Previous Folklore Society Events

• 26/10/2023
• 10:00-17:00
• Online and at 50 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 5BT

‘Amazonia:  Differing Research Perspectives in Ethnography and Folklore’ ‘Folklore and Anthropology in Conversation’: The Seventh Joint Seminar of The Folklore Society and The Royal Anthropological Institute Thursday 26 October, 2023, 10:00-17:00 BST Online via Zoom and in person at The Royal Anthropological Institute and The Folklore Society at 50 Fitzroy Street, London on Thursday October...

• 07/02/2023
• Online talk

‘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...

• 24/01/2023
• Online talk

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...

• 14 to 16/07/2023
• The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, 27 High St, Hull, HU1 1NE, and online

‘Folklore, Geography and Environment: Ways of Knowing Water, Landscape and Climate in the Anthropocene’ A Folklore Society Conference Friday 14 to Sunday 16 July 2023 at The Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, 27 High St, Hull, HU1 1NE, and online Scientific knowledge tells us that the Anthropocene’s climate crisis will bring huge changes to the...

• 21/02/2023
• 18:00-19:30
• Online talk

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...

• 10/01/2023
• 18:00-19:30
• Online talk

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...

• 25/10/2022
• Online talk

What is Folklore? Online talk by Prof. Richard Jenkins (University of Sheffield) Tuesday 25 October 2022, 18:30 BST Folklore in Britain, and its study, seems to be in increasing danger of being understood by the public – particularly on the Internet – as ‘ghosties, ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties’…with a bit of witchcraft, paganism, and Gothic...

• 22/11/2022
• 18:00-19:30
• Online talk

Dr Chris Duffin (The Natural History Museum) talks about some of the folklore and beliefs associated with fossils, which have a surprisingly diverse folklore history. Online talk, Tuesday 22 November 2022, 18:00 GMT Fossil bones and amber are the subject of a wide range of classical, local and oriental myths, including the Homeric Cyclops, the...

• 11/10/2022
• 18:00-19:30
• Online talk

Dr Paul Cowdell’s online talk, Tuesday 11 October, 18:00 BST, examines why ghosts are commonly shown in sheets, though this is unrepresentative of most experiences or beliefs. All historical discussions of ghosts feature some comment on what they are wearing. Some of the most frequently mentioned imagery – like ghosts in white sheets, or images...

• 27/09/2022
• 18:00-19:30
• Online talk

Dr Juliette Wood (University of Cardiff) explores the origins of the Sandman in this online talk on Tuesday 27 September 2022, 18:00-19:30 BST The Sandman has recently emerged as a popular modern fantasy character. This eerie figure who brings dreams to good children can also be a threatening bogeyman. It has become a romantic and horror...