I think that's a good idea. We can call it "folklore-studies," perhaps...

What about a shelf for analysis/interpretation etc?
Somewhere for the likes of Jack Zipes, Marina Warner, Bruno Bettelheim?

Sherri wrote: "They might be called 'art books', too, although both have descriptive text. Gnomes has some stories. Ooo -- don't want to mess up shelves ! :) De Elfin appears to be a different book, although it..."

I think it's the same book, just translated, but I can't tell for sure. There is The Runes of Elfland, but it seems like that title would be longer translated... I need some of his other books, they're just so hard to find.

They might be called 'art books', too, although both have descriptive text. Gnomes has some stories. Ooo -- don't want to mess up shelves ! :) De Elfin appears to be a different book, although it MIGHT be just a translation. I can't really tell.

Good Faeries, Bad Faeries is another Froud book. I know he's reinterpreting the Fae here, so I'm not sure.

I think Faeries would fall under the reference category, no? We already have a "fairy-elves" shelf, which has De Elfen on it... Possibly the Dutch translation? Or does Froud also gave one called "Elves" in English? Either way, I think both are good additions to that shelf... Knock yourselves out! :)

Froud! Love Froud.

What about the book Gnomes? Does it count as a contemporary examination of a particular folklore aspect, or is it just a cute book?

Would Faeries be a good addition? I absolutely love the artwork. The pencil sketch of the Unseelie Court is one of my all time favorites.

I think a separate shelf is a good idea, Abigail, and what I hoped for. After all, I'm sure at least a few of us found folklore and myth through the doorway of fiction, and it seems a shame not to have at least a few in the list, especially since they can be shelved in more than one place. Maybe you can set up a protocol for the description, to say if this is derived from a particular source or is a direct source, or whatever wording says it best.

Hmm... honestly, I have rather mixed feelings about the fiction inspired by folklore issue, not because I can't see the relationship, or am uninterested in the subject - quite the reverse, actually! But it seems like it would open the door to a very wide array of books... which might undermine the goal of creating lists of tales from specific cultures, and with specific themes, and so on...

But I'm afraid I've allowed myself to be carried away by my enthusiasm (a not so unusual occurrence), and just assumed that this was a goal others would share. Sorry, everybody! I should have started this thread by asking, what do all of you think of the idea of trying to create such a communcal database? Our own World Folklore catalogue? Is this something you all would be interested in doing?

Edited to Add: Sherri, it occurs to me that folklore-inspired fiction doesn't really have to interfere with a traditional folklore database idea... a novel inspired by the tale of Tam Lin might not be classified as Scots folklore (or it might, if that's what we decided), but we could have a separate fiction shelf, no?

Abigail, what are your thoughts on adding fiction books that contain references, retellings, or use as source material myths and folktales? Should they be a part of this group's collection or not? I'm thinking not only of the various collections of modern authors reworking traditional tales (of which there are many), but of stories like Kate Seredy's "The Good Master" and "The Singing Tree" which are set in pre WWI Hungary and include Hungarian folktales as part of the story.

Hey Everybody: I've been thinking for a while that our book shelves here in the Folklore & Fairytales group offer the perfect opportunity to create a communal folklore database. I've been adding books, and creating new shelves, as I have the opportunity. Please do the same!

Eventually I would like to get the shelves into such good shape that when a member (old or new) has a particular query - an interest in Indonesian folklore, or in dragons, etc. - we can point them to our relevant shelf. Not that we wouldn't want to discuss as well...

Note: Some of the shelves I've created only have one book so far, but I hope each one will grow, as we go along. Please check the list of existing shelves before creating a new one!

Also: I'd really prefer that some of the shelves - like "Celtic" or "Native-American - be reserved for books that fall into those wider categories. If a book has a specific cultural/national identity, that's where it should be shelved. Save "Celtic" for those collections that have Irish, Scots and Welsh; or "Native-American" for continent-wide collections!

Edited to add: Also (x2), please remember that these are group shelves, not personal ones, so for the sake of simplicity, let's keep everything in the "read" column. That won't effect your own listing, of course! Thanks, everybody!