Tarot and Cartomancy in France from the French Revolution to the Twentieth Century A Folklore Society Online Talk by Dr William Pooley (University of Bristol) Tuesday 15 April, 19:00 BST The earliest evidence of fortune-telling using playing cards in Europe dates to 1765. By 1789 and the start of the French Revolution, a veritable epidemic...
Lucy Broadwood (1858-1929): the Challenges and Compromises of a Folk Song Collector A Folklore Society online talk by Chris Hare Tuesday 1 April 2025, 19:00 BST Lucy Broadwood was a pioneering folk song collector, who was active in the field from the 1880s until her death in 1929. She had a broad range of musical...
Folklore and the Digital: One-day Online Conference Saturday 29 March, 09:30-17:30 GMT Following on from our ‘Digital Folklore’ conference in June 2024, we are holding a one-day online conference ‘Folklore and the Digital’, looking at the digitisation of folklore collections, large language models, digital tools in preserving folk traditions and creating new ones, social media...
Elias Ashmole and the Cottingley Fairies: from ‘An Excellent Way To Gett A Fayrie’ to Princess Mary’s Gift Book A Folklore Society online talk by John Clark (Curator Emeritus, Museum of London) Tuesday 18 March 2025, 19:00 The three butterfly-winged ‘dancing fairies’ in the first photograph taken by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths at Cottingley Beck...
Royal Funerals: A History A Folklore Society online talk by Helen Frisby Tuesday 4 March 2025, 19:00 GMT This talk with Dr Helen Frisby, author of the Shire book Traditions of Death and Burial, explores the funeral customs of English/British monarchs from Anglo-Saxon times to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. Some of...
Saint Valentine, the Ersatz Patron of Love A Folklore Society online talk by Eric Huang Tues 18 February 2025, 19:00 GMT Explore the legend of a Roman-era martyr and saint whose holy day is also a secular holiday, a day in which couples around the world buy each other flowers, chocolates, and other tokens of...
The Calendar Custom and Contemporary Fiction A Folklore Society online talk by Sophie Parkes-Nield Tuesday 4 February 2025, 19:00 GMT How could, or even should, a writer approach intangible cultural heritage such as the calendar custom in their creative work? This talk is based on Sophie Parkes-Nield’s doctoral research that examines the role and impact...
‘They’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats!’ AI Approaches to Folklore and Political Storytelling A Folklore Society online talk by Timothy R. Tangherlini Tuesday 21 January 2025, 19:00 GMT At a US presidential debate, Donald Trump trotted out a well-known rumor about refugees eating the pets of people living in the communities where they...