Just some information, really.

Kent Davis said:

The first chapter of the book GRANDFATHER TALES (Richard Chase, 1948, Houghton Miflin) is a Mummer's play from the Southern Appalachians. The remainder of the book is mostly folktales, with a few songs (Devil and the Farmer's Wife, Froggy Went A-courtin'), all set within a frame-story of an Old Christmas (January 6) observation in the mountains of North Carolina.

I got Liz to buy me the book for Christmas on the strength of this. It cost about £2.50 (withdrawn from a school library) plus £5 snail mail from the USA.

The book is an excellent collection of folk tales, songs, and the play mentioned. In all cases, sources are given and it's excellent value for the money it cost.

Unfortunately, the sources for the mummers play reveal that it's not quite as simple as "a Mummer's play from the Southern Appalachians". In fact, even though it's still fairly fragmentary, it's actually a loose collation from 3 sources. The first is a turn-of-the (20th) Century description of an Appalachian mummers play. The second is, however, Chambers and the third is some English information about John Barleycorn. On the basis of this, it seems unlikely that much of the action or the dialogue comes from the USA. Unfortunate for me ... I had thought it might be nice for TheAshwell Mummers to do an authentic Appalachian play as our "fun" play one year.

The good news is that I have the reference to the original description, which will - I think - prove interesting.

Best wishes
Ian