Songs His Mother Taught Him: Émile Legrand’s Collection of Lacemakers’ Ballads

Émile Legrand was the leading scholar of modern Greek in late nineteenth-century France; he also made a collection of songs sung by his mother and her neighbours, all lacemakers, in the village of Fontenay-le-Marmion in Normandy. Lacemakers in many parts of Europe had a distinctive work culture characterized by ballad singing, but this is the only evidence of lacemakers’ repertoire from Normandy. I speculate that Legrand’s experiences growing up within this culture influenced his career as the progenitor of Akritic Studies.