Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a prolific, award-winning

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

researcher and author on

folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...

.Jacqueline Simpson
,

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

Career

Simpson studied

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian languages, Anglo-Frisian d ...

and Medieval Icelandic at

Bedford College, University of London Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first higher education college for education of women, women in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the University of London. Having played a leading role in the advanceme ...

. She has been, at various times, Editor, Secretary, and President of the Folklore Society. She was awarded the Society's Coote Lake Research Medal in 2008. In 2010, she was appointed visiting professor of folklore at the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy at the University of Chichester,

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

. She has a particular interest in local legends (as opposed to international

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

s), and has published collections of this genre from

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

, Scandinavia in general, and England (the latter in collaboration with the late Jennifer Westwood). She has also written on the

of various English regions, and was co-author with Steve Roud of the ''Penguin Dictionary of English Folklore''. She has been a point of reference for

Terry Pratchett Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English author, humorist, and Satire, satirist, best known for the ''Discworld'' series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983 and 2015, and for the Apocalyp ...

since he met her at a book signing in 1997. Pratchett, who was then researching his novel '' Carpe Jugulum'', was asking everyone in the queue how many " magpie" rhymes they knew; and while most people gave one answer – the theme from the TV series '' Magpie'' – Simpson was able to supply considerably more. According to Pratchett's version of their conversation, there were "about nineteen", but she suspects this is creative embroidery. Their encounter eventually led to collaboration.Pratchett, T. & Simpson, J. '' The Folklore of Discworld'', Introduction by Terry Pratchett. Transworld Publishers, 2008

Personal life

Simpson lives in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Selected publications

Articles

* Simpson, Jacqueline (1966-03-01). "Otherworld Adventures in an Icelandic Saga". ''Folklore''. 77 (1): 1–20. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1967-09-01). "Some Scandinavian Sacrifices". ''Folklore''. 78 (3): 190–202. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1969-06-01). "Legends of Chanctonbury Ring". ''Folklore''. 80 (2): 122–131. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1973-09-01). "Sussex Local Legends". ''Folklore''. 84 (3): 206–223. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1974-03-01). "The Function of Folklore in 'Jane Eyre' and 'Wuthering Heights'". ''Folklore''. 85 (1): 47–61. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1975-09-01). "Nixon's Prophecies in Their Historical Setting". ''Folklore''. 86 (3–4): 201–207. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1978-01-01). "Fifty British Dragon Tales: An Analysis". ''Folklore''. 89 (1): 79–93. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1979-01-01). "'Wændel' and the Long Man of Wilmington". ''Folklore''. 90 (1): 25–28. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1981-01-01). "Rationalized Motifs in Urban Legends". ''Folklore''. 92 (2): 203–207. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1982-01-01). "Obituary: Peter Mason Opie, M.A. (1918–1982)". ''Folklore''. 93 (2): 223–223. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1983-01-01). "Obituary: Professor William R. Bascom (1912–1981)". ''Folklore''. 94 (2): 251–251. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1985-01-01). "Obituary: Georges Henri Rivière, 1897–1985". ''Folklore''. 96 (2): 255–255. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1986-01-01). "God's visible judgements: the Christian dimension of landscape legends". ''Landscape History''. 8 (1): 53–58. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1989-01-01). "Folklore in Folklore: Trends Since 1959". ''Folklore''. 100 (1): 3–8. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1991-01-01). "'Be Bold, but not Too Bold': Female Courage in Some British and Scandinavian Legends". ''Folklore''. 102 (1): 16–30. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1994-01-01). "Margaret Murray: Who Believed Her, and Why?". ''Folklore''. 105 (1–2): 89–96. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1995-01-01). ""The Weird Sisters Wandering": Burlesque Witchery in Montgomerie's Flyting". ''Folklore''. 106 (1–2): 9–20. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1995-01-01). "Ellen Ettlinger, 1902–1994". ''Folklore''. 106 (1–2): 86–86. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1996-01-01). "Witches and Witchbusters". ''Folklore''. 107 (1–2): 5–18. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1997-01-01). ""The Rules of Folklore" in the Ghost Stories of M.R. James". ''Folklore''. 108 (1–2): 9–18. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2006-01-01). "Boundaries for Ghosts: A Technique in Folk Exorcism". ''Folk Life''. 45 (1): 70–76. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2003-03-01). "Repentant soul or walking corpse? Debatable apparitions in medieval England". ''Folklore''. 114 (3): 389–402. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2005-08-01). "The Miller's Tomb: Facts, Gossip, and Legend". ''Folklore''. 116 (2): 189–200. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2006-08-01). "Hilda Ellis Davidson (1914–2006)". ''Folklore''. 117 (2): 215–216. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2008-08-01). "Seeking the Lore of the Land". ''Folklore''. 119 (2): 131–141. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2011-04-01). "On the Ambiguity of Elves". ''Folklore''. 122 (1): 76–83. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2015-05-04). "Sir Terry Pratchett OBE (1948–2015)". ''Folklore''. 126 (2): 232–234. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2017-07-03). "Venetia Newall (1935–2017)". ''Folklore''. 128 (3): 316–317. . .

Books

* Simpson, Jacqueline (1965). ''The Northmen Talk. A Choice of Tales from Iceland'', Phoenix House/Dent, & University of Wisconsin Press * Simpson, Jacqueline (1965). ''The Northmen talk. A choice of tales from Iceland. Translated and with introduction by Jacqueline Simpson, with a foreword by Eric Linklater''. London; Madison: Phoenix House; University of Wisconsin Press. . * Garmonsway, George Norman; Simpson, Jacqueline (1968). ''Beowulf and its analogues. Translated by G. N. Garmonsway and Jacqueline Simpson. Including Archaeology and Beowulf by Hilda Ellis Davidson. With plates''. London; New York: J. M. Dent & Sons; E. P. Dutton & Co. . * Partridge, Eric; Simpson, Jacqueline (1972). ''The Penguin dictionary of historical slang''. Harmondsworth. Penguin Books. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline; Galsworthy, Gay (1973). ''The folklore of Sussex''. London: Batsford. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1976). ''The folklore of the Welsh border''. London: B.T. Batsford. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1980). ''British dragons''. London: Batsford. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline; Wilson, Eva (1987)''. Everyday life in the Viking age.'' New York: Dorset Press. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (1987). ''European mythology. New York: P. Bedrick Books. . .'' * Simpson, Jacqueline; Gowdy, Caroline (1989). ''Scandinavian Folktales'' (Penguin Folklore Library / Puffin) * Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Stephen (2003). ''A dictionary of English folklore''. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. . . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2004) ''Icelandic Folktales and Legends'' (Revealing History) 2nd ed., NPI Media Group, * Simpson, Jacqueline; Westwood, Jennifer. (2005; reissued 2006). ''The Lore of the Land: a Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys,'' Penguin * '' The Folklore of Discworld'' (with Terry Pratchett), Doubleday (2008) . 2nd, enlarged edition. Corgi 2009 . 3rd enlarged edition, Corgi (2014) (same ISBN as 2nd edition) * Simpson, Jacqueline (2010). ''Elves: nasty or nice?''. Wincanton, Somerset: Discworld Emporium :. . * Simpson, Jacqueline (2010). ''Green Men and White Swans: the Folklore of British Pub Names'', Random House Books

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Jacqueline 1930 births Living people Folklore writers English folklorists British women folklorists Alumni of Bedford College, London Old Norse studies scholars Germanic studies scholars Writers on Germanic paganism Presidents of the Folklore Society 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English writers 21st-century English women writers