Faulkner's Use of Folklore in The Sound and the Fury

Abstract

THAT WILLIAM FAULKNER was quite interested in folk customs and beliefs is evident. In 1929 he bought the old Bailey home in Oxford, Mississippi, and shortly after moving into the house named it Rowan Oak. According to folk belief the rowan tree protects the inhabitants of a house from many forms of evil, but particularly witches and fairies.1 Faulkner once tried to grow a rowan tree (which in the United States is indigenous to the Smoky Mountain area) on the grounds of his estate; the attempt, however, proved unsuccessful.2 Faulkner made extensive use of folklore in his novel The Sound and the Fury, much of which is lost upon the reader unschooled in the mysteries of Southern regional and Negro folk beliefs. The intention of this study is to elucidate this rather recondite aspect of the novel and thus afford a greater understanding and appreciation of the work which Faulkner considered to be his best. One of the most recurrent uses of folk belief in the book is the identification of