Off the Shelf: FOLKTALES

The oldest Anglo-American monster of legend in the United States is The Jersey Devil. The story goes that when Mrs. Leeds became upset at the prospect of going through childbirth for the 13th time she screamed out, "Let this one be the devil!" And thus a child of the devil was born, with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, horns, a tail, and great bat-like wings, which the child immediately unfurled before flying out the window to begin its 250+ years reign of terror in Southern New Jersey. More of the Jersey Devil story can be found in Brian Regal's The secret history of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin created a monster

August 22 is World Folktale Day. Folk tales, or Folklore, are stories, songs, and dance that is rooted in oral tradition; old tales passed down through generations to become legends, myths, fairytales, and fables. For this post, I'm going to mostly focus on sources of American Folktales, and worldwide folktales can be a topic saved for another day.

In her book Roots, branches & spirits: the folkways & witchery of Appalachia H. Byron Ballard wrote "Oral traditions depend on several things. They must be shared. They must be heard. And they must be remembered."

Richard M. Dorson's American Folklore mentions that the first time the word "folklore" appears in a book title is Thomas Sternberg's 1851 book "The dialect and folk-lore of Northamptonshire". (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.39000005758862&view=1up&seq=28)

In 1888, the American Folklore Society was born. They can be found at https://www.afsnet.org/ There folklore is said to cover "a wide range of topics, including issues in the news, such as fake news, cryptozoology, legends, holidays, internet memes, traditional and world music, and the supernatural." In 1988, the AFS "commissioned William M. Clements of Arkansas State University to edit a volume of essays on the history of our field during the previous century." leading to the publication of 100 Years of American Folklore Studies: A Conceptual History Clements, William M.

Legends & lore of Illinois by Kleen, Michael focuses more on ghostlore, a topic I plan to explore in greater detail come October and includes Rockford College and Sterlings own "Weeping Woman",

Monsters of Illinois: mysterious creatures in the Prairie State by Troy Taylor begins with stories of BigFoot sightings in Illinois, which is may more prevalent than I had thought.

J.W. Ocker's Cursed objects: strange but true stories of the world's most infamous items will take you around the world and even into some people's attics in his exploration of the cursed objects of lore. He even includes museums that feature such objects, which is now a road trip bucket list for me.

Eric Sloane's weather almanac fascinates me, in ways that I did not expect from an Almanac. His illustrations alone delight me. The folklore here is climate lore and Sloanes attempts to suss out which colloquialisms are at least logical; which does not include Groundhog day as he had this to say on the subject: "I dislike repeating folklore that is stupid and without scientific reason." He does, however, include an illustration of the best days for fishing complied by the lore of old fisherman in regards to rising barometers and rising fish.

One book that I was all too eager to snatch up is The world of Lore. Dreadful places by Aaron Mahnke. Amazon Prime has two seasons of LORE (Amazon Picks Up ‘Lore’ Horror Podcast With EPs Gale Anne Hurd & Ben Silverman), which I binge-watched last year and adored every second of its disturbing macabre.

Other folklore books to check out include:

A treasury of American folklore: stories, ballads, and traditions of the people

Named by the Library of Congress in a 2012 exhibit as among the top "100 Books that Shaped America," this two-volume set contains 500 stories and 100 songs collected from the author's time as national folklore editor for the Federal Writer's Project (1938-39) as well as his work as archivist of folksongs at the Library of Congress. As Carl Sandburg writes in his foreword, "So here we have nothing less than an encyclopedia of the folklore of America. An encyclopedia is where you get up into box car numbers...besides giving you the company of nice, darnfool yarn spinners, it will give you something of the feel of American history, of the gloom chasers that moved many a good man who fought fire and flood, varmints and vermin, as region after region filled with settlers and homesteaders."

Weird U.S.: your travel guide to America's local legends and best kept secrets by Moran, Mark

Weird U.S.: the oddyssey continues: your travel guide to America's local legends and best kept secrets by Sceurman, Mark

A Treasury of Mississippi River folklore: stories, ballads, and folkways of the Mid-American river country

American Indian stories, legends, and other writings by Zitkala-S̈a

A groundbreaking collection of stories, essays, poems, and speeches by a Sioux writer, teacher, and activist includes legends and tales from oral tradition, childhood stories, and allegorical fiction.

In my exploration of our American folklore collection, I didn't even make it downstairs to the children's department where there are even more books to explore such as There's no ham in hamburgers: facts and folklore about our favorite foods by Kim Zachman

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