The Folklore Podcast

In a new occasional strand of The Folklore Podcast, 'Folklore in the Field', we will be presenting interviews and other items of folklore interest which we have captured on location.This episode, recorded at the 40th anniversary conference of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research at Sheffield Hallam University, features Mark Norman (host of The Folklore Podcast) and Perry Carpenter (co-host of Digital Folklore Podcast) in conversation with Dr Diane Rodgers of the Centre for Contemporary Legend Research Group.If you enjoy this episode, please consider supporting the Folklore Podcast to help us to keep making content. You can join our Patreon community where you can get exclusive extra content, or just make a small one-off donation. Please visit www.thefolklorepodcast.com/support to do either of these.

We shine a spotlight on some of the folklore and tales of importance in African culture. Guiding us on this path is Helen Nde, writer, artist and the curator of Mythological Africans. She is in conversation with Tracy Nicholas, as part of our occasional series on storytelling and storytellers.Visit Helen's website at https://www.mythologicalafricans.com/To help us to continue producing free content on The Folklore Podcast, and to access a catalogue of exclusive bonus content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

The day that Rowena Murray was born, two-hundred-and-fifty starlings dropped dead out of the sky. Or so her mother says. Ever since, she has been marked by Death. First came the visions; then her boyfriend died suddenly. Now Death has taken her father, too.Salvation, Rowena is told, lies to the North: in Culcrith, where her grandmother can save her from the curse...We meet author Nadia Attia who discusses her debut novel 'Verge' and the folklore behind its story.To support The Folklore Podcast with a small monthly donation and receive bonus content and other benefits, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

In this last of three interviews recorded live at the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby, podcast host Mark Norman chats with author Lauren McMenemy, who was also one of the people helping with the organisation of the festival itself. The pair discuss ghosts, recommendations for spooky fiction and the time that Lauren spent living in the bizarre serial killer capital of Australia!To support the work of the Folklore Podcast and help us to keep producing more folklore content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

Following on from our last episode looking at execution ballads, we stick with the subject of the folklore of death. This time, we focus our attention on England in the 19th century. Discussing the topic with podcast host Mark Norman is author and researcher Claire Cock-Starkey whose PHD research covers this subject.To support the Folklore Podcast on Patreon and access extra content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

On her website, Execution Ballads, Dr Una McIlvenna writes:"Across Europe, from the sixteenth century until the early twentieth century, the news of the deeds of criminals and their subsequent executions was delivered via song, often printed on cheap, single-sheet broadsides or small, book-like pamphlets, as well as passed on orally or via manuscript. Songs were usually set to a familiar tune (often indicated at the top of the pamphlet), which allowed anyone to easily sing along. They were sold in busy streets and marketplaces by street singers, who usually sang the contents of the pamphlet in order to promote their wares."In the episode of the podcast, Una discusses, and sometimes sings extracts of, execution ballads spanning four centuries of our history. Content warning: This episode contains descriptions of historic execution and torture. Listener discretion is advised.To support our work with folklore and to help us to keep producing content, please visit our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/thefolklorepo

Odyssey Theatre is Ottowa's premiere professional theatre company, specialising in the old tradition of masked performance. So what happened when the world when into lockdown and theatre became, for a while, a think of the past?In the case of Odyssey, it became an opportunity to branch out into audio drama with 'The Other Path' - a magical podcast which reimagines traditional folk tales in a new and immersive modern setting.In this episode we meet Laurie Steven (creator and director) and writers Marty Chan and Daniel Peretti to explore the process of developing these modern twists on some classic tales.To support the Folklore Podcast on Patreon for as little as £1 a month and help us to keep producing free content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcastLinks to guest biogs and more information can be found on the episode page for this episode on the Folklore Podcast website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com

The Folklore Podcast presents a recording of a panel discussion hosted at Maidstone Museum on the subject of the Kentish tradition of Hoodening and the Hooden hobby horse. This panel was presented as part of a museum exhibition entitled "Animal Guising and the Kentish Hooden Horse" which runs until June 2023. The recording was provided for broadcast by Maidstone Museum.The discussion panel is chaired by Professor Ronald Hutton and features Dr Geoff Doel (lecturer in medieval and traditional culture), George Frampton (author of 'Discordant Comicals') and Ben Jones (St Nicholas-at-Wade Hoodeners).Music featured in this episode is performed by Mary Foxley.To support the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive in its work preserving folklore for the future, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

We explore the figure of the Slavic forest witch Baba Yaga in this episode of The Folklore Podcast, through the lens of a new women in horror anthology called 'Into the Forest'. Amongst the 23 stories and poems in the book are ones written by a New York Times bestselling author, a number of Bram Stoker Award nominees, and our guest Catherine McCarthy - a Welsh author of dark fiction.Catherine chats with film studies lecturer Jenny Barrett about her background and inspirations, and her take on Baba Yaga.Into the Forest is published by Blackspot Books. You can find Catherine on Twitter here.To help us to keep producing this podcast, as well as supporting our non profit work through the Folklore Library and Archive, please consider joining our Patreon page for extra content.

