Folk-Lore/Volume 1/Notes and News (June)
NOTES AND NEWS.
In the forthcoming number of Folk-Lore will be included the continuation of Mr. Abercromby’s translations of the Magic Charms of the Finns; on the Holy Grail, by Dr. M. Gaster; two new English Fairy Tales, by Mr. E. Clodd; a Report by Mr. Braybrook on Recent Research in Anthropology in its relation to Folk-Lore; besides the contributions already announced.
Prof. M. Kovalefsky will give the Ilchester Lectures this term at Oxford, the subject being “Ancient Law and Modern Custom in Russia”. The first two lectures will deal with “The Matrimonial Customs of the Slavs”.
It is a remarkable sign of the increased interest in folklore that a newly-founded weekly journal of the Tit-Bits type, entitled Good Luck, devotes a special section, with prizes, etc., to Folk-lore; it would be desirable that the editor should consult some experts for this section, which might then be made to yield results valuable to the science.
Our President, Mr. Andrew Lang, is giving a series of three lectures on “The Natural History of Society”, at the Royal Institution.
Mr. E. Sidney Hartland’s book, on the “Folk and Fairy Tales of England”, has appeared in the Camelot Series, and is specially devoted to illustrating the thesis that England is more distinguished for folk-sagas than for fairy tales. It has been preceded in the same series by a similar book on Irish Tales, and will be followed by one on Scotch Fairy Tales.
Our local secretary in China, Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, who is at present in London, is preparing a work on Chinese Folk-lore.
The Handbook of Folk-lore is rapidly approaching completion, nearly half the work having been passed for press. The American Society is also preparing a similar set of Notes and Queries.
Preliminary arrangements have been entered into with regard to the proposed Congress of Folk-lore, to be held in London in the autumn of 1891.
Prof. T. C. Crane’s edition of the exempla of Jacques de Vitry will probably be issued to the members of the Folk-Lore Society during the coming quarter.
Readers of Folk-Lore are requested to aid towards the completeness of its bibliography by forwarding references or cuttings in English local newspapers and journals that are likely to escape notice, as well as books and pamphlets published in the provinces.
The Tabulation of Folk-tales has reached such a stage that some steps towards a classification are now possible. Miss Roalfe Cox is engaged in putting in order the Cinderella type already classified.
During the past quarter, meetings of the Society were held on March 23, when papers were read by Mr. W. F. Kirby, on The Folk-lore of Beetles, and Dr. M. Gaster, on The Sources of the Holy Grail; on April 27, when papers were read by Mr. G. L. Gomme, on a Tale of Campbell and its Foundation in Usage; by Mr. Alfred Nutt, on Recent Theories on the Nibelungenlied; and by Mr. J. Jacobs, on an Inedited English Folk-tale.
The American Folk-Lore Society has changed presidents at the beginning of this year, Prof. F. J. Child yielding the chair to Mr. D. F. Brinton, the indefatigable student of British ballads to the equally indefatigableereviewer of archaic American mythology.
Communications for the next number should reach the Office of Folk-Lore (270, Strand) before August 1st.