The Influence of Folklore On the History of Religion

Prior to the scientific investigation of popular tradition both in its spiritual and material aspects, and the anthropological approach to the discipline, the interest in the subject arose out of the Romantic Movement. Thus, in the first half of the nineteenth century various attempts were made to collect and classify the tales, songs, sayings and superstitions current among the people in northern Europe, following in the wake of John Aubrey's Romaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, written in 1687, of Brand's Observations on the Popular Antiquities of the British Isles published in I777, and of Hone's Everyday Book (1826). It was, however, the works of the brothers Grimm in Germany, notably Kinderund Hausmirchen (1812) and Deutsche Mythologie (1835), that laid the foundations of the serious study of folk tales, though at first their influence was not strongly felt

Art · Folklore · Literature · Romance · Subject (documents) · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices