SOCIAL SCIENCES

The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices

by Claude Lecouteux
Inner Traditions. 2013. 248p. tr. from French by Jon E. Graham. illus. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781620551059. pap. $16.95. PARAPSYCH
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This work, a translation of Lecouteux's (formerly, medieval literature & civilization, Paris-Sorbonne Univ.) La Maison et Ses Genies (2000), is a detailed study of ancestral European folk traditions centered on the home and the spirits or creatures, including dwarves, sprites, and fairies, that were believed to exist there. Most of these curious rites have been lost over time or through major cultural changes. Like Catharina Raudvere's More Than Mythology: Narrative, Ritual Practices and Regional Distribution in Pre-Christian Scandinavian Religions, this book explores not only the traditions and superstitions themselves but how they reflected the values and social structure of a given region and how they survived despite an altered religious environment. People sought to retain their familiar rites from older days of pantheistic worship as Christianity gradually took over.
VERDICT Lecouteux provides plenty of historical accounts and stories that exemplify the various beliefs discussed, and his detailed and thoroughly researched writing remains accessible despite the academic tone evident in this translation. Readers with an interest in folklore, superstitions, or fairy tales will find it enlightening, especially regarding the traces of these beliefs that still exist in modern consciousness, either in lingering cultural traditions or from the folk and fairy tales we continue to pass down over generations.
Reviewed by Rachel Hoover, Thomas Ford Memorial Lib., Western Springs, IL , Oct 01, 2013
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