Dr Helen Frisby (University of the West of England) explores the historical custom of sin-eating, together with its afterlife in film, TV and literature. “The Sin-eater: lives and afterlives”: online talk, Tuesday 12 July 2022, 18:00-19:30 (rescheduled from 22 February 2022) A sin-eater was a ‘long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor raskal’ (Aubrey, 1687) who, by...
AGM Tuesday 28 June 2022: The 2022 Folklore Society Annual General Meeting will be held from 18:30 to 19:30 on Tuesday 28 June at 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT, immediately after this year’s Presidential Address from 17:30-18:30. Attend in person: Folklore Society members attending the AGM in person: contact thefolkloresociety @ gmail.com to book...
The 2022 Folklore Society Presidential Address Prof. Owen Davies (University of Hertfordshire), Tuesday 28 June 2022, 17:30-18:30 ‘The Witch of Endor: A Study in History and Folklore’ The Old Testament account, in 1 Samuel 28, of how the “Witch of Endor” apparently raised the spirit of the prophet Samuel, has been a matter of theological...
Folklorist and historian Ronald L. ‘Ron’ James looks at how industrialisation, emigration, and modernisation and media affected Cornish folklore in the mines, on land, and in the sea. Online talk, Tuesday 21 June 2022, 18:00-19:30 The folklore of Cornwall has a unique character, shaped by its remote environment and by talented droll tellers, artists who...
Pregnancy and Childbirth in Late Medieval England: Medicine, Magic, and Miracles Online talk by Claire Collins (University of Reading) Tuesday 24 May 2022, 18:00-19:30 Claire Collins discusses some of the treatments, practices, and attitudes surrounding pregnancy and childbirth in late medieval England In late medieval England, treatments for complications of childbirth, and protections against them,...
Open Voices: Folklore for All, Folklore of All The Folklore Society’s Annual Conference Friday 6 to Sunday 8 May 2022, 09:30-17:30, Online Keynote speaker: Prof. Sadhana Naithani (Jawaharlal Nehru University): ‘Since All are Never One: Margins, Borders and Folklore,’ Saturday 7 May at 14:00 Once upon a time, ‘folklore’ was thought of as the traditions...
Chris Duffin (Natural History Museum) explores the Austro-Bavarian tradition of ‘Fraisketten’ or convulsion chains–polyamuletic chains combining items of religious and folk medicine origin. Online talk, Tuesday 19 April 2022, 18:00 Fraisketten are strings of amuletic beads and other items, closely related structurally to rosaries. They are a distinctively Austro-Bavarian means of protection against ‘Frais’ –...
John Clark (Emeritus Curator, The Museum of London), ‘The Green Children of Woolpit: “the true old fairy mythology”?’ Tuesday 5 April 2022, 18:00, online The story of the two ‘Green Children’ who appeared in the Suffolk village of Woolpit in the middle of the 12th century, reported by two medieval historians, has been popular ever...