Folk Lore

Napier, James, 1810-1884Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.6

Word count: 315K words
Chapters: 32

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Folk Lore by James NapierAuthor: Napier, James, 1810-1884,Language: English, Class: GR: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Folklore, Release Date: May 7, 2005

Editor's review

Folk Lore is a compilation of folklore material assembled by the Scottish scholar James Napier in the nineteenth century, a typical specimen of early folklore writing. Its value lies not in proposing a systematic theoretical framework but in preserving a wealth of records concerning folk beliefs, seasonal customs, omens and taboos, witchcraft, and local legends, offering first-hand material for understanding the mental world of early modern European rural life. Much of the material derives from field collection and retellings of local documents; the prose carries the record-keeping tone characteristic of Victorian scholars, and the entries are not always连贯—better consulted as a sourcebook than read through. For today's readers, its highlight is the concrete,琐碎而鲜活 detail: how a given omen was interpreted, why a particular festival required a specific ritual. In terms of reading contexts, it suits as supplementary material for courses in folklore, anthropology, and social history, and also suits writers seeking local color and folk imagination. Note that its narrative stance is that of a nineteenth-century man of letters, at times judgmental toward folk beliefs; readers should maintain a critical distance.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of folklore and anthropology needing early field records for reference
Readers studying the social and belief history of European rural life
Novelists or screenwriters seeking detail on folk customs and legends
General readers curious about English local folklore, suitable for casual browsing

Not a good fit for

Beginners seeking a systematic theoretical framework of folklore
Readers who prefer coherent narrative and plot-driven reading
Researchers expecting modern scholarly annotation and critical introduction

Reading tips

Need not read straight through; begin by browsing the contents and pick entries related to seasonal customs and omens.
Keep a notebook and categorize excerpts by theme (belief, taboo, ritual, legend) for later reference.
Note the author's judgmental tone and treat it as evidence of nineteenth-century intellectual stance rather than settled fact.
Can be read alongside folklore accounts from other regions to observe variants of similar motifs across locales.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a systematic treatise on folklore?

No. It is closer to a compilation of materials, consisting of numerous short entries on folk beliefs, customs, omens and legends, lacking a unified theoretical construction. Readers should use it as a source collection rather than as a textbook or introduction.

How difficult is the original English?

The materials are written in nineteenth-century English, with rather long sentence structures, and some dialect words and local terms require checking. Readers with university-level English can make progress, but are advised to slow down and use dictionaries and notes for local vocabulary.

Are the folklore records in the book reliable?

As nineteenth-century collected records, they have historical value, but the collection methods and chains of retelling were not necessarily rigorous, some entries have unclear sources, and the author carries the biases of his era. They should be cross-checked with other documents rather than cited directly as factual conclusions.

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About the author

Napier, James, 1810-1884 Author · British · 1810–1884

James Napier (1810–1884) was a Scottish chemist and folklorist. Only one work by him is known to survive, Folk Lore, a collection drawing on the oral traditions of the western Scottish Highlands and islands, including local tales, customs and beliefs. His dual background in the natural sciences and in popular culture gave his recording of local lore the care and caution of a close observer, and the book stands as a product of nineteenth-century folklore collecting and editing. Public information about his life is limited: little is known of his education, career or scholarly contacts, and his main contribution remains the collection and preservation of the material in this work. For readers today it serves as a useful source for the folk culture of western Scotland and for the early methods of folklore writing.