
    A tiny mouse helps a mighty lion, who had once showed him mercy, escape from a trap.

Speak, Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales


Ibrahim Muhawi - 1989
    But it is much more than this. Over the course of several years they collected tales in the regions of the Galilee, Gaza, and the West Bank, determining which were the most widely known and appreciated and selecting the ones that best represented the Palestinian Arab folk narrative tradition. Great care has been taken with the translations to maintain the original flavor, humor, and cultural nuances of tales that are at once earthy and whimsical. The authors have also provided footnotes, an international typology, a comprehensive motif index, and a thorough analytic guide to parallel tales in the larger Arab tradition in folk narrative.

Encyclopedia of Southern Culture


Charles Reagan Wilson - 1989
    The region is often shrouded in romance and myth, but its realities are as intriguing, as intricate, as its legends.The "Encyclopedia of Southern Culture" is "the first attempt ever" notes "U.S. News & World Report," "to describe every aspect of a region's life and thought, the impact of its history and policies, its music and literature, its manners and myths, even the iced tea that washes down its catfish and cornbread."There are many Souths, many southerners. The region's fundamental uniqueness, in fact, lies in its peculiar combination of cultural traits, a somewhat curious, often elusive blend created by blacks and whites who have lived together for more than 300 years. In telling their stories, the "Encyclopedia of Southern Culture" ranges from grand historical themes to the whimsical; from the arts and high culture (William Faulkner and Leontyne Price) to folk culture (quilts, banjos, and grits) to popular culture (Gilley's and "Gone With the Wind").The "Encyclopedia"'s definition of the South is a cultural one: the South is found wherever southern culture is found. Although the focus is on the eleven states of the former Confederacy, this volume also encompasses southern outposts in midwestern and middle-Atlantic border states, even the southern pockets of Chicago, Detroit, and Bakersfield.To foster a deeper understanding of the South's cultural patterns, the editors have organized this reference book around twenty-four thematic sections, including history, religion, folklore, language, art and architecture, recreation, politics, the mythic South, urbanization, literature, music, violence, law, and media. The life experiences of southerners are discussed in sections on black life, ethnic life, and women's life. Throughout, the broad goal is to identify the forces that have supported either the reality or the illusion of the southern way of life--people, places, ideas, institutions, events, symbols, rituals, and values.The "Encyclopedia of Southern Culture" was developed by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. Contributors to the volume include historians, literary critics, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, linguists, theologians, folklorists, architects, ecologists, lawyers, university presidents, newspaper reporters, magazine writers, and novelists.

Howard Finster, Stranger from Another World: Man of Visions Now on This Earth


Howard Finster - 1989
    But in this collection of 150 of the artist's paintings, fans can make the pilgrimage to Finster's Paradise Garden in Pennville, Georgia. 120 illustrations in full color.

Spirit of Folk Art


Henry Glassie - 1989
    Here, folklorist Henry Glassie has selected 300 objects from the collection to illustrate a wide-ranging study of folk art.

Mystery Cats of the World: From Blue Tigers to Exmoor Beasts


Karl Shuker - 1989
    Jacket Has A Little Wear To The Edges And Some Minor Scratch Marks To The Rear.

In the Ever After: Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life


Allan B. Chinen - 1989
    Collected from around the world, these stories offer an engaging exploration into the problems of adulthood and aging.

Wombs and Alien Spirits: Women, Men, and the Zar Cult in Northern Sudan


Janice Boddy - 1989
    Based on nearly two years of ethnographic fieldwork in a Muslim village in northern Sudan, Wombs and Alien Spirits explores the zâr cult, the most widely practiced traditional healing cult in Africa.  Adherents of the cult are usually women with marital or fertility problems, who are possessed by spirits very different from their own proscribed roles as mothers.  Through the woman, the spirit makes demands upon her husband and family and makes provocative comments on village issues, such as the increasing influence of formal Islam or encroaching Western economic domination.  In accommodating the spirits, the women are able metaphorically to reformulate everyday discourse to portray consciousness of their own subordination.    Janice Boddy examines the moral universe of the village, discussing female circumcision, personhood, kinship, and bodily integrity, then describes the workings of the cult and the effect of possession on the lives of men as well as women.   She suggests that spirit possession is a feminist discourse, though a veiled and allegorical one, on women's objectification and subordination.  Additionally, the spirit world acts as a foil for village life in the context of rapid historical change and as such provides a focus for cultural resistance that is particularly, though not exclusively, relevant to women.

Jump on Over!: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit and His Family


Joel Chandler Harris - 1989
    Retold and illustrated with watercolour illustrations by Barry Moser.How Brer Rabbit frightened his neighbors -- Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear -- Why Brer Wolf didn't eat the little rabs -- Another story about the little rabs -- Brer Fox gets out-foxed -- Song: Home.

Tell Me Again How the White Heron Rises and Flies Across the Nacreous River at Twilight Towards the Distant Islands


Hayden Carruth - 1989
    a writer so well endowed with character, courage, stamina, honesty, and independence as to make whatever styles he has adopted or adapted peculiarly his own.' -R.W. Flint, Parnassus

The Goddess Hekate


Stephen Ronan - 1989
    

Scandinavian Folk Belief and Legend


Reimund Kvideland - 1989
    In this rural society, the people lived close to nature and believed themselves an integral part of it. This volume focuses on beliefs that illustrate the central aspects of a traditional worldview, rather than on prose narratives considered for their literary value.

