New Releases by Edith Fowke

From the funny to the fantastic, celebrate all things uniquely Canada!This beefy compilation of our best home-grown facts and fun has something for everyone - cool and kooky information, trivia, jokes, humour and more.

New folk music and folk-song materials in this comprehensive study are particularly important for singers, folk music enthusiasts, ethnomusicologists, comparative and cultural studies scholars, and those interested in Canadian culture. LaRena Clark was a great singer and knew many fine songs. Her wide repertoire covers almost the complete range of types and topics of traditional Anglo-Canadian songs. Comparison with other collections in Canada, the United States, the British Isles, and Australia indicate just how unique and far-reaching it was. Clark's background and her varied ancestry shaped her repertoire. The account of her parents' activities gives a vivid picture of folk life in rural Ontario during the early years of this century. She knew some Canadian songs previously unreported, and she wrote songs with a strong Canadian flavour. Musically, Clark's songs are a microcosm of practices characteristic of British folk music throughout the English-speaking world. Particularly noteworthy is her constant reworking of traditional materials, procedures, forms, and individual tunes.

Legends Told in Canada is Edith Fowke's selection of Canadian historical legends, of British and French origin, illustrated with artifacts from the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum. Of historical legends Fowke writes, "They are more apt to be linked to a particular place or situation, and therefore reflect a country's history and culture more than other folktales.".

When her five little ducks disappear one by one, Mother Duck sets out to find them.

In this study of Canadian folklore, Edith Fowke, a much-published scholar and anthologizer of Canadian folklore, argues that it is "the material that is handed on by tradition, either by word of mouth or by custom and practice...about which historians write." She examines in detail collectors, folktales, folk music, minor genres (speech, riddles, proverbs, childlore, beliefs), folk arts and material culture, folklife and customs, and various books about these subjects.

This book is the only comprehensive bibliography of Canadian folklore in English. The 3877 different items are arranged by genres: folktales; folk music and dance; folk speech and naming; superstitions, popular beliefs, folk medicine, and the supernatural; folk life and customs; folk art and material culture; and within genres by ethnic groups: Anglophone and Celtic, Francophone, Indian and Inuit, and other cultural groups. The items include reference books, periodicals, articles, records, films, biographies of scholars and informants, and graduate theses. Each items is annotated through a coding that indicates whether it is academic or popular, its importance to the scholar, and whether it is suitable for young people. The introduction includes a brief survey of Canadian folklore studies, putting this work into academic and social perspective. The book covers all the important items and most minor items dealing with Canadian folklore published in English up to the end of 1979. It is concerned with legitimate Canadian folklore – whether transplanted from other countries and preserved here, or created here to reflect the culture of this country. It distinguishes between authentic folklore presented as collected and popular treatments in which the material has been rewritten by the authors. Intended primarily for scholars of folklore, international as well as Canadian, the book will also be of use to scholars in anthropology, cultural geography, oral history, and other branches of Canadian culture studies, as well as to librarians, teachers, and the general public.

Folktales told in the style of the original narrators.

Grade level: 2, 3, 4, e, p, i.

An anthology of Canada's diverse folk traditions, including a section on native peoples with tales from each of the major groups.