Folklore

Owen Davies

• 23 september 2025
• 9781526180384

Samenvatting:

This is the definitive guide to British folklore. Written by two of the country's leading experts, it covers everything from wizards and witches to UFOs and internet fanfiction.

In this ground-breaking book, two leading experts provide the definitive survey of British folklore past and present.

Across thirteen themed chapters, Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook explore folklore in all its remarkable variations, from village rituals and fairytales to UFO legends and internet fan fiction. Travelling through a landscape of witches, wizards, and wicker men, they reveal how folklore has been researched and written about in the past and show how it continues to be lived in the present. At the same time, they provide the reader with a valuable toolkit for understanding how to interpret the diverse examples given.

The book’s key message is that folklore is much more than the fossilised remains of a distant, rural past. Folklore is and always has been ubiquitous, dynamic, and political. It is a living tradition that draws from many sources, including migrant communities, and is forever being renewed and updated.

A gripping guide to the weird yet everyday world of British folklore.

In this ground-breaking book, two leading experts provide the definitive guide to British folklore past and present.

Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook explore folklore in all its remarkable variations, from village rituals and fairy tales to UFO legends and internet fanfiction. Travelling through a landscape of witches, wizards and wicker men, they reveal how folklore has been researched and written about in the past and show how it continues to be lived in the present. At the same time, they provide the reader with a valuable toolkit for understanding how to interpret the diverse examples given.

The book’s key message is that folklore is much more than the fossilised remains of a distant, rural past. Folklore is and always has been ubiquitous, dynamic and political. It is a living tradition that draws from many sources, including migrant communities, and is forever being renewed and updated.