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 tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, rangin ...

. 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, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

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. 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 Court, and was urban ...

Members

William Thoms, 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 Some prominent members were identified as the "great team" in Richard Dorson's now long outdated 1967 history of British folklore, late-Victorian leaders of the surge of intellectual interest in the field, these were Andrew Lang, Edwin Sidney Hartland,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 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 vicarage in Staffordshire, near to ...

, the first woman to become editor of its journal and later president (1909–10) of the society."

: 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, 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''". Joseph Jacobs 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 vicarage in Staffordshire, near to t ...

edited the journal between 1899 and 1908. The editorship then passed to A. R. Wright (1909–14); William Crooke (1915–23); A. R. Wright (1924–31);

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 ...

(1932–55); 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; there are also substantial holdings of east European folklore 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 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, William Crooke, Henry Underhill, Estella Canziani, Denis Galloway, Barbara Aitken, Margaret Murray, 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 James Walter Grimston, 2nd Earl of Verulam (20 February 1809 – 27 July 1895), known as Viscount Grimston from 1815 to 1845, was a British peer and Conservative politician. He was the eldest son of James Walter Grimston, 1st Earl of Verulam, a ...

* 1880–85 Frederick Lygon, 6th Earl Beauchamp * 1885–88 George Byng, 3rd Earl of Strafford * 1888–92 Andrew Lang * 1892–95 Laurence Gomme * 1895–97 Edward Clodd * 1897–99 Alfred Nutt * 1899–1901 Edwin Hartland * 1901–03

Edward Brabrook Sir Edward William Brabrook (10 April 1839 – 20 March 1930) was an English civil servant, author, and anthropologist with a special interest in folklore. He was a member of the Folklore Society and a fellow of Society of Antiquaries of London ...

* 1903–04 Frederick York Powell * 1904–07 W H D Rouse * 1907–09 Moses Gaster * 1909–11

* 1911–13 William Crooke * 1913–18

Robert Ranulph Marett Robert Ranulph Marett (13 June 1866 – 18 February 1943) was a British ethnologist and a proponent of the British Evolutionary School of cultural anthropology. Founded by Marett's older colleague, Edward Burnett Tylor, it asserted that mo ...

* 1918–20

Alfred Cort Haddon Alfred Cort Haddon, Sc.D., FRS, FRGS FRAI (24 May 1855 – 20 April 1940, Cambridge) was an influential British anthropologist and ethnologist. Initially a biologist, who achieved his most notable fieldwork, with W.H.R. Rivers, C.G. Seligm ...

* 1920–22 W H R Rivers * 1922–24

Henry Balfour ::''See also Henry Balfour (MP for Fifeshire)'' Henry Balfour FRS FRAI (11 April 1863 – 9 February 1939) was a British archaeologist, and the first curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum. He was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute, ...

* 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 * 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 * 1945–47 FitzRoy Somerset, 4th Baron Raglan * 1947–48 H J Fleure * 1948–51 Walter Leo Hildburgh * 1951–53 Arthur Allan Gomme * 1953–55 Margaret Murray * 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 Cambridge University. ...

* 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 * 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 ...

* 1987–90 John Widdowson * 1990–93

Roy Judge Roy Judge (1929–2000) was a British folklorist and historian. Early life and education Judge was born in Hastings in 1929, where he attended the local grammar school before being evacuated to St Albans during the Second World War. He went on ...

* 1993–96 Jacqueline Simpson * 1996–99 Juliette Wood * 1999–2002 W. F. H. Nicolaisen * 2002–05

Marion Bowman Marion Bowman (born 1955) is a British academic working on the borders of religious studies and folklore and ethnology. She is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, The Open University. Bowman is a long-standing researcher into New Age and alte ...

* 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 pl ...

* 2014–17 James H. Grayson * 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 (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 (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 (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 Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, (13 October 1923 – 23 October 2017) and Peter Mason Opie (25 November 1918 – 5 February 1982) were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and ...

(1986) and Soviet folklorist Vladimir Propp (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: Vladimir Propp, ''Theory and History of Folklore'', edited by Anatoly Liberman (Manchester University Press) * 1986:

, ''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, ''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: Marina Warner, ''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 who is well known for his portrayal of deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series '' Six Feet Under'' (2001–2005). He began his career in theater at the Tri ...

, ''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)

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

* 1968 Alex Helm 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 invalua ...

* 1979

Christina Hole Christina Hole (1896 – 24 November 1985) was an award-winning British folklorist and author, who was described as “for many years the leading authority on English folk customs and culture”. Early life and education Hole was born in Ric ...

* 1983

Theo Brown Theo Brown (16 December 1914 – 3 February 1993) was a British scholar of Devon folklore. She was lecturer in Comparative Religion at Exeter University. Biography Theo Brown was born Jean Marion Pryce in London. Her mother died in childbirth. H ...

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 Jennifer Westwood (5 January 1940 – 12 May 2008) was a British author, broadcaster and folklorist. She was a Doctor of Philosophy with special interests in English Language, Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. Her first book, ''Mediaeval Tales'', was p ...

* 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