Studies In Newfoundland Folklore

Thirty years after its original publication, a special anniversary edition of Barbara Rieti's iconic work Strange Terrain: The Fairy World in Newfoundland.

Newfoundland songs are diverse in origin. Vast numbers of them come from the British Isles, especially from England and Ireland; many are composed in Newfoundland, usually on English or Irish models; a lesser number of American, Canadian, and French songs are current. The ballads to be found in the Child collection are probably the oldest now sung. Then there are many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century broadside ballads, particularly English, and many nineteenth-century compositions. Such are the backgrounds from which the compilers of this volume have drawn their unusually interesting and delightful collection of ballad texts and ballad music. Expeditions to the island in 1920 and 1929 furnished the tunes; and a genuine interest in folk-literature assured the care and accuracy of the work.

Newfoundland is well known for the strong traditions and folklore of its English-speaking inhabitants. Until recently, however, few outside this province realized that there is also a small but vigorous Francophone population, situated mainly on the west coast of the island in and around the Port au Port Peninsula. The culture and folklore, and particularly their storytelling traditions, are the focus of the work by noted folklorist and memorial university professor Gerald Thomas. Thomas has conducted extensive and exhaustive research on the Port au Port Peninsula for more than twenty years, focusing on, though not limited to, the music and story telling in Franco Newfoundland communities, through the study of the repertoire, context and lives on three people: Mrs. Blanche Ozone, Mrs. Angela Kerfont, and Emile Benoit.

There is a little-known tradition of witch lore in Newfoundland culture. Those believed to have the power to influence the fortunes of others are not mythological characters but neighbours, relations, or even friends. Drawing from her own interviews and a wealth of material from the Memorial University Folklore and Language Archive, Barbara Rieti explores the range and depth of Newfoundland witch tradition, looking at why certain people acquired reputations as witches, and why others considered themselves bewitched. The tales that emerge - despite their seemingly fantastic elements of spells and black heart books, hags, and healing charms - concern everyday affairs and reveal the intense social interdependence central to outport life. Frequently featuring women, they provide fascinating new perspectives on female coping strategies in a volatile economy.By addressing the perennial human issues at the heart of witchcraft - construction of enmity and intertwined fate - these narrative accounts also illuminate older witch beliefs revealed in witchcraft trial documents. Making Witches shows that in storytelling communities with a rich legacy of witch lore, witch tradition has endured well into the twentieth century.