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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 Katharine Briggs Lecture and Book Award 2024

  • 12/11/2024
  • 18:00-22:00
  • Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regents Park Road, London NW1 7AY

Doc Rowe

The Katharine Briggs Lecture 2024 is jointly hosted this year by The Folklore Society and The English Folk Dance and Song Society Tuesday 12 November, 17:30-22:00 at Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY Our lecturer this year is Dr Doc Rowe ‘Transmission, Transformation and Trends: Historic and Contemporary Approaches to our...

More Folklore Society events coming up

Folklore Without Borders: November Meeting30 Years in Avalon: Fieldwork and Vernacular Religion in GlastonburyRising Tides: Water Beings as Agents of Change in Environmental Activism‘They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats!’More events 

Announcements

The National Folklore Survey

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 Far from being outdated and trivial, folklore is, he says, ‘very much alive and thriving on social media’.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 without Borders

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,...

Fionn Folklore Database

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...

Ethics Guidelines for Collecting Folklore

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...

Courses in Folklore Studies

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...

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

Our Latest Blog Posts

October 23, 2024

Folklore and the Senses: Call for Papers

Folklore and the Senses The Folklore Society’s Annual Conference, in collaboration with the Department of Folklore and Ethnology, University College Cork, Ireland. Friday 20 June to Sunday 22 June 2025 Hybrid conference, online and at University College Cork We know the world through our senses, but how we sense is inflected by symbolism, tradition and...


October 17, 2024

Liz Overs in Performance

Liz Overs in Performance Hosted by The Folklore Society at 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT Friday 13 December 2024, 19:30 Liz Overs performs songs from her first solo album, Nightjar, joined by guitarist David Tomlins. A mix of traditional and original songs, Nightjar is fully acoustic, recorded mostly live in the studio with Neill MacColl...


October 16, 2024

The Katharine Briggs Lecture and Book Award 2024

Dr Doc Rowe, ‘Transmission, Transformation and Trends: Historic and Contemporary Approaches to our Cultural Traditions’   Tuesday 12 Nov 2024, 6:00pm – 10:00pm  Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY The Folklore Society’s annual Katharine Briggs evening is jointly hosted this year by The Folklore Society and The English Folk Dance and Song...

More blog posts

 

Other Folklore Events and Calls for Papers

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Future Folk Archetypes

  • Start date: 3rd Sep 2024
  • End date: 2nd Nov 2024
  • Portico Library, Manchester

Future Folk Archetypes is a newly commissioned trio of works by Lucy Wright re-imagining existing seasonal folk customs as manifestly contemporary beings, whose evolutions represent the diversity of folklore not currently included in the Portico's collection. Folk collectors in the nineteenth and early-twentieth century sometimes overlooked or disregarded traditions associated wi...


Tales for an Unruly Audience

  • Start date: 6th Nov 2024
  • End date: 7th Nov 2024
  • The Questors Theatre, Ealing

Members of the Folklore Society can get 10% off Tickets with the code: TALES10 Tales for an Unruly Audience invites folklorists who want permission to misbehave! Come ye to the Questors Theatre! Lung and a Half Full Theatre are proud to once again present ‘Tales for an Unruly Audience’, a spectacular evening of myth, mirth, and magic, with a selection of ancient tales performe...


Being Human Festival: Fangs and Folklore

  • Date: 16th Nov 2024
  • Derby Museum and Art Gallery

Did Bram Stoker read any folklorists in order to write Dracula? What did he invent outright and what did he develop? How old is traditional belief in Vampires? Where do the stories come from? Explore these and other questions in three workshop sessions, each followed by a shorter session led by novelists, who will encourage you to develop your own vampires. This half-day event br...

More events and call for papers