Steve Roud (; born 1949) is the creator of the

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

and an expert 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 ...

and

superstition A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic (supernatural), magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly app ...

. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough, borough in South London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of and had a population of 397,741 as of mid-2023, making it the most populous London borough. It is London's southernmost ...

and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society.Alt URL
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Life and career

Roud Folk Song Index

The

is a database of over 240,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It began in around 1970 as a personal project, listing the source singer (if known), their locality, the date of noting the song, the publisher (book or recorded source), plus other fields, and crucially assigning a number to each song, including all variants (now known as the 'Roud number'). The system initially used 3x5-inch filing cards in shoeboxes. In 1993, Roud implemented his record system on a computer database, which he continues to expand and maintain and which is now hosted on the website of the

Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodi ...

. In the past few years the numbers have been widely accepted in academic circles.

Writings

Since 2000, Roud has written a range of volumes on folklore, calendar customs and folk music. A number of these have met with substantial acclaim; 2003's ''The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland'' was awarded the Folklore Society's prestigious Katharine Briggs Award for the outstanding folklore-related book of the year. 2006's ''The English Year'', which summarises the calendar customs of the British ritual year, was hailed by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' as "a rich and wonderful compendium." ''The Lore of the Playground'', Roud's 2010 exploration of the way children's games evolve and transmit through an oral tradition, was praised in publications including ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' and ''

The Yorkshire Post ''The Yorkshire Post'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper, published in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. It primarily covers stories from Yorkshire, although its masthead carries the slogan "Yorkshire's National Newspaper". It was previously owned by ...

'', with ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' describing it as "a delightful compendium". Roud's later works on folk music, which build upon the deep research embodied in the Roud Index, have also met with strong reviews. ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' called 2012's ''The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs'' (co-edited with music specialist Julia Bishop) "(a)n impressive and nourishing book, with an appeal far beyond the folk aficionado", with similar praise coming from ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', ''

Record Collector ''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine focussing on rare and collectable records, and the bands who recorded them. It was founded in September 1979 and distributes worldwide. It is promoted as "the world’s leading authority o ...

'' and ''

''. Writing in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Kathryn Hughes described ''Folksong in England'' (2017) as a "monumental history of the English folk song".

Awards

In 2004, Roud was the winner of the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Folklore Award for ''The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland''. In 2009, Roud was one of five people to be awarded the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. This award recognises "those who have made unique or outstanding contributions to the art or science of folk dance, music or song, and/or those who have given exceptional support in furthering the aims of the Society". In 2014, Roud was given the Walford Award by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals' Information Services Group. His 2012 book with Julia Bishop, ''The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs'', had won the Reference Award the previous year.

Personal life

Roud lives and works with his wife in Somersham, Cambridgeshire, England.

Books

* (with Jacqueline Simpson) * (with Eddie Cass) * * * * * * * (with Julia Bishop) * (with David Atkinson) * * (with David Atkinson) Reviews:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roud, Steve 1949 births Living people English folklorists English folk-song collectors English librarians Indexers