The “Innocent and Touching Custom” of maidens' garlands: A field report

Aspects of garlanding as a popular custom have received little attention in folkloristic scholarship. Funeral garlanding, particularly the creation of flower-decked shrines to commemorate victims of accidents, as in the case of Diana, Pricess of Wales, has also been explored. This paper deals with another manifestation of mortuary garlanding—the custom of making maidens' garlands for deceased young female virgins. The history, distribution, construction and meaning of these funeral mementoes are dealt with, and detailed fieldwork on maidens' garlands conducted at five churches in Shropshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire from 1990 to 2002, including photographic documentation, is reported in detail.     

“Swarming the Church”

Vision Narratives of Women in Prison. By Carol Burke. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1993. 192pp. Notes. Appendices. Glossary. Bibliography. ISBN 0 87049 727 8. $26.95. Reviewed by Gillian Bennett.

Navajo Folk Tales. By Franc Johnson Newcomb. 2nd edn. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990. 203pp. ISBN 0 8263 1231 4. Reviewed by Donald Tayler.

Sons of Scotia, Raise Your Voice: Early 19th Century Broadsides from a Collection in Edinburgh University Library. Selected and edited by Peter B. Freshwater. Edinburgh: Friends of Edinburgh University Library, 1991. 142pp. ISBN 0 905152 04 2. Reviewed by Steve Roud.

My Life with Punch. By Joe Beeby. Compiled and edited by G. Felix. London: G. Felix, 1993. 65pp. Illus. Obtainable from G. Felix, 111 Raglan Court, Empire Way, Wembley Park, Middlesex HA9 0RG. £6.49 inclusive of postage and packing. ISBN 0 9521371 0 0. Reviewed by Roy Judge.

Das Huhn mit dem Gipsbein: Neueste sagnhafte Geschichten von Heute. By Rolf Wilhelm Brednich. Beck'sche Reihe 1001. Munchen: Beck, 1993. 186pp. DM9.80. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

The Evil Eye: A Casebook. Edited by Alan Dundes. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992. 318pp. ISBN 0 299 13334 6. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

Tarot the Complete Guide. By Cynthia Giles. London: Robert Hale, 1992. 234pp. Illus. £10.99. ISBN 0 7090 5095 X. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

Chronicles of King Arthur. By Andrea Hopkins. London: Collins and Brown, 1993. £19.99. ISBN 1 85585 172 5. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

From Ritual to Romance. By Jessie L. Weston. MYTHOS: The Princeton/Bollingen Series in World Mythology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993. ISBN 0 691 02107 4. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

Indexes Motifs Narratifs dans les Romans Arthurian Français en Vers (XIIe-XIIIe Siècles). By Anita Guerreau-Jalabert. Publications Romanes et Françaises, no. 202. Genève: Librairie Droz S.A., 1992. 501pp. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

Culhwch and Olwen: An Edition and Study of the Oldest Arthurian Tale. Edited by Rachel Bromwich and D. Simon Evans. University of Wales Press, 1992. ISBN 0 7083 1127 X. £25.00. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

Aspects of British Calendar Customs. Edited by Theresa Buckland and Juliette Wood. The Folklore Society Mistletoe Series, no. 22. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993. 108pp. Illus. ISBN 1 85075 243 5. £11.95. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

Boundaries and Thresholds: Papers from a Colloquium of the Katharine Briggs Club. Edited by Hilda Ellis Davidson. Stroud, Glos.: The Thimble Press, 1993. 104pp. £12.00. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. By Lawrence Shick. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991. 448pp. ISBN 0 87975 693 5. £10.95. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

Gothick Guides, Aylesbury, Bucks: Shire Publications Ltd, 1989, 1992. Gothick Cornwall. By Jennifer Westwood. 70pp. £3.95. Gothick Norfolk. By Jennifer Westwood. 48pp. £2.50. Gothick Hertfordshire. By Jennifer Westwood. 52pp. £3.95. Gothick Northamptonshire. By Jack Gould. 64pp. £3.95. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

Contemporary Legend: A Folklore Bibliography. Gillian Bennett and Paul Smith. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1993. 340pp. ISBN 0 8240 6103 9. Reviewed by Jacqueline Simpson.

Telling Reality: Folklore Studies in Memory of Bengt Holbek. Edited by Michael Chesnutt. Copenhagen Folklore Studies 1/NIF Publications, no. 26. Copenhagen and Turku, 1993. 294 pp. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

Proverbs are Never out of Season: Popular Wisdom in the Modern Age. By Wolfgang Meider. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. xviii + 284pp. Bibliography. Index. Illus. £25.00 hb. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

Vampire: The Encyclopedia. By Matthew Bunson. London: Thames and Hudson, 1993. 303pp. Index. Bibliography. Appendices. £9.95. ISBN 0 500 27748 6. Reviewed by Juliette Wood.

African Folktales in the New World. Edited by William Bascom. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.243pp. £28.50 hb, £12.99 p b (distributed in UK and Eire by the Open University Press). Reviewed by Teri Brewer.

The Red Swan: Myths and Tales of the American Indians. Edited by John Bierhorst. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. 386pp. Reviewed by Teri Brewer.

American Indian's Kitchen Table Stories. By Keith Cunningham. Little Rock, Arkansas: August House, 1992. 240pp. $25.95 US hb, $14.95 US pb. Reviewed by Teri Brewer.

Public Folklore. Edited by R. Baron and N. Spitzer. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992. £34.95 hb, £14.95 pb. Reviewed by Teri Brewer.

