Devoted to the Study of Folklore and Tradition

The Folklore Society (FLS) is a learned society, based in London, devoted to the study of all aspects of folklore and tradition, including: ballads, folktales, fairy tales, myths, legends, traditional song and dance, folk plays, games, seasonal events, calendar customs, childlore and children's folklore, folk arts and crafts, popular belief, folk religion, material culture, vernacular language, sayings, proverbs and nursery rhymes, folk medicine, plantlore and weather lore.

Next Folklore Society Event

The Sky in Legend and Tradition

4th and 5th September 2021
Medieval Hall, Cathedral Close, Salisbury SP1 2EY

Wikimedia Commons: Flammarion engraving 1888, 2017 colorised version Wikipedia user Houston Physicist

The Sky in Legend and Tradition The Fifteenth Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th September 2021 The Medieval Hall in Cathedral Close, Salisbury SP1 2EY The flying pigs are knocking on Heaven’s door while thunderbirds circle the Merry Dancers and a woman standing on the moon bends over Endymion. Dragons...

More events coming up

Creativity during the Covid lockdown: Life and Renewal During the Pandemic Presidential Address and Annual General Meeting 2021 Brother Workmen: Solidarity in Trade Folklore

Other Folklore Events and Calls for Papers

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Unravelling the Hero’s Journey: New narrative modalities/paradigms for story, semantics & the psychology of experience

Start date: 6th Jul 2021
End date: 31st Aug 2021
n/a

CALL FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST - Unravelling the Hero’s Journey: an edited book by Alison Norrington (Story Central) & Dr Roy Hanney (Solent University) https://evolutionofstory.info/unravelling-the-heros-journey/ At a time when the world is rethinking what it means by diversity and inclusion, how can we open up the concept of story to global voices, alternative vision...

Religion and Victorian Popular Literature and Culture: Call for Papers

Start date: 13th Jul 2021
End date: 1st Nov 2021
online

Journal of Victorian Popular Fictions, issue 5.2 (Autumn 2023), Call for Papers on “Religion and Victorian Popular Literature and Culture”. The issue will be guest edited by Naomi Hetherington and Clare Stainthorp. A 500-word abstract and short biography in Word should be submitted to [email protected] by 1 November 2021. Final articles to be submitted by 30 September 2022....

A Folklore Festival

Date: 24th Jul 2021
St Nicholas Church, Newington, Nr. Folkestone, Kent

This meeting is organised by the friends of St Nicholas Church supported by the Sauniere Society to raise funds for this 12th century church 10am - 5pm Tickets £20 to include a buffet lunch Speakers include: Sophie Kingshill: Author of 'Mermaids and The Fabled Coast' will lecture on 'The History of Mermaids' with Q&A afterwards John Morewood: (Institute of Historical Resea...

Hidden Charms 3

Date: 2nd Oct 2021
St Mary's Creative Space, St Mary's Hill, Chester CH1 2DW

Our theme is the magical protection of buildings and related topics. Speakers are Brian Hoggard on Horse skulls and their use in magic, Debora Moretti on Rethinking the perception of magic and rituals in archaeological contexts, Jeremy Harte on Arrow sharpening marks, Jeannine Woods on Pagan protection rituals in popular Christian celebrations of Bríd/Brigid in Ireland, Linda Wilso...

North Lincolnshire Museum – Folklore

Date: 23rd Oct 2021
North Lincolnshire Museum

Common Ground Lincs are excited to be working again with North Lincolnshire Museum to create an exhibition of contemporary artworks made in response to folklore. Our curators are seeking works that explore themes of folklore and stories, traditional customs, folk music, folk medicine, witchcraft, and magic. Artwork can be of any medium. Including, but not limited to, painting, ph...

Diversity in Folk

Start date: 13th Nov 2021
End date: 14th Nov 2021
Cecil Sharp House, London

Diversity in Folk: Call for Papers The annual conference of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library will take place on 13 and 14 November 2021 at Cecil Sharp House in London. Its theme will be ‘Diversity in Folk’. Send proposals for papers, 400 words max, by 30 July...

Folklore Society News

All FLS News back issues now available in the Members’ area

All issues of our newsletter FLS News, from No.1, 1985 to the most recent issue, are now available as pdfs in the Members area of our website, as well as earlier newsletters 1980-83, and Derek Froome’s index of FLS News Nos.1-50, 1985-2006. Just log in to the Members only area: https://folklore-society.com/wp-login.php If you’ve forgotten your log...

FLS Office, Part Time Administrator job

Congratulations to our Assistant Librarian Dr Tina Paphitis who is soon to begin a three year post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Oslo. Tina will continue to work for us remotely as Assistant Reviews Editor for Folklore. We are seeking to appoint a new part-time (2 days a week) administrative assistant to carry out administrative...

‘Henry Glassie: Field Work’

Henry Glassie: Field Work: at The Folklore Society Click here to buy a ticket to watch the film for £4.99 (UK only) Directed by Pat Collins Documentary | English/Portuguese | 105 min Distributed in the UK by New Wave Films From the director of Song of Granite and Silence comes this new documentary study of the...

The Katharine Briggs Award 2020

We are delighted to announce that the winner of The Katharine Briggs Award 2020 is William G. Pooley, Body and Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France: Félix Arnaudin and the Moorlands of Gascony, 1870-1914, published by Oxford University Press. And the runner-up is Jonathan L. READY, Orality, Textuality, and the Homeric Epics: An Interdisciplinary Study of Oral...

Announcements

Calendar Customs in Fiction

Sophie Parkes-Nield, a PhD student at the Centre for Contemporary Legend, Sheffield Hallam University, is searching for calendar customs represented in fiction. If you’ve spotted a custom in a novel or short story, please email her at [email protected] or tweet her via https://twitter.com/sophparkes

Fund-Raising for The Folklore Society

Following our move to 50 Fitzroy Street, the Society’s annual costs for office accommodation have significantly increased, so we are inviting all members and friends of The Folklore Society to support us by making donations via our Charities Aid Foundation page at CAF Donate: https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/11322

The Folklore Society office has moved to 50 Fitzroy Street

Our new office address is: The Folklore Society, 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT, tel. +44 (0)203 915 3034 Office hours: Tuesday to Friday from 13:30-5:30 pm (and at other times by appointment). Our staff are part-time, so please let us know in advance of your visit in case we’re working away from the office...

MA in Folklore Studies at University of Hertfordshire

Exciting news for anyone wanting to turn their interest in folklore into an academic qualification: the University of Hertfordshire are now offering a Folklore Studies MA, which will run both part-time and full-time. For further details on the programme of study and how to apply, please see: https://www.herts.ac.uk/courses/ma-folklore-studies

Concealed revealed

The Concealed Revealed, a strand of the Inner Lives: Emotion, Identity and the Supernatural, 1300-1900 Project, is hoping to produce an extensive catalogue of concealed objects and domestic apotropaic devices, from shoes and cats to timber marks, across Britain. Dr Ceri Houlbrook, of the University of Hertfordshire, is not only seeking information about these objects but is also aiming to...

Folklore query? Ask the Folklorists

If you have a folklore enquiry, email us at thefolkloresociety @gmail.com and we will try our best to answer it or to refer you to someone else who can. Follow us on Twitter @FolkloreSociety and on our Folklore Society Facebook page