It may have got off to a shaky start, but The Wicker Man is now one of British film’s best-loved horror stories, thanks to its deeply disturbing plot.
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Articles on Folklore
Displaying 1 - 20 of 36 articles
The idea of a creature like the Loch Ness monster fascinates people. But does the scientific evidence say it’s a prehistoric beast or total fake?
Could Santa’s grin be closer to the evil clown’s than you think?
Like all members of the category of ‘fey’, or the beings of the preternatural world, including fairies, elves, and pixies, goblins are renowned for being tricksy. In other words, best avoided.
A folklorist explains how Halloween continues an ancient Celtic tradition of the celebration of the dead.
With the longest coastline in England, serpent myths abound in Essex.
Everyone is going ‘goblin mode’, but does the trend unfairly malign goblins of folklore?
The Russian army has fared poorly and the Ukrainian military has fared well, defying experts’ predictions about the war in Ukraine. Can children’s fairy tales help explain the difference?
A mermaid with face of a monkey and body of fish has reignited interest in the Japanese ningyo
The ‘Disneyfication’ of fairies has helped us forget their darker origins.
The past century’s vampires have often been a bit dashing, even romantic. That’s not how the myth started out.
Mermaids are not real, but are meaningful to people around the world.
Folklore isn’t a whimsical fancy - it’s happening all around us all the time.
Did vampires ever really exist? The myth is likely related to a medical condition with symptoms that may explain many elements of centuries-old vampire folklore.
During this unsettling time, global leaders have assured children and adults alike that the tooth fairy, free from the risk of infection, is indeed an essential worker.
His life’s work was asserting the humanity and history of the Bantu people, while proposing that the soul was able to bring knowledge of the past and of the future into the present.
China’s Qixi Festival is a celebration of love based on the legend of a mortal who married a goddess, causing his furious mother-in-law to create a Milky Way to divide these two twinkling stars.
The curious history of a ritual meant to ward off bad luck.
A new exhibition surveys the haunting Japanese traditions and beliefs that connect the supernatural with the everyday.
New regulations on the use of folklore are a hindrance to local artists.
Top contributors
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Visiting Researcher in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University
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Associate Professor of Research, University of Hertfordshire
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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University of Newcastle
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Senior Lecturer in Mental Health, King's College London
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Professor of Folklore, Curtin University
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Professor of Wildlife Conservation, University of Salford
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Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
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Visiting Fellow, Department of Government, London School of Economics and Political Science
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Associate Professor of Biology, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
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Research Fellow, Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath
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Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Texas State University
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Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Leicester
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Postgraduate Research Scholar, University of Newcastle
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PhD Candidate, School of History, Australian National University
