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...
Folklore for All One-day online Conference. Saturday 17 September 2022, 09:00-17:00 Following the great success of our ‘Open Voices’ online conference in May, we are holding a follow-up one-day conference online looking at other traditions and folk practices, including: Wellington’s cones; elf-shots, magical darts in the Amazon, fairy tales, fairy seers in Romania, re-enactment groups,...
Doc Rowe’s film of the lecture can be watched on YouTube The Katharine Briggs Lecture on Tuesday 8 November at 18:30 at The Brockway Room, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. This year’s speaker is Katherine Langrish, author of historical fantasies and essays on folklore and fairy tales, ‘Fenrir’s Fetter and the Power...
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...
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,...
“In the Beginning all Wisdom was with the Animals”– Exploring Native American Myths Online talk by Rosalind Kerven, author and independent researcher Tuesday 13 September 2022, 19:30-21:00 Native American and Canadian First Nations mythology includes some of the world’s most interesting and memorable narratives. They offer a totally refreshing–sometimes startling–perspective of the natural world and...
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’ Click here for the Audio recording of the lecture The Old Testament account, in 1 Samuel 28, of how the “Witch of Endor” apparently raised the spirit of...
The Sixteenth Legendary Weekend of The Folklore Society Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th September 2022 at St John’s Church Hall, Vicarage Lane, Knaresborough When the tree withers in my mother’s garden, know that the end is nigh and seven signs before Doomsday will darken the obsidian mirror. The third age of the spirit watches in...
Dr Ceri Houlbrook (University of Hertfordshire) explores the tradition of children writing letters to Santa Claus. Online talk, Tuesday 13 December 2022, 18:00 This talk traces the history of the folkloric custom of writing letters to Santa Claus and other Western personifications of Christmas. When did it start? Where is it practiced? What folklore surrounds...
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...