Places (Rural, Urban, and Maritime)
Introduction
Certain places seem to attract and collect stories, myths and associations that become lodged in the popular imagination. Obvious examples are ancient monuments like Stonehenge or Glastonbury Tor, but more modern and/or urban locations have folkloric associations and significance as well. Just think of the number of pubs that claim to have at least one resident ghost or the creepy derelict building that the neighbourhood children insist is haunted.
In this seminar we will examine how rural and urban places are represented in European folklore.
Seminar Question
- How are rural and urban places represented in the folklore of Europe?
- Why do some places and not others become the focus for stories, legends and rituals?
Required Reading
- EITHER
- Coverley, Merlin, (Harpenden, 2012), Introduction.
- OR Rees, Gareth E., s London, 2020), Introduction: The Magic, Mythology and Folklore of Urban Space
- Davies, Owen, and Ceri Houlbrook, (Manchester, 2025), Chapter 8.
Further Reading
Burnham, Andy, ed., The Old Stones: A Field Guide to the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland (London, 2018)
', Time and Mind 13/3 (2020), 245-265.
Evans, George Ewart, The Farm and the Village (London, 1975)
Gregor, Neil, Haunted City: Nuremburg and the Nazi Past (New Haven, 2008)
Harte, Jeremy, 'Forest Murmurs: Wood and Wild in the Making of England', in Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland, ed. Matthew Cheeseman and Carina Hart (London, 2022), 48-62
Hing, Richard, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 2: Spirits of Place (Durham, 2019)
Hoggard, Brian, (Oxford, 2019)
O虂 hO虂ga虂in, Da虂ithi虂, The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and Romance (Woodbridge, 2006)
Paciorek, Andy, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, 2nd ed. (Durham, 2018)
Palmer, Roy, The Folklore of 糖心TVshire (London, 1976)
Rhys, John, Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1901), especially and
Simpson, Jacqueline, Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names (London, 2010)
Westwood, Jennifer, and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Harmondsworth, 2005)
Electronic Resources
(click on the pins on the map to get information on folk tales, myths and legends associated with that place)
(Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the link to access the interactive map)
. "Hidden voices and haunted landscapes are conjured up in ten unique stories from the imagination of visionary writer David Rudkin".