The Danish Folk-Lore Society was founded in 1904-5,[1] and No. 1 of the Communications of the "FF" (Folkloristischer Forscherbund) is an abridged catalogue by Prof. Olrik of the Society's collections. The Grundtvig and phonograph-record sections are fully classified (except one sub-section), the manuscripts of Kristensen,[2] (happily still alive), are in part similarly arranged, and other material is put into classified yearly series of packets, (those of 1906 receiving all short contributions, and not being confined to northern folklore). In No. 2 A. Lunding gives the arrangement of Grundtvig's 800 Ms. tales under 134 types (in addition to religious legends, animal stories, and drolls), some types being subdivided. To identify types more closely, references are usually added to examples in printed Danish and other collections. No. 4 is the first Report of the "FF." In No. 3 Antti Aarne proposes a classification of folk-tales under 2000 divisions, 1-299 covering beast tales, 300-1199 märchen properly so called,[3] and 1200-2000 drolls; about 540 divisions are filled up, and some subdivided. Aarne's system is applied by him to Finnish märchen in No. 5, and by O. Hackman to the märchen of Swedish-speaking people in Finland in No. 6. Our own Society has hitherto regarded analysis of the stories as a necessary preliminary to their classification, and has limited its efforts to tabulating tales on lines laid down in its Handbook (1887). Of the results of this tabulation only the Cinderella group has yet been published (1892), and similar treatment of the enormous numbers of tales recorded, especially since 1887, would obviously require very many years even for a multitude of workers. Aarne's system, and others already proposed, furnish together an adequate basis upon which, after discussion, a definitive classification might now be founded, perhaps by international agreement, and so comparative folklore might gain a really powerful aid in its utilization of folk-tales.
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