Abstract
WE realize now that folklore is not merely a study of survival fossilized pieces of quaint tradition from a hypothetical past. Yet it does provide a link with the past, and as a student of early literature, archaeology and religion, this is the aspect of folklore studies with which I am most concerned. What kind of light does it throw on the customs and beliefs of men of long ago ? The work of Sir James Frazer and other giants of the early twentieth century has given us a popular picture of the pagan past a past in which the king went down regularly to a sacrificial death to ripen the corn; when covens of twelve witches under the leader in the animal mask flourished openly over the face of Europe; when sun-worshippers kindled their bonfires and planned elaborate sun-clocks of megalithic stones, and white-robed Druids stabbed their victims on ancient altars, brandishing the sacred mistletoe.
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