George Halden Earle: A Concert Unto Himself

A.J. Pell is rector of Christ Church in Hope, B.C., editor of the
Canadian Evangelical Review, and an instructor of Liturgy, Anglican
Studies Programme at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia.

George Earle’s vocation was being an Anglican priest, but it is his
avocation, being a practitioner and historian of Newfoundland’s
folklore and “old foolishness,” that is the central concern of this
entertaining volume. Growing up in the Change Islands and Fago, Earle
(1914–2000) was an outpost boy who was more deeply rooted in his
family, culture, land, humor, and people than he suspected. Eighteen
years in England, and particularly pastoral ministry in rural
Northumberland, made him appreciate his roots and the folklore of
Newfoundland.

When he returned to St. John’s as principal, then provost, of
Queen’s College, Earle collected and promoted “old foolishness”
and folklore. By “old foolishness,” he meant the oral culture of
Newfoundland in which people “exchange yarns and play practical jokes
on one another.” A key ingredient, as Earle saw it, was the regional
dialect, words, and phrases from the old country (primarily, England’s
West Country) that took on a life of their own west of the Atlantic.
Poole traces Earle’s life, showing how his family and his various
opportunities to get to know every part of Newfoundland molded the
folklorist and humorist during the last four decades of his life. Earle
became a widely acclaimed speaker and part-time actor who used humor
based on a close observation of character “to celebrate Newfoundland
history and culture, and to record a way of life whose passing he
lamented.”

To Poole’s credit, this is not just another substandard regional
history, but an engaging encounter with George Earle the man. A wise use
of Earle’s poems, often comic, allows Earle’s voice to come through,
as do quotations from interviews with Earle in the 1990s. The result is
a good biography, and also a valuable portrait of Newfoundland’s life
and culture, as seen through the eyes of an adoring son of the Rock.