Plagues, Fires and Human Sacrifice: Hidden Meanings of London Nursery Rhymes
Kim McGreal explores the curious and macabre origins of some well-known childhood nursery rhymes.
From Generation to Generation: An Exploration of Myth and Landscape in the Work of Alan Garner
The emotional and spiritual dimension of being in place, in the work of Alan Garner, powerfully reminds us of our connection to the land and stories.
The changing faces of ghosts in the Wild West … or what I learned from #FolkloreThursday
Let us begin with a ghost story. In 1872, fourteen-year-old Agnes McDonough announced that she was communicating with the spirit of her deceased father. She was part of a community of Irish Americans who settled in Virginia City, Nevada, home to the fabulous Comstock Lode and the Big Bonanza (giving its name to a famous television show). Crediting her father’s ghost, the young girl revealed insights about the afterworld, all scrutinized by a local priest who hoped to control the sensational aspects of the incident.
Welsh Mythology and Storytelling: Telling the Mabinogion
In the nineteenth century, Lady Charlotte Guest (with a team of Welsh scholars) translated a series of stories from Welsh into English. It was she who gave them the collective title ‘The Mabinogion’.
King Arthur, the Mabinogion and Wales’ Legendary Landscapes
The National Library of Wales discuss their exhibition ‘Arthur and Welsh Mythology’, and how Welsh folklore is engrained in its legendary landscape.