William Motherwell (1797-1835), journalist, poet, man-of-letters, wit, civil servant, and outspoken conservative, published his anthology of ballads, Minstrelsy: Ancient and Modern, in 1827.
The people of the Kentucky mountains and the southern Appalachians preserved a language alive with colorful turns of phrase and whimsical wit and for their amusement they created a rich vein of oral loresongs, tales, and games.
Along the isolated headwaters of the Kentucky RiverCutshin and Greasy creeksfolklorist Leonard Roberts found the Couches, a remarkable mountain family of gifted memory and imagination.
Although folklore has been collected for centuries, its possible unconscious content and significance have been explored only since the advent of psychoanalytic theory.
Greek vases and Peruvian bottles, Chinese bronzes and African masks, Tel Brak idols and Egyptian tomb paintingsartifacts ancient and modern reveal man's universal fascination with the eye and his awe before its mysterious powers.
Exploring Anthropology through Folklore and Mythology is a comprehensive textbook which examines how people around the world express themselves culturally, and how these practices provide a window into the diversity of human culture.
The oral tradition of Kentucky is one of the most rich and interesting in the nation and has attracted a number of outstanding men and womenscholars and writers, teachers and singerswho have devoted their energies to Kentucky's folk and their ways.
In the early years of this century, miners from nearly every country in Europe and Asia Minor migrated to West Virginia to seek employment in its great collieries.
South from Hell-fer-Sartin, a short creek flowing into the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, lies one of the of the most isolated regions in Kentucky.
The first book of its kind, Putting Folklore to Use provides guidance to folklorists but also informs practitioners in other fields about how to use folklore studies to augment their own studies.
Raising the Devil reveals how the Christian Pentecostal movement, right-wing conspiracy theories, and an opportunistic media turned grassroots folk traditions into the Satanism scare of the 1980s.
A grimoire of green magic, The Folklore of Plants explores the traditional beliefs and magical associations tied to flowers, herbs, and trees across many centuries and cultures.
Karagiozisa form of comic folk drama employing stock puppet figureswas immensely popular in Greece until recent years, when newer forms of entertainment have virtually eclipsed it.
England's Fairyland: Most books about the fairy lore of Britain tend to focus on the Celtic parts of the country, but The Crew that Never Rests is mainly about the local legends and tales of the fairies as recorded in the counties of England.
Exploring the ancient and widespread veneration of the snake in religion, myth, and ritual, Ophiolatreia reveals how serpent worship has shaped spiritual life across centuries and cultures.
England's Fairyland: Most books about the fairy lore of Britain tend to focus on the Celtic parts of the country, but The Crew that Never Rests is mainly about the local legends and tales of the fairies as recorded in the counties of England.
From frontier times to the present day, Kentucky nurses have served with intelligence and energy, always ensuring that their patients received the best available care.
Enter a world of ancient symbols and hidden power with William Thomas and Kate Pavitt's book of talismans, exploring sacred objects, planetary influences, and zodiacal correspondences.
Tennessee History Book Award Finalist The Upper Cumberland region of Kentucky and Tennessee, often regarded as isolated and out of pace with the rest of the country, has a far richer history and culture than has been documented.
The Concubine, Elechi Amadi's most celebrated work of fiction, paints a picture of pre-colonial life in rural Eastern Nigeria and explores the boundary between myth and reality.
For more than fifty years mountain-born Earl Palmer traveled the Southern Appalachians with his camera, recording his personal vision of the mountain people and their heritage.
While vampire stories have been part of popular culture since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it has been in recent decades that they have become a central part of American culture.
Since Robert Flaherty's landmark film Nanook of the North (1922) arguments have raged over whether or not film records of people and traditions can ever be "authentic.
According to the scant historical records available, Uncle Bud Long, his daughter Janey, and her son Frankie lived near Clark's Landing, Kentucky, for about twenty years early in this century.
Soar the skies with fire-breathing beasts, explore the mythological lands of Ancient Greece, and brandish your sword with Saint George in this illustrated collection of dragon tales from around the world.
This collection of more than one hundred tribal tales, culled from the oral tradition of the Indians of Washington and Oregon, presents the Indians' own stories, told for generations around their fires, of the mountains, lakes, and rivers, and of the creation of the world and the heavens above.
