Calling all fairy tale–curious students near and far! Have you ever wondered how scholars approach folk tales, myths, and oral tradition? Are you looking for a fantastical escape from final exams?

Join Harvard Libraries and the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology for an interactive, tale-filled workshop on the scholarly tools used to study and classify oral tradition.

With its early focus on collection, categorization, and diffusion, the study of oral tradition has long relied on structuralist tools like the ATU Tale Type Index and the Motif-Index of Folk Literature. Though scholarly approaches have expanded beyond the collection and tracing of tale types, plots, and motifs, these tools have left a significant mark on the study of oral tradition and remain useful for scholars and tale-curious publics.

Open to all undergraduate and graduate students, this workshop offers a brief overview of the history of indexes in the study of oral tradition, along with a hands-on instructional session on working with these tools.

Nota Bene: This 60-75-minute workshop will take place on campus in Cambridge (Widener Library, room 240, adjoining the Atkins Reference Room). During the last 15 minutes of class, we'll be visiting the book stacks; students who can't stay past noon may skip that portion.

Illustration by Kay Nielsen, from Hansel and Gretel and Other Stories, by the brothers Grimm (1925) London, At Hodder and Stoughton, public domain