The Folklore Society (FLS) is a national association in the United Kingdom for the study of

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...

. It was founded in London in 1878 to study traditional vernacular culture, including traditional music, song, dance and drama, narrative, arts and crafts, customs and belief. The foundation was prompted by a suggestion made by Eliza Gutch in the pages of ''

Notes and Queries ''Notes and Queries'', also styled ''Notes & Queries'', is a long-running quarterly scholarly journal that publishes short articles related to "English language and literature, lexicography, history, and scholarly antiquarianism".From the inner ...

''. Jacqueline Simpson (Editor), Steve Roud (Editor) (2003). ''A Dictionary of English Folklore''.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...

. The Society is a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

under English law. The Folklore Society office is at The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 50

Fitzroy Street, London Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End of London, West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Co ...

Members

William Thoms William John Thoms (16 November 1803 – 15 August 1885) was a British writer credited with coining the term "folklore" in 1846. Thoms's investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths, and he was a pione ...

, the editor of ''

'' who had first introduced the term ''folk-lore'', seems to have been instrumental in the formation of the society and, along with G. L. Gomme, was for many years a leading member. Some prominent members were identified as the "great team" in Richard Dorson's now long outdated 1967 history of British folklore, late-Victorian leaders of the surge of intellectual interest in the field, these were

Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...

, Edwin Sidney Hartland, Alfred Nutt, William Alexander Clouston, Edward Clodd and Gomme. Later historians have taken a deeper interest in the pre-modern views of members such as

Joseph Jacobs Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore. Jacob ...

. A long-serving member and steady contributor to the society's discourse and publications was Charlotte Sophia Burne, the first woman to become editor of its journal and later president (1909–10) of the society." Charlotte Sophia Burne: Shropshire Folklorist, First Woman President of the Folklore Society, and First Woman Editor of Folklore. Part 1: A Life and Appreciation", Gordon Ashman and Gillian Bennett, ''Folklore'', Vol. 111, No. 1 (Apr., 2000), pp. 1–21 Ethel Rudkin, the Lincolnshire folklorist, was a notable member; her publications included several articles in the journal, as well as the book ''Lincolshire Folklore.''

Publications

The society publishes, in partnership with

Taylor and Francis Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United K ...

, the journal '' Folklore'' in four issues per year, and since 1986 a newsletter, ''FLS News''. The journal began as ''The Folk-Lore Record'' in 1878, continued or was restarted as ''The Folk-Lore Journal'', and from 1890 its issues were compiled as volumes entitled "Folk-Lore: A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, & Custom. Incorporating ''The Archæological Review'' and ''The Folk-Lore Journal''".

edited the first four annual volumes as the Quarterly Review, succeeded by Alfred Nutt. As the head of David Nutt in the Strand, Alfred Nutt was the publisher from 1890.

Charlotte Burne Charlotte Sophia Burne (Shropshire, 1850–1923) was an English author and editor, and the first woman to become president of the Folklore Society. Life Charlotte Sophia Burne was born on 2 May 1850 at Moreton, Staffordshire, Moreton vicarage in S ...

edited the journal between 1899 and 1908. The editorship then passed to A. R. Wright (1909–14);

William Crooke William Crooke (6 August 1848 – 25 October 1923) was a British orientalist and a key figure in the study and documentation of Anglo-Indian folklore. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, and was educated at Erasmus Smith's Tipperary Grammar ...

(1915–23); A. R. Wright (1924–31); E. O. James (1932–55); Christina Hole (1956–78); Jacqueline Simpson (1979–93); Gillian Bennett (1994–2004), Patricia Lysaght (2004-2012) and Jessica Hemming (2013-)

Collections

The Folklore Society Library has around 15,000 books and more than 200 serial titles (40 currently received) and is held at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

Library. Its major strengths are in folk narrative and British and

Irish folklore Irish folklore ( ga, béaloideas) refers to the folktales, balladry, music, dance, and so forth, ultimately, all of folk culture. Irish folklore, when mentioned to many people, conjures up images of banshees, fairies, leprechauns and people gath ...

