Water Horses, Wild Gods and the Hare in the Moon: Stories from The Treasury of Folklore
A Treasury of Folklore: Waterlands, Wooded Worlds and Starry Skies will be released on 1st August, 2024.
Fancy a folkloric read? Check out #FolkloreThursday’s books!
Fancy a folkloric read? Check out FolkloreThursday’s books!
Tree Folklore: Birch, the Lady of the Wood
The birch has a particularly graceful, flowing habit that always reminds me of a stream of water, extending right to the tips of its delicate black twigs in a shower of leafy droplets that tremble, suspended, in their fall.
Spring-heeled Jack: The Terror of Victorian England
In 1838, the year Queen Victoria came to the throne, London was bedevilled by a clawed, fire-breathing, shape-shifting demon popularly known as Spring-heeled Jack. A rather haphazard creation of local gossip, newspaper reports, and penny dreadful fiction, this urban legend, once largely forgotten, is now being revived through a contemporary interest in steampunk and reimagined […]
Scottish Folklore
With soaring landscapes, bloody history and passionate politics, it’s little wonder that Scotland has such a vibrant folklore.
A Pied Piper Mystery
hile the Pied Piper of Hamelin is undeniably a fairy tale, it’s uniquely grounded in real-world specifics – the date for one – June 26. That’s the date in 1284 when the town lost a significant portion of its population, a matter treated as fact in the first written allusion to the incidents, the initial […]
The Origins of ‘Touch Wood’: Tree Spirits, The True Cross, or Tag?
The superstition of ‘touch wood’, or ‘knock on wood’ is still common today, but what was its original source? Madeleine D’Este explores some possibilities.