Games and Songs of American Children

Description

This work is the principal folklore legacy of the Arthurian scholar William Wells Newell. Newell systematically compiled no less than 160 games and game-songs of English-speaking children. More than one hundred years after its original publication, Newell’s work is still valuable for its insights into the geographic and historical origins of American games and songs such as “Barbara Allen,” “Virginia Reel,” “Ring Around the Rose,” “Handball,” “Hop-Scotch,” and “Ghost in the Cella.”