Alex Helm
Alex Helm (1920–1970) was a British folklorist, described as "one of the most important figures in the study of calendar custom and [folk] dance in post-war England".[1]
Early life and education
[edit | edit source]Helm was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1920, becoming interested in folk dancing whilst attending Burnley Grammar School. He trained to become a teacher at St John's Teacher-training College, York.[2]
During the Second World War he served in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps, reaching the rank of Major.
Career
[edit | edit source]After the war, Helm taught at Northumberland Heath Secondary School, Erith, before in 1949 moving to Danesford School at Congleton, Cheshire.[3]
Folklore Research
[edit | edit source]Helm began to take an interest in the history of dances and dramatic traditions of Lancashire and Cheshire, in part influenced by Margaret Dean-Smith, Librarian of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), with whom Helm had helped to sort and index the Society's papers. Within a year of his move to Cheshire he had published research on ‘The Cheshire Soul-caking Play’,[4] a type of folk play that had been little studied.
During this period Helm, now a member of the Manchester Morris Men troupe, also began to research Lancastrian Morris traditions.[5]
Helm joined the Folklore Society in 1954.[6] He soon made a study of the papers of T. F. Ordish, held in the collections of the Society.[7] Ordish, a 19th-century folklorist who specialised on mummers' plays, had planned – but never completed – a monograph on British folk drama.[2]
Inspired by this work, Helm's research expanded from folk dance and folk play into creating a geographical index of British seasonal customs, of which folk dance and folk play would form sections. For this project he worked with a group of researchers - E. C. Cawte,[8] Norman Peacock and Roger Marriott. The group co-authored 'A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain', which was published as two journal articles in 1960[9] and 1961[10] and English Ritual Drama: A Geographical Index in 1967.[11]
English Ritual Drama is now seen as a seminal work, being the "first systematic attempt to list every known occurrence of the folk play in Britain and to provide a source for each location".[6]
Recognition and influence
[edit | edit source]In 1968 Helm was awarded the Coote Lake Medal of the Folklore Society, for "outstanding research and scholarship" in the field of Folklore Studies. Whilst never a field collector, he was hailed for his "great ability to interest and stimulate others, and to guide them with his deep and growing knowledge",[12]
Helm died in 1970: his life and work being "cut short as he reached his peak".[12]
Helm had a considerable influence on later customs researchers in England, particularly through the geographic approach he advocated. His argument that folk dance and folk play should be studied as rituals or customs - as opposed to the literary approach adopted by earlier scholars like E. K. Chambers - became the adopted model (although one criticised by later researchers).[1][6]
C0llections
[edit | edit source]Helm's research papers - including correspondence, manuscript notebooks and working papers for his research on seasonal customs - are held at University College London.[3][13]
Selected publications
[edit | edit source]Helm, Alex (1950). "The Cheshire Soul-Caking Play". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 6 (2): 45–50. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Helm, Alex (1954). "The Rushcart and the North-Western Morris". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 7 (3): 172–179. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Helm, Alex (1955-09-01). "Report on the Ordish Papers". Folklore. 66 (3): 360–362. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Cawte, E. C.; Helm, Alex; Marriott, R. J.; Peacock, N. (1960). "A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Part One". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 9 (1): ii–41. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Cawte, E. C.; Helm, Alex; Peacock, N. (1961). "A Geographical Index of the Ceremonial Dance in Great Britain: Addenda and Corrigenda". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 9 (2): 93–95. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Helm, Alex (1965-06-01). "In Comes I, St George". Folklore. 76 (2): 118–136. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Cawte, E. C; Helm, Alex; Peacock, N (1967). English ritual drama: a geographical index,. London: Folk-lore Society. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). OCLC 124592
Helm, Alex (1981). The English mummers' play: With a foreword by N. Peacock and E.C. Cawte. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Brewer. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value). OCLC 633313812
References
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External links
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