Fancy a folkloric read? Check out #FolkloreThursday’s books!
Fancy a folkloric read? Check out FolkloreThursday’s books!
The Clarke Charm Collection: Of Witch Bottles, Witch Cakes and Hag Stones
Clarke’s charm collection reveals a range of uses, including cures for sore throats, the protection of seafarers from drowning, and good luck charms.
English Folktales: Fox Robin’s Ghost and the Buried Treasure
Fox Robin was a crotchety farmer from Westleigh in Greater Manchester, whose antics in life and death are told in many stories.
Nature Folklore for Children: Capturing Their Curiosity and Inspiring Awe
I have always especially loved nature folklore. It provides such a beautiful glimpse into how people use signs from nature as a way to navigate daily life. It reveals how attuned people used to be to the natural world and the ebb and flow of the seasons. Spotting certain animals or birds came to be associated with good or bad fortune; plants and flowers were used as cures; and stories of fantastical creatures, such as fairies and elves, were told to account for unexplained events.
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.
Following Herne the Hunter’s Tangled Webs Through ‘Mischief Acts’
Folklore and tales form a gigantic living web that threads through our cultures and societies. I see it as analogous to mycelium, the fungal mesh beneath the ground: a gigantic, intricate system of connection that feeds and informs the trees and plants that sprout above the surface whilst quietly spreading, putting out feelers, thriving.