Just a note following from Jim's post of 27 May:
Thom did coin the word 'folklore', but in this he was just following the German example. Philosopher and writer Johann Gottfried Herder actually coined the word 'folksong' in 1773, albeit in German as 'Volkslied'in an essay on 'Ossian and folksong'. Herder was one of many taken in by James Macpherson's publication of the alleged manuscripts of ancient Scots bard, Ossian- proclaimed as the Celtic Homer –in 1760. The poems turned out to be entirely of Macpherson's own making (although some were re-makings of old ballads). Nevertheless the fictional Ossian was so much part of the Romantic zeitgeist and ideas of the noble savage that he captured the imagination of poets, artists and musicians … Herder for one, who did actually go on to publish a book of folksongs he collected.