Melville's Folk Roots

Folklore, Oct, 2002 by Alan W. Smith

By Kevin J. Hayes. Kent, OH and London: Kent State University Press, 1999. xvi 134 pp. $28.00 (hbk). ISBN 0-87338-625-6

This is a gem of a book, fully justifying its claim to appeal to "general readers as well as seasoned scholars," and said to be both an in-depth survey of Melville's use of folklore and an introduction to his work. The author s method is to take a series of themes--superstitions, folksong, proverbs, ghost stories, tall tales--and to show how each genre is often vital to the literary structure and effects that Melville seeks to create. Because of our common heritage, much of the American material is familiar to the British reader. There are, however, exceptions. "The old horseshoe nailed to the foremast" with which he begins is said to have a close association with pirates. In White Jacket, the view is expressed that rock from St Paul's Cave in Malta "is good for a charm against shipwreck;" an odd one, this, for St Paul was shipwrecked and the tale is unknown in Malta. Uniquely, American is the value given "charms" made from bits of USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"), the undefeated ship launched on a Friday and that first set sail on a Friday. Chips from Nelson's Victory can be bought in Portsmouth, but I have never heard of them having amuletic value. Hayes concludes that, without sharing them himself, Melville was plainly fascinated by sailors' beliefs and practices and used them with skill to draw the reader into the sailors' world.

The second chapter, on folksong, will perhaps attract a little more scepticism. In an incident from Typee, the character Tommo sings an excerpt from a named but unquoted ballad, "The Bavarian Broomseller." Did Melville assume that the ballad would be so well-known to his readers that they could see (as Hayes does) a poignant parallel between the stranded sailor and the broomseller who cannot raise his fare home? Was the choice of ballad conscious art? Similar incidents occur elsewhere. There is even reliance on "the mere sound of singing," even on "melodies unheard." Melville's use of proverbs--predominantly ironic, argues Hayes--also has a documentary value, being in some cases "the only recorded reference to many traditional sailor sayings."

On "ghost sailors," Melville is shown as well aware that such tales were only told at appropriate times and places. They were not free-floating stories, but had a therapeutic value in group bonding after a shipmate's death.

The "tall tale," often regarded as typically American, is a recurring device, and Melville is always aware of its role in oral culture in reinforcing group identity and excluding strangers who cannot understand the joke-tales of Nantucket, where, for example, one blade of grass is an oasis and three a prairie.

The grand climax of the book is the analysis of Moby Dick, where Melville found an American subject that could be treated on an epic scale, sweeping the reader into a world of "charms, conjuration and mighty magic," the world of the White Whale. Final chapters look at Melville after Moby Dick--calm after a storm.

This book can be strongly recommended to anyone interested in Melville, Americana or maritime life. Perhaps in places Kevin Hayes overstates his case, but I detect only one slip. The Flying Dutchman is surprisingly relocated from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn (p. 39). There are also copious notes and an index.

Alan W. Smith, Chigwell, Essex