; there are also substantial holdings of east

European folklore European folklore or Western folklore refers to the folklore of the Western world, especially when discussed comparatively. The history of Christendom during the Early Modern period has resulted in a number of traditions that are shared in many ...

books, and long runs of Estonian and

Basque folklore The mythology of the ancient Basques largely did not survive the arrival of Christianity in the Basque Country between the 4th and 12th century AD. Most of what is known about elements of this original belief system is based on the analysis of ...

serials. The Folklore Society Archives and Collections include folklore-related papers of G. L. Gomme and

Lady Gomme Alice Bertha Gomme, Lady Gomme (born Merck; 4 January 1853, London – 5 January 1938, London), was a leading British folklorist, and a pioneer in the study of children's games. Life Gomme was the daughter of Charles Merck, a master tailor, and ...

T. F. Ordish Thomas Fairman Ordish (1855-1924), sometimes also referred to as T. Fairman Ordish was a British folklorist, noted for his interest in traditional drama and folk play, early theatre (especially the plays of William Shakespeare) and the history of ...

, Henry Underhill, Estella Canziani,

Denis Galloway William Albert Denis Galloway (5 March 1878 – 7 May 1957), better known as Denis Galloway, was a Scottish ethnographic artist and photographer. The elder son of Sir William Galloway (1840–1927), Mining Professor at University College of ...

, Barbara Aitken,

Margaret Murray Margaret Alice Murray (13 July 1863 – 13 November 1963) was an Anglo-Indian Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. The first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom, she wo ...

, Katharine Briggs and others. The society's archives and collections are held at

University College London's Special Collections , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

Presidents

* 1878–79 James Grimston, 2nd Earl of Verulam * 1880–85 Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp * 1885–88

George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford George Henry Charles Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford (22 February 1830 – 28 March 1898), styled Viscount Enfield between 1860 and 1886, was a British Liberal politician. Background and education Byng was the eldest son of George Byng, 2nd Earl ...

* 1888–92

* 1892–95

Laurence Gomme Sir George Laurence Gomme, FSA (18 December 1853 – 23 February 1916) was a public servant and leading British folklorist. He helped found both the Victoria County History and the Folklore Society. He also had an interest in old buildings a ...

* 1895–97 Edward Clodd * 1897–99 Alfred Nutt * 1899–1901 Edwin Hartland * 1901–03 Edward Brabrook * 1903–04 Frederick York Powell * 1904–07 W H D Rouse * 1907–09 Moses Gaster * 1909–11

* 1911–13

* 1913–18 Robert Ranulph Marett * 1918–20 Alfred Cort Haddon * 1920–22

W H R Rivers William Halse Rivers Rivers FRS FRAI ( – ) was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist known for treatment of First World War officers suffering shell shock, so they could be returned to combat. Rivers' most f ...

* 1922–24 Henry Balfour * 1924–26 J L Myers * 1926–28 A R Wright * 1928–30 R M Dawkins * 1930–32

E O James Edwin Oliver James (1888 – 1972) was an anthropologist in the field of comparative religion. He was Professor Emeritus of the History and Philosophy of Religion in the University of London, Fellow of University College London and Fellow of King's ...

* 1932–35

H J Rose Herbert Jennings Rose FBA (5 May 1883, in Orillia – 31 July 1961, in St Andrews) was a Canadian-born British classical scholar, best remembered as the author of ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology'', originally published in 1928, which became for ...

* 1935–37

S H Hooke __NOTOC__ Samuel Henry Hooke (January 21, 1874 – January 17, 1968) was an English scholar writing on comparative religion. He is known for his ''Bible in Basic English'' translation. He was born in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. He was educated ...

