William Wells Newell was a teacher, a minister, and an instructor in philosophy at Harvard University. He was the founder and first editor of the Journal of American Folklore in 1888, where he encouraged folklorists to collect and document what remained of “English folklore, lore of French Canada, the lore of the Negroes and the lore of the Indian tribes” (ucs).
While he was the editor of the Journal of American Folklore he felt a need to study as much as he could of the works that dealt “with Arthur and the Celtic hypothesis and from the beginning he was skeptical about claims for the Celtic origins of Arthurian materials” (jstor). He focused on the stories about King Arthur, Perceval, and The Legend of the Holy Grail.
He gathered the melodies, rules, and movements of at least 160 games and songs from children, as well as adults who remembered them from their youth. These songs were compiled and put into a book called Games and Songs of American Children.
Newell believed that every generation needed to have its own folklore to pass on to future generations. He also felt that children’s songs and games could be a great object of study since if folk traditions are studied hard enough they could trace it back to ancestral roots. His work is still valuable today, giving us insights into our geographic and historical origins.
References:
www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/exhibits/music/ballads.html
www.ucs.mun.ca/~zharuna/folkloredefinitions.html
Sarrazin, Natalie R. Review 2004: Newell, William Wells. Games and Songs of American Children, Clearfield Company. 1992
Written by Deborah Raines