chapter I
have indicated a few of the points which must be raised, and my object will be in the remaining chapters to set forth some of the conditions which it appears to me necessary to consider in connection with the problems with which folklore is concerned as one of the historical sciences.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Mr. Kemble gives an important illustration of this proposition in his _Saxons in England_, i. 331.
[2] I would refer the reader to Prof. York Powell's brilliant lecture on "A Survey of Modern History," printed in his biography by Mr. Oliver Elton, ii. 1-13, for an admirable summary of this view.
[3] _View of the State of Ireland_, 1595, p. 478.
[4] Asser's _Life of Alfred_, by W. H. Stevenson, 262.
[5] It is not worth while unduly emphasising this point, but the peculiar habit of classing fictional literature as folklore and thereupon condemning the value of tradition is very prevalent. Mr. Nutt, in dealing with the Troy stories in British history, adopts this method, and denies the existence of historic tradition on the strength of it, _Folklore_, xii. 336-9.
[6] This expression was recently allowed in our old friend _Notes and Queries_ in a singularly unsuitable case, 10th ser. vii. 344.
[7] I am not sure this is always the fault of those who are not folklorists. I recently came across a dictum of one of the most distinguished folklorists, Mr. Andrew Lang, which is certainly much in the same direction. "As a rule tradition is the noxious ivy that creeps about historical truth, and needs to be stripped off with a ruthless hand. Tradition is a collection of venerable and romantic blunders. But a tradition which clings to a permanent object in the landscape, a tall stone, a grassy, artificial tumulus, or even an old tree, may be unexpectedly correct."--_Morning Post_, 2 November, 1906.
[8] It is worth while referring to Mr. MacRitchie's article in _Trans. International Folklore Congress_ on the historical aspect of Folklore; but Professor York Powell has said the strongest word in its favour in his all too short address as President of the Folklore Society, see _Folklore_, xv. 12-23.
[9]