Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States

"Buying the Wind" is an ancient motif from folk literature that shows up most prominently in Homer's epics. Aiolos (also spelled "Aeolus") in Book X of the Odyssey gives Odysseus and his crew a bag of winds that is supposed to fix the doldrums by getting a ship out of irons, but the unfortunate crew opens the bag, thereby blowing everyone back to the original port of origin. Aiolos is not pleased with them and thinks that Odysseus and company are cursed. He refuses to replace the gift with a new one, and he sends them on their way. Dorson shows that this fixed bit of narrative, along with numerous motifs and tale-types, remain part of contemporary folklore. The book consists of actual tales culled from oral traditions and introductory commentary that provides a context for understanding these examples of American folklore within various regional contexts. The book emphasizes folktales and legends, but there are also good examples of proverbs, riddles, customs, and a wide variety of folk expression. The book is especially strong as an introduction to the variety of folklore found in America's diverse regions, and the extensive bibliography is an excellent resource for readers who wish to delve into more specific collections of folklore within each of these regions.

By contemporary standards, this book is dated and perhaps a bit politically incorrect and simplistic. But the book is a valuable archive of fascinating folktales, beliefs, and descriptions of regionally-based forms of traditional culture in the United States. Dorson provides a great variety of stories that are well-worth reading, and they could provide the basis for further study. I found it especially interesting how Dorson was showing ways to integrate the study of folklore into the study of history and geography with this collection of materials. I also found this book to be interesting as a resource for gauging how the thinking of social scientists and humanities scholars has changed over the past 30 years. It also provides a great resource for comparing how regional folklore has changed throughout a sort period of time in this nation.