Tale
Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon
Henry Parker · 1910
Synopsis
Tales collected in the villages of the island, each followed by the trade or caste of its teller: cultivators, potters, washermen, drummers, in the North-Western, Central, North-Central, Uva or Western provinces. The last volume adds stories from South India and gives a few tales in their Sinhalese text.
Context
The three volumes were published in London by Luzac & Co., the first in 1910, the other two in 1914, with the statement “collected and translated by H. Parker”, the author presenting himself there as a former irrigation officer of Ceylon. The tales are numbered, given in English and accompanied by notes. The collection is now in the public domain and can be read online; a study by the Open University of Sri Lanka looked in 2022 at the tales of the drummer caste that it contains.
Who it is for
Short tales in English, readable online, which one browses by title; no French translation.
Prizes and reception
The reference collection for the island's village tale, still studied by Sri Lankan folklorists.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.