ABSTRACT
The ultimate goal of the folklorist is to present a tenable analysis of the traditional expressions of a cultural group. Any analysis takes as its basic premise that there is something to analyze, a meaning to understand. In the realm of tradition, interpretation is based on a belief that the traditional expressions of a culture through their performance produce meaning relevant to the members of that culture. Therefore, the goal of the folklorist must be to develop a methodology which methodically and consistently presents an analysis of meaning relevant to the tradition context.1 The methodology must not be tradition specific, but rather applicable to any tradition. At the same time, it must reveal the specifs of a particular tradition group and its expressions. While a great deal of interpretation is ultimately speculative and subjective, the methodology should provide results which are both verifiable and falsifiable. Bengt Holbek, in his work on the interpretation of fairy tales, delimits such an analytical methodology as follows:
We may define the following criteria for adequate or plausible interpretation: (1) It must not contradict known facts or be based on assumptions which may be shown to be wrong. (2) It must be consistent ... All interpretation must be based on a coherent system of concepts. (3) It must be methodical ... it must follow a procedure which can be explained and justified step by step on the basis of a clearly stated and adequate theory *... (4) It must be
comprehensive. It must encompass the tale as a whole, not merely a detail or two; and it must be applicable to several tales belonging to the same tradition ... (5) It must be capable of being tested, at least by the criterion of intersubjective validity ...2
