Patterns of Folklore

In the years leading up to 1978, when the London Folklore Society celebrates the completion of its first hundred years, it seemed that the time was right to look back on the progress made in folklore studies, the insights gained, and the contribution which the study of folklore has made and promises to make to other disciplines. This then was the subject which I chose for my three obligatory addresses as President of the Folklore Society from 1973-6, and it proved at the same time an opportunity to look back over my own work on the early history, literature and mythology of the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples to see where folklore has helped me most to understand the past. The additional papers collected here were all published in the Society’s journal 'Folklore' between 1960 and 1969, and I find, rather to my surprise, that they all have to do with the significance of symbols in the mind of man.