Research Items

Abstract

Folk-memory in Crete.—The contents of vol. 41, pt, 1, of Folk-Lore include the presidential address to the Folklore Society by Prof. R. M. Dawkins at the close of his term of office. It illustrates the general principles of the evidential value of folk-memory in application to a specific area in which it is possible to check tradition by bringing it into relation with historical records. There is no popular tradition now alive in Crete which reaches back to Minoan times, and in fact it does not go back earlier than the name Hellen. The preservation of place-names and, indeed, of the language—a popular form banned by literature and learning— is in itself an effort of folk-memory. But until recently the name Hellen meant pagan and the place-names which preserved a long tradition have been obliterated by recent changes. Of Christian history, a memory, if mistaken, is enshrined in the tomb of Caiaphas. Of Byzantine history there is little to show. One tradition, though false, preserved a record of the voyage of Eudocia in 443 A.D.; while another, entirely false, related to a Byzantine lady of the ninth century. Of the Arab occupation there were no stories; but the story of the “Twelve Archons” refers to the Byzantine reorganisation of Cretan society from Constantinople after the reconquest. The ballads and legends of Digenis, a hero of the struggle against the Saracens on the Asiatic frontier, are also referred to Byzantium. The raids of pirates made considerable impression on the popular mind, and the Venetian supremacy was also remembered; but it is with the Turkish occupation that popular memory really begins, and to it popular tradition and legend predominantly belong.