‘Riders on the Storm; Riders at the Door’: The Nordic Legends of the Wild Ride A Folklore Society online talk by Professor Terry Gunnell (University of Iceland) Tuesday 25 April 2023, 18:00 BST This lecture, a blend of academic discussion and storytelling, will introduce the main types of Nordic legend associated with the Wild Ride,...
Art of Belonging: Sicilian Folk Art Practices Today A Folklore Society online talk by Pina Santoro Tuesday 11 April 2023, 18:00 BST The Malocchio is a ritualistic cleansing practised throughout southern Italy. My creative practice and research has uncovered the present traditional practice, taking from a hidden secret and carrying it into today’s every day...
Lighthouses and the Paranormal A Folklore Society online talk, by Mark Lewis Tuesday 21 March 2023, 18:00 GMT Lighthouses have always had a long association with the supernatural and are the focus for many mysterious stories, often involving murder, suicides or strange disappearances. This talk discusses and attempts to interpret the accounts of ghosts, poltergeists,...
‘There wis a lady dressed in green’: William Montgomerie’s recordings of children in the streets of Dundee, 1952 A Folklore Society online talk by Prof. Margaret Bennett (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) Tuesday 7 March 2023, 18:00 GMT William Montgomerie and his wife Norah began collecting childlore in the 1920s and 30s as they were interested...
Spring-heeled Jack on the Continent A Folklore Society online talk by Dr Petr Janeček (Charles University, Prague) Tuesday 21 February 2023, 18:00 GMT Spring-heeled Jack is one of the most peculiar demonic beings of British folklore. Since the beginning of the 20th century, legends about this mysterious urban phantom reached Continental Europe and adapted to...
‘She could sit and spin those stories all night!’: The Midwife Effie Currie (1867-1942), Her Hero Tales and Women Storytellers in Gaelic Tradition A Folklore Society Online talk by Dr Tiber Falzett (University College Dublin) Tuesday 7 February 2023, 18:00 GMT This talk will focus on a collection of a dozen hero tales taken from...
Dead Men Tell Tales: Bogs, Bog Bodies, and Bog Queens A Folklore Society online talk by Sophia Kingshill Tuesday 24 January 2023 at 18:00 GMT Peat bogs have a remarkable power of preservation.Bodies dating from the Iron Age, dug up from bogs in Denmark, Germany, Ireland and the UK, have been mistaken for recent murder...
Gliding in the Churchway Paths: Corpse Roads and the Origins of the Right to Roam A Folklore Society online talk, by Professor Stuart Dunn (King’s College London) Tuesday 10 January 2023, 18:00 Burial of the dead posed a problem in the medieval and early modern countryside: getting the body from the place of death to...