Introduction

Certain places seem to attract and collect stories, myths and associations that become lodged in the popular imagination. Obvious examples are ancient monuments like Stonehenge or Glastonbury Tor, but more modern and/or urban locations have folkloric associations and significance as well. Just think of the number of pubs that claim to have at least one resident ghost or the creepy derelict building that the neighbourhood children insist is haunted.

In this seminar we will examine how rural and urban places are represented in European folklore.

Seminar Question

• How are rural and urban places represented in the folklore of Europe?
• Why do some places and not others become the focus for stories, legends and rituals?

Required Reading

Coverley, Merlin, PsychogeographyLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Harpenden, 2012), Introduction.

Rees, Gareth E., Unofficial Britain: Journeys through Unexpected PlacesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (London, 2020), Introduction: The Magic, Mythology and Folklore of Urban Space.Link opens in a new window

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The Folklore Podcast: Folklore in the LandscapeLink opens in a new window

Further Reading

BBC In Our Time: Megaliths (02/03/23)Link opens in a new window

Assmann, Aleida, '"The Whole Country is a Monument": Framing Places of Terror in Postwar Germany' in Schindel, E. and Colombo, P. (eds.), Space and the memories of violence (Basingstoke, 2014)Link opens in a new window

Les Back, 'Beaches and Graveyards: Europe's Haunted Borders', Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 12 , No. 3 (2009), pp. 329-340Link opens in a new window

Breuer, Rayna, 'The Origins of the Germans' Special Relation to the Forest', DW (24/9/2018)Link opens in a new window

Burnham, Andy, ed., The Old Stones: A Field Guide to the Megalithic Sites of Britain and Ireland (London, 2018)

Cowdell, Paul, 'Ghosts and their Relationship with the Age of a City', Folklore, Vol. 125, No. 1 (2014), pp. 80-91Link opens in a new window

Dunn, Stuart, 'Folklore in the Landscape: The Case of Corpse PathsLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window', Time and Mind 13/3 (2020), 245-265.

Evans, George Ewart, The Farm and the Village (London, 1975)

Gregor, Neil, Haunted City: Nuremburg and the Nazi Past (New Haven, 2008)

Harte, Jeremy, 'Forest Murmurs: Wood and Wild in the Making of England', in Folklore and Nation in Britain and Ireland, ed. Matthew Cheeseman and Carina Hart (London, 2022), 48-62

Hing, Richard, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 2: Spirits of Place (Durham, 2019)

Hoggard, Brian, Magical House Protection: The Archaeology of Counter-WitchcraftLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2019)

Kingshill, Sophia, and Jennifer Westwood, The Fabled Coast: Legends and Traditions from Around the Shores of Britain and Ireland (London, 2014)Link opens in a new window

Lubkowitz, Anneke, Haunted Spaces in Twenty-First Century British Nature Writing (Berlin, 2020)Link opens in a new window

Mills, A. D., A Dictionary of British Place-Names, rev. ed. (Oxford, 2011)Link opens in a new window

Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí, The Lore of Ireland: An Encyclopaedia of Myth, Legend and Romance (Woodbridge, 2006)

Paciorek, Andy, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, 2nd ed. (Durham, 2018)

Palmer, Roy, The Folklore of Warwickshire (London, 1976)

Parnell, Edward, Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country (London, 2019)Link opens in a new window

Rhys, John, Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1901), especially Vol. 1, pp. 354-400Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window and Vol. 2, pp. 401-555.Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Rees, Gareth E., Unofficial Britain: Journeys through Unexpected Places (London, 2020)Link opens in a new window
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Roud, Steve, The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland (Harmondsworth, 2003)Link opens in a new window

Simpson, Jacqueline, Green Men & White Swans: The Folklore of British Pub Names (London, 2010)

Westwood, Jacqueline, and Jacqueline Simpson, eds, Haunted England: The Penguin Book of Ghosts (Harmondsworth, 2008)Link opens in a new window

Westwood, Jennifer, and Jacqueline Simpson, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Harmondsworth, 2005)

Westwood, Jennifer, and Sophia Kingshill, The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to Scottish Legends (London, 2009)Link opens in a new window

Electronic Resources

Amazing Tales - Map of Mythological EuropeLink opens in a new window

English Heritage Map of Myth, Legend & FolkloreLink opens in a new window

German Folklore Map - Sunken Castles, Evil Poodles: Commentaries on German Folklore websiteLink opens in a new window (click on the pins on the map to get information on folk tales, myths and legends associated with that place)

The Map of Nordic LegendsLink opens in a new window (Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the link to access the interactive map)

PlaceprintsLink opens in a new window. "Hidden voices and haunted landscapes are conjured up in ten unique stories from the imagination of visionary writer David Rudkin".