Publication Date

1965

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Murray, Don, 1917-

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of English

LCSH

Folklore--Missouri; Legends--Missouri

Abstract

Beginning its second century, the legend of the Headless Cobbler of this study is an etiological tale dependent for its existence upon the geographic features of Smallett Cave in Springcreek Township of Douglas County, Missouri. The legend is both a local invention based upon real happenings and historical figures and a transmogrification of elements found in older folk tales, both oral and written. In the relative isolation which the Ozark Mountains have afforded during the past century, these indigenous and imported folk tale motifs have been combined into the present form of the legend by the superstitious in their efforts to make the unknown rational; by parents and elders in attempts to demon­strate for children the dangers of broken taboos; by tradition­alists in deference to ancestors and the past; by gifted storytellers in their efforts to entertain; and by the inter­action of fact with folk memory, dream experience, optical illusion, and semantic confusion.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

90 pages, 6 unnumbered pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS