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Recent Posts
- What’s New for the 15th of February: Some Seanan McGuire fantasy, Alison Bechdel’s latest, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin; Nordic sounds, old time, Americana and Tex-Mex music
- What’s New for the 1st of February: Kage Baker retrospective; new Americana, Buddhist chants and Finnish songs, new and reissued jazz, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Fireplaces in Kinrowan Hall
- 132030
- What’s New for the 18th of January: World music and fiction by Amal El-Mohtar
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Bridges and Paths plus a Troll
- What’s New for the 4th of January: Favorite books and music of 2025
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Mythologist John Campbell
- What’s New for 21st of December
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Pub Ghoulies
- What’s New for 7 of December: books by Alan Garner, and holiday music new and old, Celtic, Americana, jazz and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Several Annies, Part Two
- What’s New for 23 November
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Several Annies
- What’s New for the 9th of November: rhymers and ravens, folk songs and folk tales, jazz guitar and dark forests and constellations put to music, Hungarian tunes and knights and rakes and tinkers and fools, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Kedgeree
- Whats New for the 26th of October: some Patricia McKillip books and an interview, ’70s jazz reissues, Nordic Americana and American Americana, and some Samhain seasonal albums
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Charles and Alice Pay a Visit (A Letter to Owyn)
- What’s New for the 12th of October
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Pudding Contest
- What’s New for the 28th of September: Appalachia in books, music and more
- A Kinrown Estate story: Autumn is Upon Us
- What’s New for the 14th of September: Books, film and music with a piratical theme; plus Corsican polyphony, Balkan sevdah, Americana music, Hardanger fiddle with reindeer, Latin jazz and piano trios
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Irish Coffee
- New SF from James S. A. Corey; Terry Gillian’s Excalibur; Rolling Stones do Aaron Copland’s ‘A Fanfare for The Common Man’; An offbeat history of coffee; an interview with Russian folk singer Zhenya Wind; and a grab bag of folk music
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Waltzing Matilda
- What’s New for the 17th of August: Lots of Cropredy reports and reviews, and some new jazz and Americana;
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Hidden Dragon
- What’s New for the 3rd of August: A mix of Heinlein reviews; new jazz out of Vermont and a grab bag of archival reviews; Italian American food writing, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Recursive Loops
Tag Archives: folklore
World folk tales and fables: an omnibus review
Victor Montejo’s The Bird Who Cleans the World and Other Mayan Fables (Curbstone Press, 1991) Anita Brenner’s The Boy Who Could Do Anything and Other Mexican Folk Tales (Linnet Books, 1992) George F. Schultz’s Vietnamese Legends (Charles E. Tuttle Company, … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged fairy tales, folk tales, folklore
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The Brothers Grimm and T.A. Dockray’s Grimm’s Grimmest; introduction by Maria Tatar
So you want read a nice, pleasant story with a happy ending to your daughter as she drifts off to sleep? Let’s see what offered up in Grimm’s Grimmest… Hmmm… There’s the story of the woman who decapitates her stepson, … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Graphic Literature
Tagged fairy tales, folklore, the brothers grimm
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John Matthews’ The Summer Solstice: Celebrating the Journey of the Sun from May Day to Harvest
Celebrating seasonal rituals today is often like picking from a smorgasbord of hearty, simple dishes from diverse locales: deliberately rustic and mismatched, taken slightly out of context, but satisfying in a self conscious way. Solar rituals seem to be central … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged folklore, Summer SOlstice
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Book Review: Four titles by folklorist Dr. Jeana Jorgensen
Dr. Jeana Jorgensen has been writing about folklore, fairy tales, and sex for ten years. Often these topics intersect in her work. Recently she has assembled that decade’s worth of academic papers and blog posts about this material and released … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged fairy tales, folklore, gender and sexuality issues, sex education
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Daithi Ó hÓgáin’s The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopedia of Myth, Legend and Romance
“The Lore of Ireland” is a magical phrase, calling up images of heroic deeds and fey enchantments, bloody treachery and shining honor, great warriors, cold queens of the Sidhe, leprechauns, cattle raids, enchanted groves, bards, prophecies — it’s sobering to … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged 1916 Irish Uprising, folklore
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Stephen Knight’s Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography
Robin Hood’s a myth, a fiction invented by countless storytellers down the centuries. Sure. Now go ahead explain why, according to the press release that came with this book, he is the only person of a fictitious nature in the … Continue reading
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Tagged folklore, myth, Robin Hood, scholarly studies
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J.C. Holt’s Robin Hood, and Stephen Knight’s Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw
Take no scorn to wear the horn It was the crest when you were born Your father’s father wore it And your father wore it to Robin Hood and Little John Have both gone to the fair o and we … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged folklore, myth, Robin Hood, scholarly studies
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John Matthews’ (with Caitlin Matthews) The Winter Solstice: The Sacred Traditions of Christmas
Ye of weak or uncertain faith, enter not herein. For herein lies the dispelling of many myths and legends, or at least the ancient origins of the traditions we now associate with the winter holiday season. John Matthews has set … Continue reading
Tagged folklore, myth, Winter Holidays, Winter Solstice
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Shatoiya de la Tour’s Earth Mother Herbal
Nellie Levine wrote this review. I’m not really an “earth mother” and my thumb is hardly green, but I do love using herbs both medicinally and in cooking, and I do love watching things grow. I see a sweet, special … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged folklore, food and drink
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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s The Age of Homespun
Subtitled “Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth,” The Age of Homespun is a collection of meticulously detailed historical yarns spun around a number of household artifacts created and initially used in New England during the late … Continue reading