Celtic Folklore
Welsh and Manx

Published in 1901, this two-volume work sheds light on folklore fieldwork and its difficulties, providing English translations for each text.

John Rhys (Author)

9781108079099, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 June 2016

328 pages
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.42 kg

John Rhys (1840–1915), the son of a Welsh farmer, studied at Oxford and in Germany, and became the first professor of Celtic languages at Oxford in 1877. His research ranged across the fields of linguistics, history, archaeology, ethnology and religion, and his many publications were instrumental in establishing the field of Celtic studies. This two-volume work, published in 1901, had its beginnings in the late 1870s, when Rhys began collecting Welsh folk tales, several of which appear, with English translations, in Volume 1. Volume 2 analyses recurring Welsh themes, including submerged cities, water spirits and rivers; caves, heroes and treasure; place-names and Arthurian legends. It also considers, in a more global context, topics such as name magic, shape shifting, and the fairy as 'other'. Rhys discusses the difficulties of interpreting folkloric motifs and discovering their origins, and the blurred borders between story and history, myth and superstition.

7. Triumphs of the water-world
8. Welsh cave legends
9. Place-name stories
10. Difficulties of the folklorist
11. Folklore philosophy
12. Race in folklore and myth
Additions and corrections
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC]