This is a study of very short songs: pieces long perceived as 'fragments' or remnants of longer narrative texts, and dismissed as the by-products of a degenerative oral tradition. Coverage includes English, Welsh, Breton, American, and Finnish songs. The authors argue that the inherently metaphorical and connotative idiom of traditional song makes external critical notions of 'completeness' inappropriate: in practice, such pieces are rarely felt to be broken or lacking by those who sing them - they have a strong metonymic force. A wide range of texts and traditions texts and traditions is...

Toelken's lively exploration of folksongs and their meanings looks closely at a number of folksong and ballad texts. He discusses riddle songs and other ambiguous folksongs, as well as the various ballad commonplaces, treating them not as a fund of mindless cliches but as a reservoir of suggestive reference. The author ranges through metaphors such as weaving, plowing, plucking flowers, and walking in the dew, showing in each case how it contributes to meaning in vernacular song. Included are comparisons to German folksongs, medieval poetry, Italian folk lyrics, and a wide range of...

The fascinating world of the Hopis is brought to light in this original and informative collection of thirty animal tales featuring Field Mouse, Coyote the Trickster, Cicada and his flute, Medicine Man Badger, the Chipmunk Girls and the Antelope Kids, and many other manifestations of serpents, insects, and birds. These ancient folk tales are traditionally told in midwinter, when the nights are long and cold and all the crops are in. Highly entertaining, the narratives reveal attitudes toward important aspects of Hopi culture, such as courtship and relations between the sexes, friendship,...