University College London Special Collections have found a letter from J.R.R. Tolkien to Katharine Briggs in a box of her correspondence in our Folklore Society Archives. The other side of the correspondence, K.M. Briggs’ letters to Tolkien, are in the Tolkien family archive at The Bodleian Library. You can read more about the correspondence between...
Doc Rowe was in the news again on 5 November 2023, with an Observer article about his work: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/nov/05/cheese-rolling-straw-bears-and-weird-rituals-galore-one-mans-mission-to-record-all-of-british-folklore The article draws attention to the Crowdfunder to fund the digitisation of parts of Doc’s archive of the film and video recordings he has made of seasonal events in Britain over the past 60 years. The crowdfunder...
We are delighted to announce that the winner of The Katharine Briggs Award 2023 is Una McIlvenna for her book Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe, 1500-1900 published by Oxford University Press Congratulations Una! Una was unable to join us from Melbourne for the award presentation on 7 November, so she has...
We were very sad to hear of the death on 2 November of Prof. Will Ryan, scholar of Russian history and culture, and author of The Bath House at Midnight: An Historical Survey of Magic and Divination in Russia (1999). He was President of The Folklore Society from 2005 to 2008, was our Honorary Librarian...
It’s that time of year again! We’d like to see your neeps, pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, Hop-tu-naa lanterns Tag @FolkloreSociety on Insta or X(ex-Twitter) in your lantern photo or post your photo on our Facebook page
Doc Rowe film and archive project Fifth Column Films in Whitby have launched a Crowdfunder campaign to digitise and save some of Doc Rowe’s unique archive of recordings of UK seasonal events. The campaign will run until 17 November 2023 and aims to raise £25,000 to digitise his video and film material: This project has...
Folk Dance: Grappling with Tradition Conference of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, English Folk Dance and Song Society Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 November 2023 The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library’s 2023 conference examines folk dance in its wide ranging forms, and asks speakers and delegates to consider the meaning of tradition, both historically and in the...
Ciarán Walsh will be launching his book Alfred Cort Haddon: a Very English Savage at The Royal Anthropological Institute’s Research Seminar on Tuesday 31 October 2023, 16:00-18:00, at 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT. Tickets are free: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rai-research-seminar-and-book-launch-ciaran-walsh-tickets-724064254677 Haddon adopted the persona of ‘a very English savage’ in January 1895 during a slideshow on the meaning...