Steve Roud

To know Steve Roud is to -- be amazed.

In other words, let it be said that I have a slight personal bias. But I don't know Jacqueline Simpson, and my personal contacts with Steve Roud are slight; we live on different continents and almost certainly will never meet. I know him primarily through his Folk Song Index, one of the great works of ballad scholarship.

That same scholarship is evident here. This is a very thorough book, and gives more detail than any comparable modern volume. It lists show more key sources, and also provides clear cross-references.

It should be noted that the title is correct; it is a dictionary of English folklore. Not British, and certainly not world folklore. You won't find Scots or Irish or Welsh material here, let alone material from the rest of Europe. The scope is quite restricted. But, within that scope, the level of detail is substantial. It will probably be many, many years before something arises to replace Simpson & Roud. show less

For me the best reference books are those which not only provide a entry matching your initial query but which also encourage you to browse and read other not always related entries. This Dictionary does it for me on both counts: authoritiveness and readability. Folklore here is rightly interpreted as including aspects of modern popular culture as well as topics beloved of antiquarians.

Authored by two stalwarts of the Folklore Society--who should then know what they are talking about--the show more Dictionary contains over 1250 entries covering a wide range of topics including seasonal customs, traditional tales, superstitions and beliefs. Key figures involved in the recording of lore are noted here, and evidence presented that folklore is part of a continually evolving process. What makes this book particularly worthwhile is that not all so-called traditional lore is accorded uncritical acceptance.

For those wanting more there are relevant references and a bibliography, and in common with many in this Oxford reference series, pretty pictures are excluded in favour of more text. show less

I must admit that I only read this weighty tome because it was a Christmas present - I used to listen to quite a lot of vaguely traditional music when I was younger but don't so much now. I am also a little wary of the academic approach to what is essentially organic subject matter.

For all those reservations, I am glad I gave it a chance - Roud's knowledge and research is extensive and although the scope of the book ends before the 50s revivalists, his argument, that the tradition has always show more been inclusive and that the distinctions made by earlier collectors between true traditional songs and old popular songs is so blurred as to be almost meaningless, is convincing.

The book takes several approaches to discussing the tradition in turn. The first part focuses on song collectors and their legacies, the second attempts to describe what is known about the music in each century back to the 16th, and the final part is arranged different categories of song (for example types of work). show less

Whilst not encyclopaedic, this is certainly fairly exhaustative. It covers all sorts of traditions and rituals in England, mani not but also Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It has an interesting anecdotal entry and there are some details about when and how these beliefs began and where in the uk they originated. Fascinating for those that are interested but there's enough here to fascinate the general reader too.