Morris dancing, one of the more peculiar of the English folk customs, has been greatly misunderstood. Traditional scholarship on this custom has been based on the assumption that morris dancing is one of the pagan calendar rituals, a preconception held by many folklorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Now, building upon his previous work with Michael Heaney of the Bodleian Library in Annals of Early Morris, John Forrest carefully analyses a wealth of evidence to show that morris dancing does not, in fact have pagan or ancient origins. His examination of early documentation draws morris traditions into the wider area of communal customs and public celebrations, showing the passage of dance ideas between groups of people who until now have been considered folklorically distinct.
Careful, detailed, and encyclopedic, The History of Morris Dancing, 1458-1750 is an essential reference work for specialists in English drama and social historians of the period.
- ISBN10 1442681454
- ISBN13 9781442681453
- Publish Date 4 November 1999
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country CA
- Imprint University of Toronto Press
- Format eBook
- Pages 456
- Language English
- URL http://degruyter.com/search?f_0=isbnissn&q_0=9781442681453&searchTitles=true