* 1937–39

Mary MacLeod Banks Mary MacLeod Banks (1861 – 22 December 1951) was a folklorist, born Mary MacLeod McConnel in Scotland. She was president of the Folklore Society from 1937 to 1939. Early life Mary MacLeod McConnel was born in Edinburgh, the daughter of Davi ...

* 1939–43 John Henry Hutton * 1943–45

L F Newman Leslie Frank Newman (1882–1973) was a British chemist and folklorist. Early life and education Newman came from a farming family and was educated at Bishop's Stortford College and at Cambridge University. Chemist He was a noted agricultura ...

* 1945–47

FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan Fitzroy Richard Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan FRAI (10 June 1885 – 14 September 1964) was a British soldier, author, and amateur anthropologist. His books include ''The Hero, A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama'' and '' Monmouthshire Houses'', w ...

* 1947–48 H J Fleure * 1948–51

Walter Leo Hildburgh Walter Leo Hildburgh (1876-1955) was an American art collector, sportsman, traveller, scientist and philanthropist. Early life and education Hildburgh was born in New York in 1876 into a family that had arrived in America earlier in the nineteen ...

* 1951–53 Arthur Allan Gomme * 1953–55

* 1955

T W Bagshawe Thomas Wyatt Bagshawe (18 April 1901 – 1974) was an explorer, museum curator and folklorist. Early life Bagshawe was born in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, on 18 April 1901, and attended Rugby School before reading geology at University of Cambridg ...

* 1956 (No president) * 1956–59 Sona Rosa Burstein * 1959–61 Sir Arthur Waugh * 1961–63 Mary Williams * 1963–64 Peter Opie * 1964–67 Douglas Kennedy * 1967–70 Katharine Briggs * 1970–73 Stewart Sanderson * 1973–76

Hilda Ellis Davidson Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson (born Hilda Roderick Ellis; 1 October 1914 – 12 January 2006) was an English folklorist. She was a scholar at the University of Cambridge and The Folklore Society, and specialized in the study of Celtic and Ge ...

* 1976–79 J R Porter * 1979–82 W M S Russell * 1982–84 Carmen Blacker * 1984–87

Venetia Newall Venetia Newall (1935-2017) was an English-American folklorist who was elected president of the Folklore Society and fellow of the American Folklore Society. Education Venetia Newall was born in London in 1935, to an American father and English m ...

* 1987–90 John Widdowson * 1990–93 Roy Judge * 1993–96 Jacqueline Simpson * 1996–99 Juliette Wood * 1999–2002 W. F. H. Nicolaisen * 2002–05 Marion Bowman * 2005–08

W. F. Ryan William Francis (W.F.) Ryan (born 1937) is a British librarian and scholar of Russian language and culture, who has been described as "one of the world's foremost experts" on Russian magic and witchcraft. He is Emeritus Professor and Honorary Fello ...

* 2008–11 Eddie Cass * 2011–14

Robert McDowall Robert Murray McDowall (21 November 1821 – 5 November 1894), was a Scottish-born Australian cricketer who played two first-class cricket matches for Tasmania. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has the distinction of having played ...

* 2014–17

James H. Grayson James Huntley Grayson (born 1944) is a scholar of the religions and folklore of Korea. He is Emeritus Professor of Modern Korean Studies in the School of East Asian Studies at The University of Sheffield. Education Grayson earned a BA in Anthropo ...

* 2017–20 Patricia Lysaght * 2020–current Owen Davies

Katharine Briggs Award

The Katharine Briggs Award is an annual book prize awarded by the Society in honour of

Katharine Mary Briggs Katharine Mary Briggs (8 November 1898 – 15 October 1980) was a British folklorist and writer, who wrote ''The Anatomy of Puck'', the four-volume ''A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language'', and various other books on fairi ...

