Judith Neulander has given us an encyclopedia of folklore from Lake Erie and the places that border it, mostly on the American side. It consists of an introduction, fifty-three entries arranged in four sections, and an index. Broadly speaking, the organization is chronological.
Neulander’s three-page introduction offers clear definitions of folklore and other key terms including tradition and motif. She then explains that she has organized the book into four sections: seventeenth/eighteenth centuries, nineteenth century, twentieth century, and twenty-first century, with items placed in these sections according to their last known appearance in oral tradition. The twenty-first century section is by far the longest.
The entries document a wide variety of folklore genres but are heavy on narrative and belief. They vary in length from one to ten pages. Almost every entry has at least one illustration; some have several. Some illustrations are taken from historical or contemporary sources; some were created by the author. Every entry concludes with a list of references, and (if relevant) a list of motifs from Stith Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk Literature. One thing the book does not have, but would have benefitted from, is a general bibliography of suggested readings on Lake Erie folklore.
Although some entries are quite brief, many are short essays that give succinct surveys of the genres or topics under consideration. For example, “The Vampire Crypt of Erie Cemetery” (191-197), starts with a mini-history of the scholarly study of vampire beliefs before focusing on a specific example, and “Lake Erie Campus Lore” (223-227) surveys folkloristic literature on campus folklore before focusing on two examples from Lake Erie College. There are many other similar essays.
Since Neulander’s book takes the form of an encyclopedia, most readers will probably not read it cover to cover. The index, however, makes it easy to find specific topics. The book is engagingly written and fun to browse. Readers interested in specific topics (perhaps “South Bay Bessie” or ice fishing) are likely to be led to other topics, and can learn a lot about specific genres of folklore, or about the field of folklore more generally. For folklorists who read the book, most of the general information about folklore will not be new. However, there is a wealth of information on local traditions. I was fascinated, for example, by the essays on the Gore Orphanage legend (199-203), and The Lady of the Lake (229-233), both of which are well documented histories of local legends, emphasizing the dynamic qualities of this genre.
The book is not without problems. Neulander sometimes seems overly concerned with debunking the folklore she describes. For example, in “Medicinal Magic: Lake Erie Folk Medicine” (59-65), Neulander tells readers that “premodern folk medicine had no real medicinal value and could even be harmful.” Other times, she sounds judgmental of the “folk:” “When believers in Nephilim fossils are confronted by natural history…they do not adjust their assumptions to fit the facts” (207). Another issue that bothered this reviewer is that examples of Indigenous folklore are all early in the book, leading to the false (but probably unintentional) impression that there is no contemporary Indigenous folklore in the Lake Erie region.
However, Neulander’s audience is not so much folklorists, but rather anyone who is interested in the culture of the American side of Lake Erie. She has produced a fun and very readable reference source, which should alert her readers to the folklore around them and lead them to further explore the folklore of Lake Erie.
--------
[Review length: 606 words • Review posted on February 12, 2025]