Where’ve All the Good People Come From? Revisiting the Origins of British Fairies A Folklore Society Online Talk by Francis Young Tuesday 24 October 2023, 18:00 A talk exploring the early history of Britain’s fairies, and proposing a new approach to understanding the origins of British fairy lore. The ultimate origins of Britain’s fairy traditions,...
This year’s Katharine Briggs Lecture will be given by Paul Gilroy ‘Folk Tradition and the Choosing of Ancestors’ Tuesday 7 November, 18:30 in the K.T.Paul Hall, at the Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 6AQ Paul Gilroy is Professor of the Humanities at University College London and Founding Director of the Sarah Parker Remond...
Old Faery Narratives of Britain and Ireland A Folklore Society Online Talk by Rosalind Kerven Tuesday 10 October 2023, 19:00 BST Discover the intriguing, formidable faeries of old British and Irish folk narratives. Split between numerous local species, ranging from full-sized Scottish elf-queens to small, wizened male house fairies, they share a number of common...
Monumental Lies and the Folklore of the Wild West A Folklore Society Online Talk by Ronald M. ‘Ron’ James Early western folklore celebrated a playful embrace of tall tales and exaggeration, a brand of deceit woven into diverse traditions by people placing their mark on the region. Examining a wide variety of sources ranging from...
Archival Challenges of Collections A Folklore Society online talk by Robert McDowall Tuesday 12 September, 18:00 BST This talk will cover the challenges and problems of archival storage, maintenance, curating and display. Robert McDowall is a former president of The Folklore Society (2011-2014) Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members with Promo code: log in...
The History of Halloween A Folklore Society Online Talk, by Prof. Ronald Hutton (University of Bristol) Tuesday 18 July 2023, 18:00 BST Halloween is usually regarded as the creepiest festival of the modern year, a celebration of witchcraft, phantoms and images of fear which comes down to us from a remote a murky pagan past....
A Brief History of Burial Grounds A Folklore Society online talk by Helen Frisby Tuesday 4 July 2023, 18:00 BST Burial grounds are so much more than simply a practical necessity. Not only do they embody our relationships with the dead, they speak to what it means to be human at all. In this talk,...
A Folklore Society Online Talk by Simon Young Tuesday 20 June, 18:00 BST The ‘Wandering Jew’ was an important figure in Christian myth. Cursed by Christ to walk the earth until the second coming, he frequently, between the 1600s and the 1900s, visited Britain. Fortunately for those interested in folk-lore, these visits were recorded in...
Law is Magic: Freemen of the Land and the Magna Carta in a Beauty Salon A Folklore Society online talk by Joel Conn Tuesday 6 June 2023, 18:00-19:30 BST Magic can transform a bundle of handkerchiefs into a bunch of flowers, or divide a person in half. Law can transform your home into someone else’s...
Fertility, Folklore and the Reproductive Body Tuesday 14 November 2023, 09:30-17:00 A free, one-day symposium dedicated to folklore of the reproductive body–fertility, childbirth, contraception, menstruation, and reproduction, including, but not limited to, popular knowledge and belief, folk narratives and contemporary legend, vernacular religion, superstitions, rites and rituals, interdisciplinary perspectives, material culture, and wellbeing. This is a free symposium,...