Folk Literature from Worldwide Traditions


Use the Advanced Search feature with the "Library Catalog" option in HOLLIS to try some of the following subject headings related to oral traditions relevant to this class:

  • Folk Literature
  • Ghost Stories
  • Legends
  • Mythology
  • Oral Tradition
  • Shapeshifting
  • Tales [Name of Country], e.g. Tales, Ireland

Click on the following example to view a search and its results (once you click on the link, feel free to modify the search to your liking by adding key terms and/or refining the search using the facets provided on the right-hand side of the screen):

Click on the linked and highlighted text below to see the search construction and its results in HOLLIS:
Subject contains tales AND Keywords anywhere contains shapeshifting OR therianthropy OR transformation OR transmogrification OR metamorphosis

As you wish, try adding the name of a shapeshifting being on an additional search line, for example: 
(bird* OR swan*) AND (brother* or children)

Note: *You may have better luck with this finer level of detail in a Tale-Type and Motif Index, or a research database suited to folklore studies, such as JSTOR, Project Muse, or the MLA International Bibliography.

If the addition of specific keywords fails to narrow results to your satisfaction, try the HOLLIS filters on the right side of the screen to refine them down to any of the following (you may need to clear your search filter between viewings to see clean results for each of the searches below):


For a quick introduction to tale-type and motif indexes (what they are and how they work), visit the Tale-Types and Motifs sub-page of this guide.


Worldwide Selection:

  • See the "Collections of Folktales" sub-page of this guide, which has a particularly strong selection from Europe, among other regions.
     
  • Black Short Fiction and Folklore: from Africa and the African Diaspora
    Aims to be an in-depth collection of African and African-Diaspora stories. When complete, it will feature the English-language literature of more than 15 countries, with additional units of French and Portuguese literature from the African continent.
     
  • To supplement the above, see the following (or search HOLLIS by region for items sharing similar subject heading terms with these):


Africa:

East Asia:


North and South America:

Subject contains tales* AND Subject contains Indians of North America AND Keywords anywhere contains shapeshifting OR transformation OR transmogrification OR metamorphosis


South Asia:


Southeast Asia:

 


For a quick introduction to tale-type and motif indexes (what they are and how they work), visit the Tale-Types and Motifs sub-page of this guide. The texts listed below can be found in print format in Harvard Library. Open the link to view the call number and location.


ATU, or, The Types of International Folktales: a Classification and Bibliography, Based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson (Hans-Jörg Uther and Folklore Fellows, 2004) [or see alternative HOLLIS record]
Allows researchers to identify the underlying structure of a tale and to cross-reference it with other tales from all around the world which share the same elements or themes. Each tale-type entry describes which themes and motifs comprise a specific tale-type. Motifs each have an identifying number, which can be cross-referenced with Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature. In this way, researchers can identify similar story plots, and even vastly different tales which share motifs. 

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; a Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends (Stith Thompson, 1932) [or see alternative HOLLIS record]
Used by folklorists to identify the elements or “building blocks” which make up a tale. The index assigns a number to each motif and lists tales in which it appears. This allows researchers to identify different tales which contain the same motif, as well as the range of functions of a certain motif in tales, and is useful for comparative analysis. The limits of the index are its geographical range; it is mainly restricted to Europe, though it does recognize a number of Eastern tales. Subsequently, various scholars have created cultural or regional specific indexes to supplement and expand Thompson’s work.

African Folktales with Foreign Analogues (compiled by May Augusta Klipple, 1992)
 


For a quick introduction to tale-type and motif indexes (what they are and how they work), visit the Tale-Types and Motifs sub-page of this guide.


