The Method of Folklore

Andrew Lang (1844-1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University of St. Andrews are named after him.

From Lang’s fundamental essay Custom and Myth, published in 1884, we have drawn the study The Method of Folklore, which today we propose to modern readers.

«There is a science, Archæology, which collects and compares the material relics of old races, the axes and arrow-heads. There is a form of study, Folklore, which collects and compares the similar but immaterial relics of old races, the surviving superstitions and stories, the ideas which are in our time but not of it».