We welcome Dr Amy Jeffs back to The Folklore Podcast. After the much-lauded success of her first book, 'Storyland' we chat about Amy's new book 'Wild', published by Quercus, which examines tales from Early Medieval Britain. In the book, Amy provides new tellings of some of the stories of the period, once again giving her expert analysis on the material.Visit Amy's website at https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com/ or follow her on Twitter @amy_historiaClosing music in this episode is 'Callanish - Sacred Moon', performed by Car Dia. Find them on the web at www.pagansongs.comIf you find The Folklore Podcast of value to you, please consider supporting us with a small donation via our website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com or join our Patreon page for extra content and support our work there.

In another interview recorded live at the 2023 UK Ghost Story Festival at the Museum of Making in Derby, Folklore Podcast host Mark Norman chats with Norwegian author Camilla Bruce about the folklore of her country, ghosts, witches and the inspiration for her writing.Visit Camilla's website at www.camillabruce.comTo support the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive in its work preserving folklore materials for the future, and to access bonus material, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

In the next in our occasional series of episodes looking at American storytellers, theatre and film correspondent Tracy Nicholas meets teller Rachel Ann Harding.To support the Folklore Podcast on Patreon, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcastRachel Ann's website links:http://rachelannharding.com/https://storystorypodcast.com/https://www.storieswithspirit.co/https://www.facebook.com/storieswithspirit/

A Folklore Podcast Bonus Feature.Recorded live at the UK Ghost Story Festival 2023 at the Museum of Making in Derby, host Mark Norman chats with screenwriter and novelist Stephen Volk.To support the work of the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive is preserving folklore for the future, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

The idea of the trickster is a strong archetype in mythology and folklore in different cultures around the world. Whether a deity, a human or something more anthropomorphic, the trickster uses their intellect to create confusion, subvert rules or simply, to play tricks.Of course, the trickster is not just confined to mythology. Where folklore crosses into popular culture, we can still find the trickster looming large from older texts such as Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with Puck at the centre, to Looney Tunes’s Bugs Bunny.On this episode of the podcast, special guest Dr. Shepherd Siegel, author of two books on the theme of the trickster, discusses the subject with literary correspondent Hilary Wilson.To support the work of the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

We shine a spotlight on an often overlooked and misunderstood part of the English folk dance tradition as we welcome special guest Lucy Wright to discuss Girls' Carnival Morris tradition. One of the most spectacular forms of English folk dance, Carnival Morris emerged and remains primarily in the North West of England and is one of the few competitive folk dance forms.In what is a truly important episode covering history, tradition, inclusion, gendering and diversity, Lucy provides an in-depth look into an area in which she is one of the world's very few researchers.To support the work of the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive is preserving material such as this for the future, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast or go to our website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com and make a small one-off donation.

Guest interviewer, writer Beth O'Brien (the founder of Disabled Tales) meets with author Catherine Bloor to discuss her novel 'Soul of a Raven', a genre-defying mix of magic, folklore and mystery set across generations and steeped in real-world history and lore.This is a Folklore Podcast Book Club episode.To support the work of The Folklore Podcast and access extra exclusive content, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

We meet writer/director Peter Dunne and actress Margaret McAuliffe from the celebrated Irish horror podcast 'Petrified' to discuss dark folklore from Ireland, how the horror genre and folklore utilise in-built human fear reactions and how folklore and belief can be used to write in the horror format.Support the work of The Folklore Podcast and The Folklore Library and Archive in collecting and preserving folklore for everyone on our Patreon page where you can also find more exclusive folklore content.

In the first of a short series of episodes profiling American storytellers, we meet Cooper Braun who reminds us that folk and fairy tales are not just for children. An accomplished and prize-winning slam teller, Cooper's first love is traditional tales and he discusses this in great detail.The episode ends with his telling of "The True Confessions of Prince Charming".Join our Discord server and access extra content at www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast and help our work this year. Visit Cooper's website at https://www.cooperbraun.com/

Season 8 of The Folklore Podcast kicks off with an exploration of the subject of the English folk tale, with guest Neil Philip. Neil, who originally published the Penguin Book of English Folktales years ago now has a new revised edition out with Watkins publishers, full of analysis and insight into some famous and lesser known folk tales. Neil's work has been highly praised by the likes of Neil Gaiman (who supplied the foreword for this book), Alan Garner (who is discussed in this episode too) and Philip Pullman.Neil is in conversation with Dr Jenny Barrett, film lecturer from Edge Hill University, and the episode is presented by creator of the Folklore Podcast, Mark Norman.To support the work of the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive in collecting and preserving folklore for the future, access extra material and join our Discord server, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

In the final show of Season 7, we welcome back film director George Popov to discuss the second in his 'Sideworld' series of documentaries. This time, George explores folklore and legend connected with stories of the sea, in conversation with theatre and film correspondent Tracy Nicholas.You can visit the website for Rubicon Films on this link.To support the work of the Folklore Podcast and the Folklore Library and Archive in collecting and preserving folklore materials for the future, please visit our Patreon page.