Are there any legends about cats? Is Cinderella an English story? What is a Mumming Play? The subject of folklore covers an extremely wide field, with connections to virtually every aspect of life. It ranges from the bizarre to the seemingly mundane. Similarly, folklore is as much a feature of the modern technological age as the ancient world, of every part of the country, both urban and rural, and of every age group and occupation. Containing 1,250 entries, from dragons to Mother Goose, May Day to Michaelmas, this reference work is an absorbing and entertaining guide to English folklore. Aimed at a broad general readership, the dictionary provides an authoritative reference source on such legendary characters as The Sandman, Jack the Giant Killer, and Robin Hood, and gives entertaining and informative explanations of a wide range of subjects in folklore, from nosebleeds and wishbones to cats and hot cross buns. From an exemplary, clear, and concise introduction to an admirably comprehensive, yet selective, bibliography, but above all from more than 1,250 A-Z entries in between, it is good to know that Oxford University Press can still commission and publish new standard reference titles... A welcome degree of scholarly rigour... coverage is excellent... the quallity of the entries is also outstanding... It is all very readable, concise, and clear throughout — another one of those reference works one can wish to read from cover to cover... a huge amount of fascinating material in this clearly and attractively designed, deceptively concise and reasonably priced volume. It becomes at once a new standard reference book in its field... As such it belongs in any reference collection in or about England, and any collection dealing with folklore.
