The Motif-Indexing of Superstitions

Abstract

At the Midcentury International Folklore Conference held in Bloomington, Indiana (1950), several scholars present were skeptical of the practicability of indexing Sagen through Stith Thompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature (New and Enlarged Edition, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press; and Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1955-1958, Six volumes). By 1954 the revision of the Motif -Index was almost completed, and lecturers at the Folklore Institute were demonstrating the value of this method of indexing Sagen to archivist and scholar.