The Supernatural
Introduction
Belief in a world beyond the everyday, tangible world and in supernatural beings (fairies, ghosts, werewolves, vampires etc.) is often regarded as one of the essential hallmarks of traditional folk beliefs and practices. Such beliefs can be revealing about the mindset of a particular community and society and how they try to make sense of the world and impose some sort of order on it. In this seminar we will consider the development of beliefs regarding the supernatural in Europe. We will divide into three groups: one will look at ghosts, one at 'monsters' and one will look at witchcraft, magic and paganism.
Seminar Questions
- What do ghost stories, myths and legends reveal about beliefs in the supernatural in Europe?
- How have attitudes towards ghosts changed in Europe since the Middle Ages?
- How has paganism developed in Europe since prehistory?
Required Reading
Ghosts
You should each read:
EITHER Davies, Owen, and Ceri Houlbrook, Link opens in a new window (Manchester, 2025), Chapter 7.
OR Davies, Owen, The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts (Basingstoke, 2009), Link opens in a new window
and two chapters from the following books:
Joynes, Andrew, ed., (Woodbridge, 2001)
OR the two articles below
Monsters
You should each read
, Introduction
and two of the following:
Magic, Witchcraft and Paganism
You should choose and read three of the following:
Davies, Owen, (London, 2007) - read up to two chapters
Further Reading
- Alessio, Dominic, and Robert Wallis (Manchester, 2025)
de Bl茅court, Willem, and Mirjam Mencej, eds, (London, 2023)
Brand, John, Observations on Popular Antiquities: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, ed. Henry Ellis, 2 vols (London, 1813), and .
Briggs, Katharine M., British Folk Tales and Legends: A Sampler (London, 1977)
Briggs, Katharine M., A Dictionary of British Folk-tales in the English Language, 2 vols in 4 (London, 1970-1971)
Bruce, Scott G., The Penguin Book of the Undead (London, 2016)
Campbell, J. F., , 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1860-1862)
Carr-Gomm, Philip, and Richard Heygate, The Book of English Magic (London, 2009)
Crowe, Catherine, The Night Side of Nature: Or Ghosts and Ghost Seers (1848), and
Davies, Owen, A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination and Faith during the First World War (Oxford, 2018)
Evans, George Ewart, and David Thomson, The Leaping Hare (London, 1972)
Handley, Sasha, (Abingdon, 2016)
Hing, Richard, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 2: Spirits of Place (Durham, 2019)
Hoggard, Brian, (Oxford, 2019)
Hunt, Robert, Popular Romances of the West of England, 2 vols (London, 1865), and
Hutton, Ronald, (London, 2013)
Hutton, Ronald, (Oxford, 1999)
James, M. R., Collected Ghost Stories, ed. Darryl Jones (Oxford, 2013)
Jarvie, Gordon, ed., Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan (Harmondsworth, 2008)
McCorristine, Shane, (Cambridge, 2010)
Morrison, Sophia, (London, 1911)
Nahmad, H. M., A Portion of Paradise and other Jewish Folktales (New York, 1970)
脫 S煤illeabh谩in, Se谩n, A Handbook of Irish Folklore (Dublin, 1942)
Owens, Susan, The Ghost: A Cultural History (London, 2017)
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), and
Simek, Rudolf, Dictionary of Northern Mythology (Cambridge, 1993)
Stiffler, Muriel W., The German Ghost Story as Genre (New York, 1993)
Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (London, 1973)
Vickery, Roy, Vickery's Folk Flora: An A-Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants (London, 2019)
Young, Simon, and Ceri Houlbrook, eds, (London, 2017)
Zipes, Jack, The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (Princeton, N.J., 2012)
Electronic Resources
(discussing female monsters/spirts from the Alps)