Sir Laurence Gomme in his interesting little book Ethnology in Folklore (1892), says, “The most important fact to note in the examination of each fragment of folklore is the point of arrested development” (p. 11). He finds that the stages of development at which the several items of folklore have been arrested are not at the same level; and they could not therefore have been produced by one arresting power. He goes on to point out that the conflict between Paganism and Christianity would account for one line of arrestment, but there is an earlier one which must be identified with “the arrival of the Aryan race into a country occupied by non-Aryans” (p. 14). The object of his book is to point out contrasted beliefs and practices in our own islands which lend support to the view that they belong to these two ethnic strata.
Sir Laurence was a pioneer in this method of research and blazed the trail for his successors,—doubtless further investigations will in time enable a finer analysis to be made, and certain folklore items may yet be allocated to some at least of the various cultural drifts which at different times reached our islands. The history of ancient England cannot be written without the aid of folklore, and even the historian of later dates requires the assistance of folklorists.
Very few historians recognise the sources of information that are available to them, even now they are too much obsessed by written documents. In 1908 Sir Laurence Gomme published an extremely valuable book entitled Folklore as an Historical Science, in which he further developed and added to the principles he laid down in his earlier book. He says, “Every nation has the right to go back as far in its history as it is possible to reach. It can only do this by the help of comparative folklore. In our own country we have seen how history breaks down, and yet historical records in Britain are perhaps the richest in Europe. The traditional materials known to us as folklore are the only means left to us, and we can only
