Water in Legend and Tradition – Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September 2024

Water in Legend and Tradition: the 18th Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society

Saturday 31 August and Sunday 1 September 2024

St Peter’s by the Waterfront, College Street, Ipswich IP4 1BF, UK

Cry me a river! The tears of the Virgin would fill a bottomless pool, down to the sunless dragons of the deep. Exorcise thee, creature of water! No foul thing can cross the running stream whose rise predicts famine and war. Dip me in the waters of the Styx before the mermaids can drag us beneath the glassy cool translucent wave. Wash me and comb me and lay me down softly by the rivers of Babylon, a virtuous well where sinners bathe within that flood, good for eyes and warts and brides. I stood on the bridge at midnight when the bathhouse is haunted and the troll sits under the waterfall, paying the ferryman. Though the Washer at the Ford has been conjured into a bottle and cast into the village pond, the Lady of the Lake may yet drown her treasure in the castle moat. Fish foretell in water: the Salmon of Knowledge watches the pins float or fall. A drop from this bottle will bring him back to life again. Three coins in a fountain, brightly painted with roses and castles, dress the holy well whose waters have been transformed into the finest beer: drink and be thankful!

Don’t be a wet blanket, come to our two-day conference on Water in Legend and Tradition, to be held on Saturday 31st August and Sunday 1st September as the eighteenth Legendary Weekend of the Folklore Society, in the medieval grandeur of St Peter’s by the Waterfront, College Street, Ipswich IP4 1BF. The line-up includes:

Gail-Nina Anderson, The Bathing Lady

Geraldine Beskine, Water in the Tarot

Joel Conn, The Moon in a Bucket

Janet Dowling, storytelling

Allison Galbraith, Clyde mermaids

Tommy Kuusela The Neck in Swedish

Imogen Malpas, Water in Song

Katie Marland, Dobarchu

Stephen Miller, Waterhorses

George Monger, Phantoms from the Water

Robert Piotrowski, Devil’s Dams in Poland

Simon Young, Mapping Mermaids

The event is in-person only and will not be live-streamed. The conference fee is £70. If you would like to attend, please contact Jeremy Harte, Bourne Hall, Spring Street, Ewell, Surrey KT17 1UF. Telephone: 020 8394 1734. Email: [email protected]

Image: based on Arthur Rackham