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Category: Medieval Folklore

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Poetry Afield

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

When ethnographers collect poetry in the course of a fieldwork project, they are often looking for something in addition to a recitation of an entertaining poem. Poetry, like songs or stories, can tell us something about the culture in which it is found, the local ideas about what makes a good poem, information about languages …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Ring Around the Rosie: Metafolklore, Rhyme and Reason

Posted by: Stephen Winick

  A recent blog post at Londonist describes “Five London Nursery Rhymes Depicting Death and Ruin.” The rhymes in question have diverse origins and histories, but what seems incontrovertible from James FitzGerald’s work is that they describe dark and portentous matters from English history. Or do they? Looking closely at these rhymes, and at scholarship …