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 Strange History of Mother Shipton

22/06/2021
18:00-19:30
Online talk

Wikimedia Commons

Prof. Richard Jenkins (University of Sheffield) asks ‘Who was Mother Shipton? Was she a real person? How did she end up as the theme of a visitor attraction in Knaresborough, Yorkshire?’ This talk will trace the development of ‘Mother Shipton’ as a legendary figure: from the prophetess of seventeenth-century Civil War pamphlets, to the presiding...

More events coming up

Henry Glassie and Doc Rowe in Conversation The Suburban Boggart: The Survival and Revival of a Manchester monster The Sky in Legend and Tradition Creativity during the Covid lockdown: Life and Renewal During the Pandemic

Other Folklore Events and Calls for Papers

Please submit this online form if you would like us to publicise your event on our website.

Ben Edge and the Museum of British Folklore: Ritual Britain

Start date: 4th Jun 2021
End date: 4th Jul 2021
Crypt Gallery, Euston Road, London NW1 2BA (entrance via Duke's Road)

From the 4th of June until July the 4th the artist Ben Edge and the Museum of British Folklore are collaborating for an exhibition titled ‘Ritual Britain’ In which Ben’s series of twenty paintings and documentary film titled ‘Frontline Folklore’ Will go on display alongside Simon Costin’s iconic MOBF collection. There will be events running throughout the exhibition that...

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

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...

Past Presidents of The Folklore Society

Dr Ross Macfarlane has very kindly compiled a list of all of our past Presidents on the Wikipedia entry for The Folklore Society: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Folklore_Society#Presidents Thanks Ross

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