All Silver and No Brass
An Irish Christmas Mumming

Henry Glassie

224 pages | 6 x 9 1/4 | 27 illus.
Paper 1976 | ISBN 978-0-8122-1139-9 | $24.95s | £16.50 | Add to cart
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"An excellent book, not only a perceptive study of mumming in Ireland but also an excellent introduction to folklore and what folklorists do. . . . This book is most impressive and can be recommended for any level of adult audience."—Choice

"A beautifully written exploration of a vanishing holiday ritual that can be traced back to the dramas of the sixteenth century and beyond." —Philadelphia Inquirer

"An excellent book recommended both to the student of literature and the general reader interested in folklore."—Irish Echo

"A magnificently comprehensive book. . . . Whether you are a mumming or Wran Boy enthusiast or not, this beautifully produced book will take you into a world of suspended reality, gone, but not quite."—Books Ireland

"Glassie has captured the authentic tang of the Ulster countryman's speech, laconic with surprising shots of hyperbole. . . . A beautifully produced book."—Irish Independent

For the general reader as for the folklorist, this is a fascinating, vivid, and sensitive account that, through its portraits of individuals and of a community, offers a unique insight into a folk custom of the Christmas season.

Henry Glassie is College Professor of Folklore at Indiana University. He is the author of Art and Life in Bangladesh, Irish Folktales, The Spirit of Folk Art, and Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States, which is also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

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