Key Features:
The only paperback dictionary to focus specifically on English Folklore
- Sold over 18,000 copies in previous editions
- 1,250 entries covering oral and performance genres, supernatural and superstitious beliefs, and calendar customs
- Find out why certain customs exist and the histories behind them
- The authors are highly respected in their field
- Entertaining and informative
- Bibliographical references to over 350 resources
Description:
Are there any legends about cats? Is Cinderella an English story? What is a Mumming Play? The subject of folklore covers an extremely wide field, with connections to virtually every aspect of life. It ranges from the bizarre to the seemingly mundane. Similarly, folklore is as much a feature of the modern technological age as the ancient world, of every part of the country, both urban and rural, and of every age group and occupation.
Containing 1,250 entries, from dragons to Mother Goose, May Day to Michaelmas, this reference work is an absorbing and entertaining guide to English folklore. Aimed at a broad general readership, the dictionary provides an authoritative reference source on such legendary characters as The Sandman, Jack the Giant Killer, and Robin Hood, and gives entertaining and informative explanations of a wide range of subjects in folklore, from nosebleeds and wishbones to cats and hot cross buns.
'From an exemplary, clear, and concise introduction to an admirably comprehensive, yet selective, bibliography, but above all from more than 1,250 A-Z entries in between, it is good to know that Oxford University Press can still commission and publish new standard reference titles. .. It becomes at once a new standard reference book in its field...' Library Review
The only paperback dictionary to focus specifically on English Folklore
- Sold over 18,000 copies in previous editions
- 1,250 entries covering oral and performance genres, supernatural and superstitious beliefs, and calendar customs
- Find out why certain customs exist and the histories behind them
- The authors are highly respected in their field
- Entertaining and informative
- Bibliographical references to over 350 resources
Description:
Are there any legends about cats? Is Cinderella an English story? What is a Mumming Play? The subject of folklore covers an extremely wide field, with connections to virtually every aspect of life. It ranges from the bizarre to the seemingly mundane. Similarly, folklore is as much a feature of the modern technological age as the ancient world, of every part of the country, both urban and rural, and of every age group and occupation.
Containing 1,250 entries, from dragons to Mother Goose, May Day to Michaelmas, this reference work is an absorbing and entertaining guide to English folklore. Aimed at a broad general readership, the dictionary provides an authoritative reference source on such legendary characters as The Sandman, Jack the Giant Killer, and Robin Hood, and gives entertaining and informative explanations of a wide range of subjects in folklore, from nosebleeds and wishbones to cats and hot cross buns.
'From an exemplary, clear, and concise introduction to an admirably comprehensive, yet selective, bibliography, but above all from more than 1,250 A-Z entries in between, it is good to know that Oxford University Press can still commission and publish new standard reference titles. .. It becomes at once a new standard reference book in its field...' Library Review