(who was the society's president from 1969 to 1972). The judges report is published in the Society's journal ''Folklore''. Even though the rules stipulate that it can be withheld if the judges find in any given year that no book has reached the required standard, the prize has been awarded every year since it was first announced in 1982. Notable winners include Israeli historian of social memory

Guy Beiner Guy Beiner (born in 1968 in Jerusalem) is an Israeli historian of the late-modern period. He was formerly a full professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel. In September 2021, he was named the Sullivan Chair in Irish ...

(2019), American scholar of fairy tales

Jack Zipes Jack David Zipes (born June 7, 1937) is a professor emeritus of German, comparative literature, and cultural studies, who has published and lectured on German literature, critical theory, German Jewish culture, children's literature, and folklore. ...

(2007), English mythographer

Marina Warner Dame Marina Sarah Warner, (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian, mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating to feminism and myth. She has written for many publicati ...

(1999), British radical historian

E. P. Thompson Edward Palmer Thompson (3 February 1924 – 28 August 1993) was an English historian, writer, socialist and peace campaigner. He is best known today for his historical work on the radical movements in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in ...

(1992), English married team of folklorists Iona and Peter Opie (1986) and Soviet folklorist

Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (russian: Владимир Яковлевич Пропп; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irredu ...

(1985). Winners of the Award are: * 1982: Samuel Pyeatt Menefee, ''Wives for Sale: an Ethnographic Study of British Popular Divorce'' (Basil Blackwell) * 1983: Michael Pickering, ''Village Song and Culture'' (Croom Helm) * 1984: Sandra Billington, ''A Social History of the Fool'' (Harvester Press) * 1985:

, ''Theory and History of Folklore'', edited by Anatoly Liberman (Manchester University Press) * 1986: Iona and Peter Opie, ''The Singing Game'' (Oxford University Press) * 1987: Amy Shuman, ''Storytelling Rights'' (Cambridge University Press) * 1988:

, ''Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe'' (Manchester University Press) * 1989: J. P. Mallory, ''In Search of the Indo-Europeans Language, Archaeology and Myth'' (Thames & Hudson) * 1990;

Paul Oliver Paul Hereford Oliver MBE (25 May 1927 – 15 August 2017) was an English architectural historian and writer on the blues and other forms of African-American music. He was equally distinguished in both fields, although it is likely that aficiona ...

, ''Blues Fell This Morning'' (Cambridge University Press) * 1991: Simon Charsley, ''Rites of Marrying: The Wedding Industry in Scotland'' (Manchester University Press) * 1992:

, ''Customs in Common'' (Merlin Press) * 1993: Georgina Boyes, ''The Imagined Village: Culture, Ideology, and the English Folk Revival'' (Manchester University Press) * 1994: Claudia Kinmonth, ''Irish Country Furniture 1700-1950'' (Yale University Press) * 1995: Timothy Mitchell, ''Flamenco Deep Song'' (Yale University Press) * 1996: Mary-Ann Constantine, ''Breton Ballads'' (CMCS Publications) * 1997: Neil Jarman, ''Parading Culture: Parades and Visual Displays in Northern Ireland'' (Berg) * 1998: Joseph Falaky Nagy, ''Conversing with Angels and Ancients: The Literary Myths of Medieval Ireland'' (Four Courts) * 1999:

, ''No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock'' (Chatto and Windus) * 2000: Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, ''Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity'' (Cork University Press) * 2001: Adam Fox, ''Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700'' (Clarendon Press) * 2002: Elizabeth Hallam and Jenny Hockey, ''Death, Memory and Material Culture'' (Berg) * 2003: Malcolm Jones, ''The Secret Middle Ages'' (Sutton) * 2004: Steve Roud, ''The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland'' (Penguin) * 2005: Jeremy Harte, ''Explore Fairy Traditions'' (Heart of Albion Press) * 2006: Catherine Rider, ''Magic and Impotence in the Middle Ages'' (Oxford University Press) * 2007:

