Folklore, Myths and Legends of Britain

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Cunning folk was a term used to refer to male and female healers, magicians, conjurers, fortune-tellers, potion-makers, exorcists, or thieves. Such people were respected, feared and sometimes hunted for their breadth of knowledge which was suspected as supernatural. [46] Gillings, Mark (2015). "Betylmania? - Small Standing Stones and the Megaliths of South-West Britain" (PDF). Oxford Journal of Archaeology. 34 (3): 207–233. doi: 10.1111/ojoa.12056. On May Day, the first day of May, a tall, decorated pole is put up as a symbol of fertility called a maypole. The maypole represents a phallic object impregnating the earth at the end of spring to ensure a bountiful summer. The maypoles were decorated originally with flowers and carved from the branches of trees about to bloom to symbolise the birth of new life. Eventually the flowers were replaced with ribbons and May day became a day for celebration and dancing in which a May queen and sometimes a May king would be crowned to also symbolise fertility. [48] Williams, Victoria (2017). Celebrating Life Customs around the World: From Baby Showers to Funerals: Adolescence and Early Adulthood. Vol.2: Adolescence and Early Adulthood". ABC-CLIO. pp.219–221. ISBN 978-1-4408-3659-6. Phelan, Joseph (2019). "Arthur Hugh Clough, Francis James Child, and Mid-Victorian Chaucer". Studies in English Literature. 59 (4): 855–872. doi: 10.1353/sel.2019.0037. hdl: 2086/16572. S2CID 213125784– via ProQuest.

a b Mingazova, Liailia; Sulteev, Rustem (2014). "Tatar and English Children's Folklore: Education in Folk Traditions". Western Folklore. 73: 410–431 – via ProQuest. Keegan-Phipps, Simon (29 Mar 2017). "Identifying the English: essentialism and multiculturalism in contemporary English folk music". Ethnomusicology Forum. 26: 3–25 – via Taylor & Francis Online. The scholarly, monocle wearing second son of a Duke, who solves bizarre murders ably assisted by his manservant Bunter might seem an anomaly among the Wallenders and Rebus's of today's detective fiction but against unlikely odds Lord Peter Wimsey, created by Dorothy L Sayers, continues to delight readers. Despite her death in 1957 her character lives on not least thanks to Jill Paton Walsh who has taken on the task of continuing Wimsey's adventures, beginning with Sayer's unfinished manuscript Thrones, Dominations. She's just published her fourth Peter Wimsey book The Late Scholar and joins Mariella Frostrup and lifelong Sayers' fan, Sarah Crown, to discuss his, and the books', enduring appeal. Bramwell, Peter (2009). "Herne the Hunter and the Green Man". Pagan Themes in Modern Children's Fiction. Macmillan Publishers. pp.38–83. ISBN 978-0-230-23689-9. Ditmas, E. M. R. (1974). "The Way Legends Grow". Folklore. 85 (4): 244–253. doi: 10.1080/0015587X.1974.9716563. JSTOR 1259622– via JSTOR.Petrie, Flinders (1926). "The Hill Figures of England". The Antiquaries Journal. 7: 540–541. doi: 10.1017/S0003581500057486– via Cambridge University Press. The Grimm brothers' publications such as German Legends and Grimms' Fairy Tales were translated from their original German and distributed across Europe in 1816. Their stories inspired publishers such as William Thoms to compile legends from within English folklore and without to compose an English identity. The stories that the Grimm brothers collected were integrated into the English school curriculum throughout the 19th century as educators of morality. [2] Characteristics [ edit ] These combine to form a folklore which teaches that, through an upright and virtuous character, a person can achieve a successful life. Lullabies, songs, dances, games, folktales, and superstitions all imparted a religious and moral education, and form a person's sense of justice and Christianity. Children's games would often contain counting songs or gamifications of manners to ensure that a child was happy, healthy, and good. [3]

Victorian folklorists set out to rediscover the pre-industrial traditions of Britain and ended up reinventing a lot of them. The flower children reinvented a bit more. Historians, occultists, anthropologists and drop-outs all weaved a vision of a country that was weirder and more entertaining than the motorways and service stations that strung it together. a b Bailey, Michael D. (2 May 2013). Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies: The Boundaries of Superstition in Late Medieval Europe. Cornell University Press. pp.7–10. ISBN 978-0-8014-5144-7. days leave, soldier Alexander Tewnion reached the summit of the mountain and immediately noticed, in the swirling mist, that “the atmosphere became dark and oppressive, a fierce, bitter wind whisked among the boulders, and an odd sound echoed through the mist – a loud footstep, it seemed. Then another, and another. A strange shape loomed up, receded, came charging at me! Without hesitation I whipped out the revolver and fired three times at the figure. When it still came on I turned and hared down the path…”

Full of maps with icons for things like ‘Drowned or Lost Lands’, ‘Mysterious Stones’ or ‘Bells’, the book portrays a Britain that is full of strangeness and mystery: strangeness and mystery that is happening all around you.

By his own account, that was what happened to renowned climber, scientist and Fellow of the Royal Society, J Norman Collie, at the end of the 19th century. Years later, he recalled hearing slow, deliberate footsteps – one vast step for every three or four of his own – following him on the mountain.What Collie had experienced was a classic case of a brush with the Big Grey Man (Am Fear Liath Mòr) of Ben Macdui, an enduring myth of an extremely large, Sasquatch-like grey figure covered in short hair. Wherever the Grey Man ventures, he is accompanied by a sense of irrational panic and dread.