One Last Proverb Publication by Archer Taylor

Abstract

In the book entitled Selected Writings on Provert s by Archer Taylor (Helsinki 1975) I included what I thought was a complete bibliography of Archer Taylor's proverb studies (pp. 195-203). Now I find that an important last proverb essay by this great American paremiologist has appeared posthumously in Ireland with the following title: Collection and Study of Tales and Proverbs, Bealoideas, 39-41 (1971-1973, published 1975), 320-328. This article primarily compares the historical development of the study of tales and proverbs, and it gives a typically Taylorian overview of definition problems, collection types, general works on the two genres, and the various methods of studying them. But the most pertinent statement regarding the study of paremiology is, without doubt, the following parenthetical remark: allied minor genre of stories explaining the origins of proverbs is scarcely recognized and less (p. 324). Taylor points here to an untilled field of study which students and scholars should address themselves to in a much more systematic manner than has hitherto been the case. What is the interrelationship between the proverb and the various folk narrative genres and, for that matter, between the proverb and the folksong? The various genres of verbal folklore have been studied in isolation for too long a time, so that there is not even a single systematic analysis of the use and function of proverbial materials in the Grimmn M;irchen for example. Only a few isolated studies do exist and they are listed in the following two recent bibliographies by Wolfgang Mieder: International Bibliography cf Explanatory Essays on Proverhs adr Proterbial Expressions (Bern: Peter Lang, 1977) and Proverbs i n Litcrature: An International Bibliofraphy (Bern: Peter Lang, 1978). The second bibliography lists about twenty-five significant titles dealing with the use of proverbs in tall tales, fairy tales, legends, fables, and folksongs which can be considered as the basis for further studies. I am sure that Archer Taylor with this last scholarly contribution meant to encourage such studies spanning various folk narrative genres on a comparative basis.