As you are probably aware, I’ve always been interested in myths and legends, as well as folklore more generally. This year, I’ve been trying my best to read up on folklore as a field and well… it’s time for me to start talking about it on the blog.

But first, what is folklore?

The online definition that I found (and which I hear at the beginning of every Folklore podcast episode) is that folklore comprises of the beliefs, customs, and traditions passed down in a community. In Folklore: The Basics, Simon J Broner says that folklore is “traditional knowledge put into, and drawing from, practice.” In other words, folklore is more than myths and legends and folklorists do more than just write down stories.

In fact, there’s a methodology for studying folklore. I thought Broner’s steps were interesting so I wanted to share them with you:

1. Formulate your problem statement (i.e. find the piece of folklore you want to study)
2. Identify the folklore by describing it and annotating it (annotation positions the practice in time and place and relates it to, even categorises it with, similar forms or actions.)
3. Analyse the folklore by looking at the data for pattern. In other words “expose underlying structures or extract symbols for closer examination, present contextual descriptions of an item’s use, use cross-cultural examples to draw comparisons and contrasts, find significance in etymologies and signs, or construct a developmental chronology of an item or culture”
4. Explanation: find the why, resolve the paradox, and/or uncover hidden motivations

And that’s how you’ll learn more about people and culture.

But whose folklore do I want to read up on?

Unfortunately, I can develop an interest in almost anything, so it’s a bit hard to narrow down to one area of folklore. So for the next few days, I’ll be sharing reviews of books from various aspects of folklore, from online legends to collections of folktales and even a novel based on folklore. The whole series will end with two posts on Singapore ‘child lore’ (aka folklore from schools/school aged rhyme), so I hope you enjoy the posts coming up!