Some Recent Trends in Swedish Folk Studies

DURING recent years, there has arisen in Sweden a new school of folklorists, of which Professor C. W. von Sydow may be taken as a distinguished representative. Much discussion of a fundamental kind has taken place concerning the nature and origin of folklore. Some of the points at issue are dealt with in the pages of Folkminnen och Folktankar, and Professor von Sydow has recently discussed others at some length 1 in the first two volumes of the new publication, Folk-Kultur, which is published by Lunds Universitets Folkminnesarkiv. It is not possible to review in one paper all the problems that are being raised, but I shall try to trace one or two threads of the argument, in order to indicate the general trend of the new criticism. Some of the recommendations made by the new school may not be entirely new, but they have received new emphasis. I will refer to four of them. (I) It is as important for the folklorist as for the historian that he shall examine his sources with the greatest care. He must consider writers' qualifications, their training, their ability to weigh evidence, and the opportunities they have had to acquire an intimate knowledge of what they have described. We must give to the study of European cultures the same seriousness and careful preparation that we give to the study of African or Melanesian cultures

Archaeology · Folklore · Geography · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History