The Folklore Society (FLS) 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 based in London, England for the study of folklore. Its office is at 50 Fitzroy Street, London home of the

Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

. 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 publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

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' investigation of folklore and myth led to a later career of debunking longevity myths, and he was a pioneer ...

, the editor of ''

'' who had first introduced the term ''folk-lore'', seems to have been instrumental in the formation of the society: as was G. L. Gomme, who 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 Some prominent members were identified as the "great team" in Richard Dorson's now long-outdated 1967 history of British folkloristics, late-Victorian leaders of the surge of intellectual interest in the field, these were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 folkloristics, collector of folklore, folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectur ...

, 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. 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 the United Kingdom that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, CRC Press, Routledge, F1000 Research and Dovepress. It is a division of ...

, 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 with the long title ''Folk-Lore: A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution, & Custom. Incorporating The Archæological Review and The Folk-Lore Journal''. Joseph Jacobs edited the first four annual volumes as the ''Quarterly Review'', succeeded by Alfred Nutt. As the head of publisher David Nutt in the Strand, Alfred Nutt was the publisher of the journal from 1890. Charlotte Burne 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 S ...

(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 University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

Library. Its major strengths are in folk narrative and English, Irish, Scottish, and

Welsh folklore Welsh folklore is the collective term for the folklore of the Welsh people. It encompasses topics related to Welsh mythology, Folklore, folk tales, customs, and oral tradition. Welsh folklore is related to Irish folklore, Irish and Scottish folkl ...

; 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 E ...

books, and long runs of

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

and Basque folklore serials. The Folklore Society Archives and Collections include folklore-related papers of G. L. Gomme and Lady Gomme, T. F. Ordish,

, Henry Underhill, Estella Canziani, Denis Galloway, 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, sh ...

, Katharine Briggs and others. The society's archives and collections are held at University College London's Special Collections.

Presidents

* 1878–79 James Grimston, 2nd Earl of Verulam * 1880–85

Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp (10 November 1830 – 19 February 1891), styled The Honourable Frederick Lygon between 1853 and 1866, was a British Conservative politician. Background and education Beauchamp was the third son of Henry Ly ...

* 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 Liberal Party (UK), British Liberal politician. Background and education Byng was the eldest son of Geo ...

* 1888–92

* 1892–95 Laurence Gomme * 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 Charlotte Burne * 1911–13

* 1913–18 Robert Ranulph Marett * 1918–20 Alfred Cort Haddon * 1920–22 W H R Rivers * 1922–24 Henry Balfour * 1924–26 J L Myres * 1926–28 A R Wright * 1928–30 R M Dawkins * 1930–32 E O James * 1932–35 H J Rose * 1935–37 S H Hooke * 1937–39 Mary MacLeod Banks * 1939–43 John Henry Hutton * 1943–45 L F Newman * 1945–47 FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan * 1947–48 H J Fleure * 1948–51 Walter Leo Hildburgh * 1951–53

Arthur Allan Gomme Arthur Allan Gomme (1882-1955) was a British librarian, historian of technology and folklorist. Early life and education Arthur Allan Gomme was born in 1882, the third son of Sir (George) Laurence Gomme (1853–1916) and his wife, Alice Bert ...

* 1953–55

* 1955 T W Bagshawe * 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 G ...

* 1976–79 J R Porter * 1979–82 W M S Russell * 1982–84

Carmen Blacker Carmen Blacker Order of the British Empire, OBE Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (13 July 1924 – 13 July 2009) was a British Japanologist. She was a lecturer in Japanese at the University of Cambridge. Life Blacker was born in Kensington in ...

* 1984–87 Venetia Newall * 1987–90 John Widdowson * 1990–93 Roy Judge * 1993–96 Jacqueline Simpson * 1996–99

Juliette Wood Juliette Wood is a British historian and lecturer at Cardiff University. She specializes in Celtic and Medieval history, magic, and folklore. She is a former director of the Folklore Society and an Honorary Fellow of Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum ...

* 1999–2002 W. F. H. Nicolaisen * 2002–05 Marion Bowman * 2005–08 W. F. Ryan * 2008–11 Eddie Cass * 2011–14 Robert McDowall * 2014–17 James H. Grayson * 2017–20 Patricia Lysaght * 2020–23 Owen Davies * 2023-current David Hopkin

Katharine Briggs Award

The Katharine Briggs Award is an annual book prize awarded by the Society in honour of Katharine Mary Briggs (who was the society's president from 1969 to 1972). The prize has been awarded every year since it was first announced in 1982. Notable winners include Israeli historian of social memory Guy Beiner (2019), American scholar of fairy tales

Jack Zipes Jack David Zipes (born June 7, 1937) is a literary scholar and author. He is a professor emeritus in the Department of German, Nordic, Slavic and Dutch at the University of Minnesota. Zipes is known for his work on fairy tales, folklore, crit ...

(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 publication ...

(1999), British radical historian E. P. Thompson (1992), English married team of folklorists Iona and Peter Opie (1986) and Soviet folklorist

Vladimir Propp Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp (; – 22 August 1970) was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural units. Biography Vladimir Propp was ...

(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 James Patrick Mallory (born October 25, 1945) is an American archaeologist and Indo-Europeanist. Mallory is an emeritus professor at Queen's University, Belfast; a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and the former editor of the '' Journal of ...

, ''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 afici ...

, ''Blues Fell This Morning'' (Cambridge University Press) * 1991: Simon Charsley, ''Rites of Marrying: The Wedding Industry in Scotland'' (Manchester University Press) * 1992: E. P. Thompson, ''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 Richard Dale Jenkins (born May 4, 1947) is an American actor. He is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series ''Six Feet Under (TV series), Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his c ...

, ''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: Guy Beiner, ''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) *2023: Una McIlvenna, ''Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900'' (Oxford University Press) *2024: Tabitha Stanmore, ''Cunning Folk: Life in the Era of Practical Magic'' (The Bodley Head).

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 Mary MacLeod Banks * 1941 Dr T. E. Lones * 1952 Dr Walter Leo Hildburgh * 1955 Professor Edward Oliver James * 1960 Iona and Peter Opie * 1968 Alex Helm and Enid Porter * 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

HathiTrust HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries. Its holdings include content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digit ...

Digital Library provides full views, apparently complete, for 1878 to 1922, the span of issues that are in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

:

an

(two records). ''The Folk-Lore Record'', vols 1–5, 1878 to 1882

(two records). ''The Folk-Lore Journal'', vols 1–7, 1883 to 1889

''Folk-Lore'', vols 1–33, 1890 to 1922 (subtitled ''A Quarterly Review ...'', from the title page of Volume 1 as bound) {{DEFAULTSORT:Folklore Society, The The Folklore Society, 1878 establishments in England Charities based in England Folklore studies Learned societies of the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1878 Publishing companies of the United Kingdom