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.
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I saw a peacock with a fiery tail, and may this bread choke me if the moon landings were not filmed on Mars. When the crows flew off, they lifted the tree over nine red-hot ploughshares. Helen was never at Troy at all, she was hidden in an old manuscript drawer disguised as Duke...
In Charlie Cooper’s new series Myth Country (streaming on BBC I-player), the actor and writer reveals his passion for folklore and how the peculiar rituals and traditions of this country ‘bring people together’. Far from being outdated and trivial, folklore is, he says, ‘very much alive and thriving on social media’. The National Folklore Survey funded by UKRI...
Folklore Society council members Dr Matthew Cheeseman and Dr Paul Cowdell have been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council to run a research network through 2024. The network aims to understand how to embed greater equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within UK folklore. It hosts an international knowledge exchange on folklore theory, method,...
Announcing the recently launched Fionn Folklore Database. The hero Fionn mac Cumhaill is said to have defended Ireland and Scotland from foreign and supernatural threat during a legendary third-century Golden Age. The stories and songs about him and his warrior band, the Fianna, form the most prolific body of narrative in the Gaelic tradition, spanning...
Ethical guidelines for good practice in collecting, archiving and sharing folklore material. Folklore collection originally developed and flourished at a time when research ethics, and questions about intellectual property, were given little thought. Contemporary expectations demand that folklorists (and other researchers) pay attention to such matters. With this in mind, the Folklore Society suggests the...
Here’s a selection of courses and classes on folklore studies at various different levels, ranging from learning for fun to Masters and PhD. A History of Folklore: an online course from The Folklore Society Ever wondered where ‘folklore’ comes from? Who were the founders of our subject and how does their influence still shape what...
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
August 25, 2025
by Professor David Hopkin Tuesday 16 September, 17:30-18:30 BST ‘Down a hot and dusty road Tramps a soldier with his load.’ Igor Stravinsky and Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, The Soldier’s Tale (1917) Following my 2024 lecture on ‘The Sailor’s Tale’, in this address I look at another occupational group–soldiers–who were also associated with a specific genre of oral literature. Perhaps...
August 25, 2025
30 September 2025 is the deadline for entries for The Folklore Society President’s Prize 2025, for a folklore studies essay by a student registered on a relevant undergraduate, or equivalent level 4, 5 or 6, course of study at a university or other institution of higher or further education in the UK or Republic of...
August 25, 2025
Following our sold out course in January this year, A History of Folklore, run by The Folklore Society in partnership with Oxford Continuing Education, is running again in September 2025, January 2026 and April 2026. The 10-week course traces the development of folklore studies in the British Isles, from 17th-century antiquarians and the coining of...
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We invite submissions for this recurrent conference, encouraging young folklorists to explore and redefine the theoretical frameworks that guide our discipline. This conference seeks to engage participants in a dialogue with “humble theory”, outlined by Dorothy Noyes (2016) as a theoretical and methodological approach, born in the “middle territory between grand theory and loc...