The Computer and the Finnish Historical-Geographical Method

THE FINNISH, OR HISTORICAL-GEOGRAPHICAL, METHOD for comparative study of folktales needs introduction to folklorists. The methodology has endured for nearly a century, and surest signs of its soundness have been improvements fashioned upon it by its most devastating critics. Recently, it has been attacked again by current generation of structuralists as being the study of folklore for its own sake, as though that were a fault.' Its endurance, as Stith Thompson's classic study of Star Husband Tale demonstrates, establishes it as one of procedural standards in folklore methodology.2 The demands made upon researcher, however, are forbidding to all but most vigorous and dedicated, mainly because of Herculean housekeeping tasks that this approach requires. When a popular tale is studied-and popular tales tend to be almost by definition most important-a thousand or more versions may have to be analyzed and compared. Even with symbol coding commonly used to simplify description of each tale, folklorist's tasks of analysis are staggering. For this reason alone Thompson can say, wistfully yet with painful truthfulness, that not many scholars are able to produce more than one or two thorough studies of folktales in their lifetime; most of books that present research and results of Finnish method are life's work of their author. Obviously situation cries out for some laborand time-saving process: folklorist's burden would be lessened, and he would not only be able to produce more work, but quality of it would also improve. Alan Dundes remarks, rather cavalierly, in his headnotes to Thompson's model study of Star Husband Tale, that no doubt some enterprising folklorist will one day use an electronic

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