The Folklore Society

22/08/2026

To celebrate World Folklore Day, here’s a little clip of a fusion of traditions at the recent wedding in Leeds of Josie Canham-Williams and Jasdeep Singh Degun

15/07/2026

Historic Building Mythbusting – Uncovering Folklore, History & Archaeology

Go to any ancient building and there will be interesting, exciting, and romantic stories presented to the visitor. They are commonly believed and widely repeated – but are they really true? These stories include those of secret passages linking ancient buildings, spiral staircases in castles giving advantage to right-handed defenders, ship timbers used in the construction of buildings on land, blocked doors in churches which are thought to keep the Devil out and claims to be the oldest pub in the country.

In this online talk, building archaeologist James Wright explains the development of such myths and investigates the underlying truths behind them. Sometimes the realities hiding behind the stories are even more interesting, romantic, and exciting than the myth itself...

7pm, Tuesday 21 July, £6 non-members, £4 FLS members (with promo code)

Link in bio

01/07/2026

All of your summer reading needs are catered for in the chunky new edition of our journal 'Folklore', hitting subscribers' doormats this week...

Issue 137.2 contains articles on The Soldier's Tale: Part 2; The Minotaur-Maze Problem in Collaborative Digital Horror Storytelling; Nereids in the Ancient Greco-Roman Imagination and an Anomalous Legend; Like Driftwood Taking Root: Folk-Onomastic Origin Legends from the Orkney Islands; Beowulf's Hair Pull: A Tangled History; Su***de and Flowers: The Folklore of the Boy's Grave (Suffolk); The Shape of Morality: Transformed Bodies as Sites of Moral Instruction in Gervase of Tilbury's 'Otia Imperialia' and Gerald of Wales's 'Topographia Hibernica'; The Entangled and Polyphonic Dynamics of Folk Memory: The Legend of Kadamattathu Kathanar; and The Scottish Origins of 'The Cornish Litany'... plus fifteen pages of book reviews!

If you're not a subscriber, visit our website to find out how to become one. Link in bio.

30/06/2026

Dragons and their Hoards

The dragon in his barrow, guarding heathen gold, has coiled around the English imagination since Beowulf.

The existence of dragons is open to question but buried treasure is real. Its myths have been traced to an archaeological and ritual setting – barrow burials with grave-goods, the social afterlife of the dead in mounds, the identification of dead bodies with snakes and the association of snakes with wealth.

If we bring these themes together we have a cohesive explanation for legends like that of Fafnir on the cursed gold. But is that too neat? A critical examination suggests that the hill of the dragon is not the mythical reflex of actual barrows, but instead a local and short-lived variation on images created as Germanic people engaged with Roman soldiers, Oriental textiles, Mediterranean snake-cults, Latin storytellers and Christian missionaries – as well as bags of hidden gold.

Folklorist, researcher, author, and organiser of the Folklore Society's Legendary Weekends, Jeremy Harte has journeyed deep into landscapes legendary and real for his latest book 'Treasures on Earth'. In this online talk, Jeremy brings to light a (metaphorically) enriching bounty of unearthed jewels.

7pm, Tuesday 7 July, £6 non-members, £4 FLS members (with promo code)

Link in bio

[pic: Arthur Rackham; image of Fafnir from 'Siegfried and the Twilight of the Gods'; Wikimedia Commons]

16/06/2026

'Green' myths, legends and folk tales

In a world increasingly beset by ‘climate anxiety’ and ‘eco-distress’, can traditional narratives play any role in offering a more optimistic outlook? Do such myths, legends and folk tales relate only to Western countries – or reflect universal concerns across the globe? And can they offer any useful lessons to help us make Planet Earth a better place?

These were some of the questions Rosalind Kerven had in mind when she started researching and writing her new book, 'Myths, Legends and Tales for a Greener World'. Her intellectual journey lasted over a year, taking in ancient books and clay tablets, 19th century collections and academic journals, modern research articles, tourist websites and beyond.

