Review of 'Boundaries and Thresholds: Papers from a Colloquium of the Katharine Briggs Club'. Hilda Ellis Davidson (ed.), Lockwood, Stroud, Glos., U.K., The Thimble Press, 1993. Soft covers: ISBN 0 903355 418. PP. 104 £14-40

Abstract

While most of the 9 papers here have in the precise sense a European bias, the theory aspects of the contributions all have remarkable relevance to Australian lore. Thus it is possible, even without the fine 'Introduction' by Hilda Ellis Davidson, to use the studies here presented as antecedents to the various Australian contemporary legends of Aboriginal provenance, as well as to those owing much to Old Testament, general British or Anglo-Celtic antecedents, of so much of our culture. Thus there are studies concerned with: the narrative potential of establishing borders; crossing 'the line' to the Polar regions; springtime (Irish) boundary affirming; the notions of thresholds as in the area of megaliths; journeys to islands; boundaries associated with sin; and the various thresholds and borders associated with British funeral customs.