Member-only story
The Changing Concept of Folklore
In the Irish tale of Oisín and Patrick, the main character, regarded in legend as Ireland’s greatest poet, returns from Tir na nÓg to his home after what to him has been three years, only to find that far longer has passed: “Some say it was hundreds of years he was in the Country of the Young, and some say it was thousands of years he was in it; but whatever time it was, it seemed short to him” (Gods and Fighting Men, Lady Gregory). He finds that the Fianna has long since disbanded and passed into legend. Oisín ensures that the stories of his compatriots endure after his death by passing the stories on to the new generation that inhabits Ireland and in doing so he becomes a seanchaí (a storyteller, who could also function as a local historian) who passes into legend himself.
Present in this story is a blurring of the lines between fact and fantasy. Folklore lies in that liminal space, part stories and fiction, part fact and tradition. Even the practice of ethnographic research occurs within a liminal state, separated from the researcher’s own culture but not incorporated into the host culture, the researcher thus both participating in and observing the culture.
