Storytelling Encyclopedia: Historical, Cultural, and Multiethnic Approaches to Oral Traditions Around the World

LCSH: 1.Storytelling ‐ encyclopedias. 2.Tales ‐ encyclopedias. 3.Oral tradition ‐ encyclopedias

Eighteen university teachers and “storytellers” collaborated in writing this world‐ranging, hardback guide to oral traditions and tellers of tales, with history, purposes, and cultural dimensions of storytelling as major themes. Their demanding task has been intelligently and expertly carried out, in an easily readable and comprehensible style. Scholarship is presented lucidly, without pomposity or obfuscation. Inevitably, there are omissions (Naareau is one mythical figure that I, personally, miss) but the choices of entries made strike me as sensible. Some entries usefully trace the extension of oral tradition into written...