Der Rattenhund: Sagen der Gegenwart. By Helmut Fischer. Beitrage zur rheinischen Volkskunde, no. 6. Cologne: Rheinland-Verlag, 1991. 184pp. Notes. Bibliography. List of key terms. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

Old Oraibi: A Study of the Hopi Indians of Third Mesa. By Mischa Titiev. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. 277pp. Reviewed by Teri Brewer.

Ácoma: Pueblo in the Sky. By Ward Alan Minge. 2nd edn. Published for Pueblo of Ácoma by University of New Mexico Press, 1991. 245pp. Reviewed by Teri Brewer.

The Ballad and Oral Literature. Edited by Joseph Harris. Harvard English Studies, no. 17. Cambridge (Mass.) and London: Harvard University Press, 1991. viii+317 pp. £25.95 hb, £11.95 pb. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

Contemporary Irish Traditional Narrative: The English Language Tradition. By Clodagh Brennan Harvey. University of California Publications: Folklore and Mythology Studies, no. 35. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. viii+130 pp. Map. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. Reviewed by W.F.H. Nicolaisen.

The Folklore of American Holidays: A Compilation of More Than 500 Beliefs, Legends, Superstitions, Proverbs, Riddles, Poems, Songs, Dances, Games, Plays, Pageants, Fairs, Foods, and Processions Associated with Over 120 American Calendar Customs and Festivals. 2nd edn. Edited by Henning Cohen and Tristam Potter Coffin. Detroit and London: Gale Research Inc., 1991. $85.00. ISBN 0 8103 7602 4. Reviewed by Philip Hiscock.

The Tsymbaly Maker and His Craft The Ukrainian Hammered Dulcimer in Alberta. By Mark Jaroslav Bandera. Canadian Series in Ukrainian Ethnology, no. 1. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1991. 62pp. 23 figs. 4 b/w photographs. Reviewed by George Monger.     

Theocracy,Eschatology, and the Ephemeral Church: Graham Ward and the “Crisis of Democracy”

This article offers a critical assessment of Graham Ward’s political theology and critique of modern democracy. Ward argues that modern democracy expresses a nihilistic metaphysics and lacks an adequate account of the embodiment of sovereignty within the social, with the result that it tacitly harbors totalitarianism. As an alternative, Ward advances a theocratic model of the social, with the aim of providing an account of the social embodiment of sovereignty lacking in democracy. The article argues that Ward is ultimately unsuccessful in this attempt. His eschatological focus separates the church from the world, undermining his account of the embodiment of sovereignty and reinforcing the very emptiness at the heart of the social his theology is intended to counter.     

The politics of the ‘Church’ in the Italy of Pope Wojtyła

Abstract

This article analyzes the development of different political tendencies with the Italian Church during the pontificate of John Paul II. Two different strategies enabled the episcopal conference to maintain stability for a long period, in which time Cardinal Ruini played a key role, first as secretary and then president of the bishops. In his years the conference of bishops accepted that the political unity of the Catholic world was over, but it still tried to retain a strong political influence even though the mediation of the Christian Democratic Party was no longer available. With the end of Wojty?a's pontificate, however, this period came to a close and the different tendencies that make up the rich and complex world of the Italian Catholic Church have become more visible.     

“The artifice of eternity”: The Wanderings of Oisin and the Byzantium poems

Yeats’s poetry and drama centre on conflict, and crucially, on the clash between the mortal and the eternal. In this essay, I focus on the way in which The Wanderings of Oisin foreshadows and informs the treatment of eternity in Yeats’s later Byzantium poems. The Wanderings of Oisin explores the intensity of human longing for the eternal despite our time-bound nature, prefiguring his later impassioned though analytical Byzantium poems. Although the Byzantium poems seem initially to glorify eternity at the expense of human life, this essay traces the complexity of Yeats’s desire. Previous criticism has understated the extent to which Yeats’s poetry actively resists the siren song of eternity. The Byzantium poems problematise the eternity that they seem to desire, and this article reveals them as inflected by the way in which The Wanderings of Oisin questions the value of the eternal realm in the light of mortal heroic values. The “intensity, solitude, defeat” of the artist are inevitable, but there is a victory of sorts won from the poet’s deliberate inability to commit to any version of the eternal that preclude his own power and humanity. Yeats’s poetry runs the gamut between versions of desire that express an overweening desire for resolution even as they retain their resistance to any single pure state of being, if any such state is possible.     

Protection from the British Empire? Central Africa and the Church of Scotland

This article demonstrates that the Church of Scotland did not seek to undermine the Central African Federation from the moment of its foundation in 1953. This misconception derives from many of the church's missionaries in the region who demonstrated open disdain for the Federation throughout its existence. They were upset that it had been imposed by the white settlers of Central Africa and the British government over the objections of the indigenous Africans. The church, however, did not follow its missionaries. Instead, it sought to make the federal scheme work for all concerned. The Reverend George MacLeod, perhaps the most visible church leader of the twentieth century, played an important role in trying to make the Federation function between 1953 and early 1959. It was not until after the declaration of the Nyasaland Emergency in March 1959 that the church passed a deliverance demanding an autonomous, African-run Nyasaland, at the behest of MacLeod's Committee Anent Central Africa. Deliverances are resolutions presented to the commissioners of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The commissioners listen to the deliverances and then choose to accept, reject, add to, or amend each of them. Deliverances accepted, or passed, by the General Assembly become law. These laws determine how the Church of Scotland operates. This divergence between the Church of Scotland and its missionaries before the Emergency resulted from the Church's sense of historical obligation to protect the indigenous peoples of Nyasaland from the possibly deleterious consequences of rapid decolonisation. Afterwards, the church focused on protecting the Africans from the federal government by setting them free from the British Empire.