ATU-AT-Motif guide 
Although incomplete, a great portion of the AT and ATU classification schemes can be found on this site curated by academic librarian Michael Muchow. He has linked many of them to tales stored on the Internet Archive website. Students in this course may be particularly interested to view the following sections:


Folk Tales Online
A helpful guide to finding folk tales online, created by academic librarian Michael Muchow. Students in this course may be particularly interested to view the following section:


Unpacking World Folk-literature: Thompson's Motif Index, ATU's Tale Type Index, Propp's Functions and Lévi-Strauss's Structural Analysis for Folk Tales Found Around the World 
This site is curated by Shawn Urban and hosted at the University of Alberta. It has some overlap with Muchow's resource, above, but includes some unique items. It links to the Multilingual Folk Tale Database (MFTD). Neither is exhaustive. Students in this course may be particularly interested to view the following sections:


Note: When you see an abbreviated reference to a collection where a published tale can be found that illustrates one of Thompson's motifs, look it up in the detailed Bibliography and Abbreviations section on p. 31 (#45) of Thompson's Motif Index of Folk-Literature as published in Indiana University Studies no. 96–97, via HathiTrust.


Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts
This site is provided by retired professor D.L. Ashliman and hosted at the University of Pittsburgh. Again, there is some overlap with the other sources listed above, but some entries are unique. It is not exhaustive. Students in this course may be particularly interested to view the following section:


Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; a Classification of Narrative Elements in Folk-Tales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-Books, and Local Legends (Stith Thompson, 1932)
Used by folklorists to identify the elements or “building blocks” which make up a tale. The index assigns a number to each motif and lists tales in which it appears. This allows researchers to identify different tales which contain the same motif, as well as the range of functions of a certain motif in tales, and is useful for comparative analysis. The limits of the index are its geographical range; it is mainly restricted to Europe, though it does recognize a number of Eastern tales. Subsequently, various scholars have created cultural or regional specific indexes to supplement and expand Thompson’s work.

Multilingual Folk Tale Database
Folk tales from all over this world are provided on this site, in their original language or in translation. To organize the stories and make it easier to find and compare them, the stories have been classified along the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification, which is the established standard for folk tales. Although the database contains over 10,000 stories and translations, it contains stories exemplifying only a limited portion of the ATU classes.

Folk Literature from Celtic Traditions


Ancient Irish Tales (by Tom Peete Cross and Clark Harris Slover, 1936)
Includes a selection of Irish tales compiled edited by Slover (a medievalist) and Cross (a Celticist and folklorist).

Celtic Folk Tales from Armorica: Collected in the Nineteenth Century (collected by François-Marie Luzel; translated by Derek Bryce, 1997)
Tales from the Armorica region of France, which includes Brittany.

Celtic Heritage: Ancient Tradition in Ireland and Wales (by Rees and Rees, 1978) 
This text may serve as a reference to original tales. “The chapters are well referenced to original literary sources and to selected modern works.” However, be prepared: “the chapter notes are inconveniently bunched together at the end of the book, and their elaborate contractions necessitate further consultation of a long list of abbreviations in which the bibliography is cast” (quoted from a review in volume 35 of the journal Antiquity, by T.G.E. Powell).

The Four Branches of the Mabinogi (edited and translated by Matthieu Boyd with the modernization assistance of Stacie Lents, 2017)
A modernized translation recommended for newcomers to the Mabinogion, this version of the tales was edited and translated by a recent graduate of Harvard's department of Celtic Languages and Literatures.

Francis James Child collection of ballads in Child Memorial Library (Widener Library)
Books and scores documenting British and Scottish ballads collected by Harvard's first professor of English, Francis James Child, as well as ballads he collected from North America, most prominently in New England. To select one or more ballads based on thematic story motifs, see the Motif Index of the Child Corpus. You may listen to recordings of some of these via Smithsonian Global Song.

Irish Texts Society (Series)
The Irish Texts Society issues annotated editions of texts in Irish with English translations and related commentaries. A selection of these include tales and myths of Ireland. Please sort through the short list of results to identify these, and click on the "Online" link to access them.

Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race (by T.W. Rolleston)
Thomas William Hazen Rolleston (1857-1920) was an Irish writer, literary figure and translator known for works that spanned a wide range of literary and political topics. He wrote Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race in 1911 in an attempt to revitalize what he felt was a waning appreciation for the heritage of all Celtic peoples. Perhaps the best representation and description of all the legends, myths and spiritual histories of Ireland, Britain and Wales, this collection includes the stories of Ultonian and Ossianic cycles, the voyage of Maeldum, and the myths and tales of the Cymry (Welsh). Rolleston also provides the fantastic narratives of Cuchulain, King Arthur, Deirdre, the Grail, and many more. This book is also available online via Project Gutenberg.

Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Orally Collected (compiled and translated by John Francis Campbell, new ed. published 1969)
Campbell was a dedicated Celtic studies scholars of the nineteenth century.

The Turn of the Ermine: An Anthology of Breton Literature (selected and translated by Jacqueline Gibson and Gwyn Griffiths, 2006)
A treasure chest of plays, folksongs, folktales, ballads, lives of saints, travel writing, stories, and poems that illuminate Breton culture and society over two millennia.


For a quick introduction to Tale-Type and Motif Indexes (what they are and how they work), visit the Tale-Types and Motifs page of this guide. And, for online, albeit incomplete, alternatives to the resources listed below, click on the "Tale Type & Motif Indexes (online)" tab of the "Folk Literature from Worldwide Traditions" section, above (nota bene: those are not exclusively Celtic). 


Motif Index of the Child Corpus: The English and Scottish Popular Ballad (by Natascha Würzbach & Salz; translated by Gayna Walls, 1995)
Indexes themes found in the ballads collected by Francis James Child.

Motif Index of Early Irish Literature (by Tom Peete Cross, 1952)
Designed as a supplement to Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, this publication follows Professor Thompson's method of classification and enumeration, marking with an asterisk numbers not occurring in Thompson's work.


For a quick introduction to Tale-Type and Motif Indexes (what they are and how they work), visit the Tale-Types and Motifs page of this guide. And, for online, albeit incomplete, alternatives to the resources listed below, click on the "Tale Type & Motif Indexes (online)" tab of the "Folk Literature from Worldwide Traditions" section, above (nota bene: those are not exclusively Celtic). 

Index of International Folktales
This searchable resource is hosted online by the School's Collection of the National Folklore Collection in Ireland, which includes stories (e.g., folktales, legends, riddles, proverbs, games) collected by Irish school children from 1937–1939. The online index is based on Aarne and Thompson's The Types of the Folktale (1961) with supplementation from Súilleabháin and Christiansen's The Types of the Irish Folktale (1967). Precedence is given to Irish variants throughout the index.


Harvard Libraries hold collections of Celtic manuscripts, including Irish-language manuscripts housed at Houghton, a large portion of which contain Irish poetry, some of which is Ossianic. The materials also include prose tales, genealogies, proverbs, a play, grammars, personal documents, and catalog lists.

Finding Manuscripts in HOLLIS


Strategy 1: Call numbers

In the Advanced Search form within HOLLIS, use the "Code: Local call number" Search Filter (via the drop-down option) to search for MSXX*, where "XX"  stands in for HOLLIS’s abbreviation for the desired language. For example:

MSIR* is the call number for Irish language manuscripts.

MSWEL* is for Welsh language manuscripts.

MSBRE* is for Breton language manuscripts.


Strategy 2: Resource Type limits

In the Advanced Search form within HOLLIS, type in a keyword (e.g., Scottish) and then chose the Resource Type "Archives/Manuscripts" (via the drop-down option). Run the search. 


Strategy 3: Language option(s) and keywords

This approach will retrieve a variety of material types, but it also captures some manuscripts, and you may use the Resource Type limit listed in Strategy 2 to filter the results after the fact. (This is the most arbitrary of the strategies, since many manuscripts do not include language codes in their cataloging.)

Here's how to do it: In the Advanced Search form within HOLLIS, use the "Code: MARC language" Search Filter (via the drop-down option) to select your preferred language (e.g., Scottish Gaelic) or select it from the Language drop-down menu on the right.

  • You may combine this approach with either Strategy 1 or 2 above, or enter the following keyword phrase, which may surface manuscripts that were not systematically described as such in the system: hand OR hands OR manuscript*.