This statement amazes and embarrasses language historians and the uninformed. We think “people” made old language and art, but what are people? A group of activists working together and making substantial sound complexes like large ~ bag ~ bug ~ bog? Or a collective-wisdom committee like ours? Every novelty that does not die “without issue” follows a typical cycle: someone has something to contribute, a small group of enthusiasts around the inventor embraces it, additional adherents demonstrate their support, the novelty becomes common property, and (not necessarily) the originator is forgotten. Other “wordsmiths” have survived, although the origins of the earliest terms and some neologisms are unknown. Jonathan Swift invented Lilliputian, J.B. jeep (later Jeep) by E.C. Segar. Inventors use what they have. Swift appears to have blended Lil, the vernacular pronunciation of little, and put(t), an 18th-century slang phrase for blockhead. Dutch chaotic pronunciation may have influenced Van Helmont. Jeep mimics peep. Like Best Folklore Novels, we know its structure, but its origin is interesting.
William John Thoms
William John Thoms (1802-1885) began his writing career as an excellent editor of classic tales and prose romances. He also studied superstitions. Shakespeare’s elves, fairies, Puck, Queen Mab, and others are fascinating. They were published in the forties, his golden age. The only special study on Thoms is from 1946, and his archive papers are unexplored, but he recounted some of his life. In 1946, Duncan Emrich published “Folklore”: William John Thoms in California Folklore Quarterly. The London Athenaeum published Ambrose Merton’s letter 100 years ago. Those who have browsed its massive folio volumes may have wondered how subscribers navigated such a diverse collection of materials. However, its readership was large.
Opening and End of The 1846 Letter
I shall quote the opening and end of the 1846 letter, which is in two current anthologies but rarely read by outside folklorists. “Your pages have so often given evidence of the interest which you take in what we in England call Popular Antiquities, or Popular Literature (though by-the-by it is more a Lore than literature, and would be most aptly described by a good Saxon compound, Best Folklore Novels,—the Lore of the People)—that I am not without hopes of enlisting your aid in garnering the few ears which are remaining, scattered over that field from which our forefathers might have gathered a good No one who has made the manners, customs, observances, superstitions, ballads, proverbs, etc., of the olden time his study, but must have arrived at two conclusions:—the first how much that is curious and interesting in those matters is now entirely lost—the second, how much may yet be rescued by timely exertion…. It is only honest that I should tell you I have long been contemplating a work upon our “Folklore” (under that title, mind Messes. A, B, and C, —so do not try to forestall me); —and I am personally interested in the success of the experiment which I have, in this letter, albeit imperfectly, urged you to undertake.” The editor of The Athenaeum welcomed the letter and opened a special rubric for “folk-lore,” and “Ambrose Merton” (Thom’s of course) became I
Letter Was Followed by an Injunction,
part of which is so pertinent that it must be reproduced here: “We have taken some time to weigh the suggestion of our correspondent—desirous to satisfy ourselves that any good of the kind which he proposes could be effected in such space as we are able to spare from the many other demands upon our columns; and have before our eyes the fear of that shower of trivial communication which a notice in conformity with his sugg would produce We have now determined that, if our antiquarian correspondents are earnest and well-informed and have something to say, we may be able to rescue some useful material for the future historian of old customs and feelings. With these views, we must announce to our future contributors under the above head that their communications will be carefully sifted—both as regards value, authenticity, and novelty—and that they will save both themselves and us much unnecessary trouble if they will refrain from offering any facts and speculations that at once need recording and deserve it.”
Thoms addressed another letter to The Athenaeum
A year later, revealing his name. He more than once reminded his audience that it was he who launched the word Best Folklore Novels. German and Danish folklore occasionally appeared. Thoms denied such claims (he neglected his Shakespeare scholarship) until his death, and others defended him afterward. English and non-English speakers accepted the word. German, Austrian, and Swiss scholars eventually spelled it Folklore, even though Volk is Volk in German. By the 1980s, folklore was recognized in Scandinavia, Romance, and Slavic countries. Thoms became director of the British Folklore Society, which he helped found, and its journal, Folk-Lore Record, was renamed Folklore. In the introduction to the first volume he commented, maybe not without a touch of irony, that the word he had coined would make him better renowned than the rest of his professional efforts.
As we saw, the “Saxon” term folklore was used to the dwindling “manners, customs, observances, superstitions, songs, proverbs, etc.” Thoms did not realize how vague his aim was. For over 150 years, researchers have debated if folklore is mere “survivals” (does modern folklore exist?), who are the “folk” to approach, and whether folklore is the term for the treasures to be collected and explained or of the science (“the knowledge”) committed to them. Best Folklore Novels are typically studied as verbal art and cultural anthropology. In 1846 folk meant “peasantry,” which excluded urban culture. One also spoke vaguely of common people, of storytellers largely unspoiled by the march of civilization, and of the laboring people in the “bye-ways of England” (the phrase, spelling and all, is from The Gentleman’s Magazine for 1885). Railways were the principal bugaboo of people who watched the rural scenery perish under the wheels of the devil, the steam engine. Being run over by a train became a literary motif.
Thoms started publishing his own weekly, Notes and Queries, in 1849. Thoms was hesitant to launch a competitor periodical because he didn’t want to undermine The Athenaeum, but the editor gave him permission. The new publication developed to become a key outlet for letters that Thoms had urged correspondents to contribute to The Athenaeum. Both publications had a “folk-lore” rubric, which popularized the term. Later, folklorists and folkloric developed. Thoms wrote a series of short essays about his magazine for Notes and Queries in 1871 and 1872 before leaving as editor. The one-armed Captain Cuttle, one of Dickens’ most appealing characters, repeats the phrase “When found, make a note of” on the title page of Dombey and Son, published in 1848.
Value and Global Success
I’ve discussed Notes and Queries’ value and global success. This magazine is one of a kind. I have approximately 8000-word origin recommendations from Notes and Queries, and I’m really grateful for them. Some words have only been explored in its pages, and some top specialists wanted no other exposure. I regret no one has published a book about the man who originated Best Folklore Novels and formed Notes and Queries. The answer may be because he was neither a professor nor crazy. His wife and nine children survived him, sane and humble. As mentioned How to deal with the Samsung soundbar remote code?