In this online talk, Kerven will describe a Cherokee myth that exactly reflects global warming, a Chinese folk tale about man-made climate disaster, a South American rainforest warning about litter, a Nigerian story about extinction, a Japanese story about leaving resources for the future and much more. You will meet a whole array of fantastical characters including an Indian Tiger Demon, Sioux thunderbirds, the Irish Hungry Man and the Caribbean ‘Mother of the Water. She will also share myths promising that Planet Earth can always recover from disaster. The talk will share the challenges and rewards of her research, and introduce some of the most unforgettable stories and nuggets of global wisdom from many different cultures. The accompanying slide show will include some of the stunning specially commissioned artwork in the book.

7pm, Tuesday 23 June, £6 non-members, £4 FLS members (with promo code)

Link in bio

[pic: book cover, Batsford, 2026]

11/06/2026

Our Folklore on the Move conference hit the news in Romania :-)
Thanks Adina

România s-a remarcat printr-un proiect inovator de digitalizare a patrimoniului etnologic, prezentat în cadrul unei conferințe internaționale de elită dedicate folclorului.

10/06/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our annual conference last weekend.

Regaled by the Polish-Scottish Song Group at the opening reception (pic 2), delegates went on to enjoy a wide-ranging programme of events on the theme of 'folklore on the move' - including panel discussions (pic 4 - Melissa La Rose, Josiah Eames and Gemma Joliffe taking questions), a walking tour exploring the ghosts and 'dark history' of Old Aberdeen led by Fiona-Jane Brown (pic 3), and plenty of informal lively conversation (pic 1 - Molly Bambrough, Gemma Joliffe and Molly Hughes).

Thank you to the at the for helping make it all happen!

See you next year!

[pics: Jeremy Harte]

17/05/2026

We are all very sad to hear of the death of Prof. Ian Russell, our former Folklore Society Council member, and send our condolences to his family

12/05/2026

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Search for Grindylow

The 19th-century ‘nursery bogey’ Grindylow lurked in deep and dangerous ponds in Manchester and seized children who ventured too close.

In March 2025, Royal Mail issued a set of eight colourful stamps celebrating Britain’s ‘Myths and Legends’. Among them, representing ‘Northeast England’, is a figure resembling the ‘nursery bogey’ Jenny Greenteeth, a name used by parents to frighten children away from deep and dangerous ponds – but labelled ‘Grindylow’. Royal Mail seem to have adopted this unusual name because of its borrowing by J K Rowling and application to a species of malignant water-demons that infest the Black Lake at Hogwarts Castle.

However, Grindylow has an individuality and a folklore of her own – and in this online talk folklorist and former curator of medieval collections at the Museum of London John Clark follows the paper trail of references from Hogwarts back, not to ‘Northeast England’ but to the vicinity of Manchester in the 1850s, and the works of local historian and pioneer folklorist John Higson. He also discovers that Rowling was not the first author to misappropriate the name!

Clark considers Grindylow’s status and relationship to the better-known Jenny Greenteeth – and speculates about the origins of both names, and the nature of such water sprites. He also discusses the marl-pits of Lancashire, and why they should particularly have acquired demon guardians.

7pm, Tuesday 19 May, £6 non-members, £4 FLS members (with promo code)

Link in bio

[pic: The Water Sprite (Nøkken) by Theodor Kittelsen, 1904; Wikimedia Commons; public domain]

28/04/2026

Lily-of-the-valley Customs: A Window on France

Any popular practice may open windows onto broader local or national concerns, as lily-of-the-valley customs certainly do in France - as Cozette Griffin-Kremer (Associate Researcher, Centre de recherche bretonne et celtique, Brest, France) explains in our next online talk.

There is a wealth of customs associated with the lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis L.) in France and this can only be a sampling that runs from the iconic plant’s botanical being, on to how it is associated with bringing good luck, and hence, with some of the famous people who have used the muguet to construct their own legends. This can go far beyond a kind of brand-marking to active construction of a sense of place and identity. Practices are practiced, after all, and doing so may at times be fraught with difficulties, some of them quite amusing, others less so. Among the examples: will there be lily-of-the-valley for May Day in 2050?

7pm, Tuesday 5 May, £6 non-members, £4 FLS members (with promo code)

Link in bio

[pic: Torsburgen liljekonvalj by Tulipasylvestris; Wikimedia Commons; Public Domain]