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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Folklore as an Historical Science

Folklore as an Historical Science

Gomme, George Laurence

Paperback

Mythology & FolkloreGeneral Racism & Ethnic StudiesGeneral World History

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ISBN13: 9798182716581
Publisher: Kellieann
Pages: 312
Weight: 0.92
Height: 0.65 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English

F olklore as an Historical Science by George Laurence Gomme is a scientific publication written in the early 20th century. The work examines the intricate relationship between history and folklore, arguing that folklore can provide significant historical insight into the psychological, social, and cultural evolution of humanity. Through various examples and analyses, the author plans to reveal how folklore serves as a valuable resource for understanding historical events and societal structures. The opening of the text lays the groundwork for the exploration of folklore as a legitimate historical source, addressing the prevailing skepticism surrounding its value among historians. Gomme highlights the gaps within traditional historical narratives and emphasizes that folklore can fill these voids by preserving details about everyday life, community customs, and significant events that formal history often overlooks. He suggests that by integrating folklore into historical studies, researchers can gain a more comprehensive understanding of past societies, illustrating this with the rich tradition surrounding the Pedlar of Swaffham as a case study. This serves as a prime example of how local legends encapsulate broader historical truths, bridging the divide between folklore and recorded history.I t may be stated as a general rule that history and folklore are not considered as complementary studies. Historians deny the validity of folklore as evidence of history, and folklorists ignore the essence of history which exists in folklore. Of late years it is true that Dr. Frazer, Prof. Ridgeway, Mr. Warde Fowler, Miss Harrison, Mr. Lang, and others have broken through this antagonism and shown that the two studies stand together; but this is only in certain special directions, and no movement is apparent that the brilliant results of special inquiries are to bring about a general consideration of the mutual help which the two studies afford, if in their respective spheres the evidence is treated with caution and knowledge, and if the evidence from each is brought to bear upon the necessities of each. The necessities of history are obvious. There are considerable gaps in historical knowledge, and the further back we desire to penetrate the scantier must be the material at the historian's disposal. In any case there can be only two considerable sources of historical knowledge, namely, foreign and native. Looking at the subject from the points presented by the early history of

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