Paper short abstract:

More than fifty glossarists were published by the English Dialect Society during its brief existence (1873-1896), all of which feature folkloric data to a greater or lesser extent. This paper examines the folklore in these works, in terms of sources, genres and reliability.

Paper long abstract:

The English Dialect Society published a series of local dialect glossaries during the course of its existence (1873 - 1896), as well as two national glossaries, one of bird-names, the other of plant-names. The interest in folklore of some of these fifty-odd glossarists (including figures such Addy, Chope, Elworthy, Friend, and Parker) is apparent from their membership of The Folklore Society, or their authorship of works on folklore, but for most of these glossarists there are no such outward signs of interest in folklore. Nevertheless, though not explicitly concerned with folklore, all of the glossaries of the English Dialect Society include folklore data to a greater or lesser extent, sometimes snippets (whether in definitions or in illustrative quotations), sometimes extended texts (these often in appendices). This paper looks at this extensive, yet uneven corpus of folklore data, with a particular interest in its sources, its geographic and genre coverage, and its fit with the general ethnographic record.