A Dictionary of Superstitions


Iona Opie - 1989
    They embrace family life and the lore of farmers, sailors, miners, and actors; offer advice on the signs to observe when contemplating a journey or a marriage; reveal the significance of animals, plants, stones, colors, food and drink, the elements, and heavenly bodies; outline the precautions to be taken after a death in the house or during a thunderstorm; and disclose the motives behind seasonal customs at New Year, in May, at Halloween, and Christmas. Each entry is arranged alphabetically according to its central idea or object, and illustrated with a selection of chronologically ordered quotations that indicate the history and development of each belief. And a thematic index helps the reader discover surprisingly coherent patterns in these mysterious and often misunderstood methods of comprehending the world and overcomingits perils, and shows the strong underlying connections with witchcraft and pagan religions. Superstitions have never before been treated in such depth or on such a scale. An entertaining volume for anyone curious about the beliefs of the past, A Dictionary of Superstitions also makes a valuable contribution to the study of folklore, providing the first systematic account of beliefs that form an integral part of our social life.

The Hungry Girls and Other Stories


Patricia Eakins - 1989
    These stories are a modern bestiary which rework the stuff of mythologies, spanning the cultures of the planet, reclaiming for the Imagination its territories from Science. They are counterfables in which the usual fabulous project is reversed: animal characteristics are attributed to humans, and humans and animals are seen as codeterminants of the moral and cultural landscape.

A Gift from Saint Francis: The First Creche


Joanna Cole - 1989
    Discusses Francis' role in the making of the first cráeche.

"The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" and Other Songs Cowboys Sing


Guy Logsdon - 1989
    Whether 'round the campfire or in the barroom, cowboys love a lusty chorus of the kinds of songs their mothers never taught them. Guy Logsdon painstakingly sought out, listened to, and recorded the bawdy songs of America's real working cowboys. Honest and hilarious songs ranging from "Little Joe, the Wrangler" to "Boring for Oil" and "Old Man's Lament" reveal an affection for humor--sometimes crude, sometimes clever--as well as an affable warts-and-all view of human nature.

Tail Feathers from Mother Goose: The Opie Rhyme Book


Iona Opie - 1989
    The rhymes included here are almost all previously unpublished and they include unusual versions of known nursery rhymes, versions used by the Opies themselves or rhymes sent to them by people who wanted them saved and recorded.In this remarkable book, lighthearted verses are followed by magical, mystifying or romantic ones. The charming diversity of these rhymes is matched only by the inventiveness of the artists, who have illustrated them superbly. Here, then, is a book that families will read together, incorporate into their common experience, and, above all, cherish.

The Silver Bough


F. Marian McNeill - 1989
    The Silver Bough involved many years of research into both living and recorded folklore, and remains a classic of literature.

Russian Folk Belief


Linda J. Ivanits - 1989
    Each of the seven chapters in Part 1 focuses on one aspect of Russian folk belief, such as the pagan background, Christian personages, devils and various other logical categories of the topic. The author's thesis - that Russian folk belief represents a "double faith" whereby Slavic pagan beliefs are overlaid with popular Christianity - is persuasive and has analogies in other cultures. The folk narratives constituting Part 2 are translated and include a wide range of tales, from the briefly anecdotal to the more fully developed narrative, covering the various folk personages and motifs explored in Part 1.

Craftsman of the Cumberlands: Tradition & Creativity


Michael Owen Jones - 1989
    Concentrating on the work of one man, woodworker and chairmaker Chester Cornett, Jones not only describes the tools and techniques employed by Cornett but also his aspirations and values. Cornett possessed a deep knowledge of his materials and a mastery of construction methods. Some of his chairs represent not objects of utility but aesthetic developments of the chair form. Cornett sought to cope with the problems of his life, Jones maintains; their massiveness provided a sense of security, the virtuosity of their design and construction, a feeling of self-esteem. Jones also compares other area craftsmen and their views about their work.

Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis


Michel Meurger - 1989
    

Cajun Music: Its Origins and Development


Barry Jean Ancelet - 1989
    Concise and readable account of Cajun music's origins and development.

Magic of Patience


Dharma Publishing - 1989
    Through the diligent practice of patience, a wise and gentle buffalo evokes a change of heart in a mischievous teasing monkey awakening his natural goodness.

The Little Snowgirl


Carolyn Croll - 1989
    But is she real? "Croll's retelling of this beloved Russian tale is full of the simplicity and charm that make folk tales eternally appealing."--Publishers Weekly. Full color.

Seneca Myths and Folk Tales


Arthur Caswell Parker - 1989
    Parker at the beginning of Seneca Myths and Folk Tales. His blood ties to the Senecas and early familiarity with their culture led to a distinguished career as an archaeologist and to the publication in 1923 of this pioneeering work. Parker recreates the milieu in which the Seneca legends and folktales were told and discusses their basic themes and components before going on to relate more than seventy of them that he heard as a boy. Here is the magical Senecan world populated by unseen good and evil spirits, ghosts, and beings capable of transformation. Included are creation myths; folktales involving contests between mortal youths and assorted powers; tales of love and marriage; and stories about cannibals, talking animals, pygmies, giants, monsters, vampires, and witches.

The Secret Lore of the Cat


Fred Gettings - 1989
    

May the Devil Walk Behind Ye!: Scottish Traveller Tales


Duncan Williamson - 1989
    This book is a collection of twelve stories about the Scottish travelling people's beliefs about evil, temptation, and suffering.