In Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present, co-authors Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook take a scholarly but very readable look at British folklore. They convincingly treat folklore as an evolving presence in culture, not just the remnants of a vanished past (and they point out that even a lot of allegedly ancient customs are actually relatively modern). I’m no expert in the subject, but the authors’ broad grasp of the subject and reasoning about its various aspects seem quite sound. I found the book very interesting and often extremely entertaining.
Being released today (Sept. 23) by Manchester University Press as a hardback or as an ebook, it clocks in at more than 300 pages. However, it really didn’t feel that long; quite a few of those pages are contained in various appendices, and the main parts of the book are organized into an Introduction and seven more sections, with most of those being divided into subsections and sub-subsections, with descriptive headers. So it’s convenient to read a few pages at a time, in easily digestible chunks, rather than trying to plow (or plough, as they’d say) through the whole thing at once.
I really enjoyed how the introduction addressed the subject, from trying to define folklore — and conceding (or championing, really) its Protean nature — through its long discussion of the history of studying folkways. From antiquarians noting “vulgar errors” of the commoners (despising a lot of tales and customs as survivals of Catholic “superstition” and pre-Christian paganism), through nationalists eager to preserve “pure” rural lifestyle commemorations, through modern “revivals” of old customs (sometimes adapted, sometimes made up of whole cloth) to build community spirit, to journalists seeking content, to colonialists bringing back stories from abroad and immigrants importing or remixing their customs, to modern digital transmission and creation of new folklore, there have been many different perspectives on folkways through time.
Of course, as the authors contend, even excluding the folklore of immigrants to Britain (as many unfortunately do), there’s not really one overarching British myth/legend-structure of folklore surviving from ancient days. There is English folklore, Scottish folklore, and Welsh folklore (and yes, Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom, but Irish lore gets only a few brief mentions here). Furthermore, although folklore scholars and collectors ignored urban populations as having been detached from “pure” rural folkways, urban myths are also something that should be considered part of the living, evolving folklore(s) of Great Britain, plus the digital folklore in which British people increasingly participate.
The book does not attempt a comprehensive survey of all folklore in Britain; there are other sources for that. Instead, through looking at various components of lore (Coming together and taking part, Stories, Environment, Spiritual Life, Intimate Life, Modern Media, and Identity), the chapters study how various folkloric elements have evolved through the years, arising organically and being adopted and adapted by various community, religious, commercial, or other factions, or as I mentioned, completely new lore also continually arises, especially in the modern era. It’s really interesting to read about how and why folklore has changed through the ages and continues to change, or be created, to meet new social needs.
For serious readers who want a popularly written, timelines- and origins-focused evaluation of folklore in Britain, that reasons convincingly about the living nature and evolution of folklore, I believe I can strongly recommend this book, even at the hardback price. For casual readers like me, who are mainly acquainted with folklore as a scholarly discipline via courses back in college, or brushing up against references to it in fantasy stories such as Sarah Pinsker’s “Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather” or Seanan McGuire’s Indexing series, and who just want to learn a bit more, you’ll probably want the ebook, or just to see if your library can get the hardback.
Content warnings: References to colonialism and migration/appropriation of lore; references to ethnic/religious/economic discrimination; references to sexual content and foul language in some folklore.
Disclaimer: I received a free PDF of the book for review from the publisher.
