South from Hell-fer-Sartin: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales [Paperback]

Leonard W. Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1988

" South from Hell-fer-Sartin, a short creek flowing into the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River, lies one of the of the most isolated regions in Kentucky. There, on the north slope of the Pine Mountain range in Leslie and Perry counties -- probably the last stronghold of white, English-language folk tales in North America -- Leonard W. Roberts recorded this rich collection more than three decades ago. To a people who at that time watched dancing hearth fires more often than television, the adventures of Jack in the land of witches and giants, monsters and beautiful princesses, provided first-class entertainment. Here are such old favorites as "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Golden Arm," retold in the idiom of the Kentucky mountains. Here are hauntingly beautiful cantes fables and earthy Irishman jokes. Here are encounters with Indians and marvelous hunting escapades. Roberts introduces his collection, first published in 1955, with a sympathetic description of the mountain way of life. He notes especially the bewildering and rapid changes that came to the Pine Mountain watershed in that decade as the highways and electric lines at last brought in a sophistication that preferred the soap opera to the folk tale. Although the stories Roberts recorded were still a firm part of folk tradition at the time, he believed that within a decade or two they would be forgotten -- a prediction, sadly, by now no doubt fulfilled. Any lover of the vanishing art of tale telling will relish this rich treasury of folklore and humor. Full notes on sources, types, motifs, parallels, and possible origins of the tales make this collection valuable also for folklorists.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky (August 4, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813116376
• ISBN-13: 978-0813116372
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,407,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars What a fun, interesting book!, February 11, 2004

By 

Lee Ann Whitaker (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: South from Hell-fer-Sartin: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales (Paperback)

I believe this book was written by an anthropologist, who went into the Ozarks and interviewed the local folks, collecting their folk legands, stories, and jokes. He recorded each story word-for-word as they were told to him by people of all ages - young kids to senior citizens - trying to preserve the dialect in his word spellings.

It's a good study of folklore, and makes for fun reading. I got a lot of laughs from it.

By the way, the book gets its name from the area south of a creek called "Hell-for-Certain," pronounced in the local dialect as "Hell-fer-Sartin."

I'd recommend it for cultural study, and especially for stress management. (A good laugh is excellent stress relief!)

4.0 out of 5 stars No place like Hell-for-Certain, September 30, 2011

By 

Crickett Pennington (Hell-For-Certain,Kentucky) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: South from Hell-fer-Sartin: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales (Paperback)

This book has many tales in it. Some are a lot better then others. The Big reason I purchased this book is because I live on Hell-For-Certain and I wanted to see what this book had to offer.