Editorial - Australian Folklore: Journal Number 8, August 1993

As was requested by Bill Wan nan in correspondence, an attempt has also been made to include certain controversial materials which are now placed at the front of the journal. Otherwise the main sequence of articles is roughly chronological. As in issue No. 7, relevant new poetry from (folk) writers is included, not least because of its emphasis on memory, place and on earlier experience which has often been transmitted orally. It will be obvious that some of the other contents owe their inclusion to discussion at the Fifth National conference (1992) and one piece to the Fourth (1990). Yet others have been sparked off by the contents of Australian Folklore 7 (1992). Pleasingly there is now included material in the areas of contemporary legend, oral history, and children's lore, as well as a number of 'Anglo-Celtic' items, - the last being particularly appropriate in view of the present dynamic scholarship worldwide on the Celtic diaspora. And Joan MacDonald's paper would certainly complement the Scottish sections of Hilda Ellis Davidson (ed.) 'The Seer in Celtic and Other Traditions', Edinburgh (1989).