, ''Why Fairy Tales Stick'' (Routledge) * 2008: Richard Bebb, ''Welsh Furniture 1250-1950: a Cultural History of Craftsmanship and Design'' (Saer Books) * 2009: Kathryn Marsh, ''The Musical Playground: Global Tradition and Change in Children’s Songs and Games'' (Oxford University Press) * 2010: Arthur Taylor, ''Played at the Pub: the Pub Games of Britain'' (English Heritage Publications) * 2011: Herbert Halpert, edited by John Widdowson, ''Folk Tales, Trickster Tales and Legends of the Supernatural from the Pinelands of New Jersey'' (Edwin Mellen Press) * 2012: David Hopkin, ''Voices of the People in Nineteenth-Century France'' (Cambridge University Press) * 2013: Karl Bell, ''The Legend of Spring-Heeled Jack: Victorian Urban Folklore and Popular Cultures'' (Boydell Press) * 2014: David Atkinson, ''The Anglo-Scottish Ballad and its Imaginary Contexts'' (OpenBook Publishers) * 2015: Richard Jenkins, ''Black Magic and Bogeymen'' (Cork University Press) * 2016: Lizanne Henderson, ''Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment: Scotland, 1670-1740'' (Palgrave) * 2017: Christopher Josiffe, ''Gef! The Strange Tale of an Extra-Special Talking Mongoose'' (Strange Attractor) * 2018: Martin Graebe'', As I Walked Out: Sabine Baring Gould and the Search for the Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall'' (Signal Books) * 2019:

, ''Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster'' (Oxford University Press) * 2020: William G. Pooley, ''Body and Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France: Félix Arnaudin and the Moorlands of Gascony, 1870-1914'' (Oxford University Press) *2021: Jonathan Y. H. Hui (ed. and trans.), ''Vilmundar saga viðutan. The Saga of Vilmundur the Outsider'' (Viking Society for Northern Research) *2022: Marina Montesano (ed.) ''Folklore, Magic, and Witchcraft: Cultural Exchanges from the Twelfth to Eighteenth Century'' (Routledge)

Coote Lake Medal

The Coote Lake medal is awarded by the Committee of the Folklore Society for "outstanding research and scholarship" in the field of Folklore Studies. The award is named in honour of Harold Coote Lake (1878-1939), an active member of the Folklore Society in the 1920s and 1930s (who served as both Treasurer and Secretary of the Society at points in that period). The recipients have been: * 1940

* 1941 Dr T. E. Lones * 1952 Dr Walter Leo Hildburgh * 1955 Professor Edward Oliver James * 1960 Iona and Peter Opie * 1968

Alex Helm Alex Helm (1920-1970) was an award-winning British Folklorist, described as "one of the most important figures in the study of calendar custom and olkdance in post-war England". Early life and education Helm was born in Burnley, Lancashire, in ...

and

Enid Porter Enid Mary Porter (8 October 1908 – 16 January 1984) was a collector of folklore in Cambridgeshire and the longest serving curator of the Cambridge & County Folk Museum, now the Museum of Cambridge, working from 1947 to 1976. Her work was inva ...

* 1979 Christina Hole * 1983 Theo Brown and Stewart Sanderson * 1984 Ethel Rudkin and Dr Hilda Davidson * 1987 Dr Emily Lyle and Dr Ian Russell * 2000 Professor John Widdowson and Dr Roy Judge * 2006 Dr Venetia Newall * 2007 Dr Jaqueline Simpson and Dr ‘Doc’ Rowe * 2008 Jennifer Westwood * 2013 Professor Patricia Lysaght * 2014 Malcolm Taylor and Dr Eddie Cass * 2018 Dr Gillian Bennett and Dr Caroline Oates

References

External links

Folklore Society web siteFree online issues of the Folklore journal and predecessors, 1868-1922Folklore Society Collections
at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Folklore Society, The Publishing companies of the United Kingdom Learned societies of the United Kingdom English folklorists 1878 establishments in England Organizations established in 1878 Folklore studies Charities based in England