The Supernatural
Introduction
Belief in a world beyond the everyday, tangible world and in supernatural beings (fairies, ghosts, werewolves, vampires etc.) is often regarded as one of the essential hallmarks of traditional folk beliefs and practices. Such beliefs can be revealing about the mindset of a particular community and society and how they try to make sense of the world and impose some sort of order on it. In this seminar we will consider the development of beliefs regarding the supernatural in Europe. We will divide into four groups: one will look at folk tales and legends, one will look at ghosts, one at 'monsters' and one will look at witchcraft, magic and paganism.
Seminar Questions
- What do ghost stories, myths and legends reveal about beliefs in the supernatural in Europe?
- How have attitudes towards ghosts changed in Europe since the Middle Ages?
- How has paganism developed in Europe since prehistory?
Required Reading
Folk Tales and Legends
You should each read
Aldhouse-Green, Miranda, The Celtic Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends (London, 2015)Link opens in a new window, Chapter 1
Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
You should also each choose and analyse two folk tales or legends from the following books:
Calvino, Italio, Italian Folktales (London, 2012)Link opens in a new window
Yeats, W. B., Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (New York, 2017)Link opens in a new window
Davies, Sioned, ed. and trans., The MabinogionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2008)ink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
Ghosts
You should each read
Davies, Owen, The Haunted: A Social History of Ghosts (Basingstoke, 2009), IntroductionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
and two chapters from the following books:
Joynes, Andrew, ed., Medieval Ghost Stories: An Anthology of Miracles, Marvels, and ProdigiesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Woodbridge, 2001)
OR the two articles below
Monsters
You should each read
Asmer, Stephen T., On Monsters: An Unnatural History of our Worst Fears (Oxford, 2009)Link opens in a new window, Introduction
and two of the following:
Magic, Witchcraft and Paganism
You should choose and read three of the following:
Davies, Owen, Popular Magic: Cunning Folk in English HistoryLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (London, 2007) - read up to three chapters
Further Reading
Besley, Catherine, Ghost Stories in Cultural History (Edinburgh, 2022)Link opens in a new window
de Blécourt, Willem, and Mirjam Mencej, eds, Werewolf LegendsLink opens in a new window (London, 2023)
Brand, John, Observations on Popular Antiquities: Chiefly Illustrating the Origin of our Vulgar Customs, Ceremonies and Superstitions, ed. Henry Ellis, 2 vols (London, 1813), Vol. 1Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window and Vol. 2Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window.
Briggs, Katharine M., British Folk Tales and Legends: A Sampler (London, 1977)
Briggs, Katharine M., A Dictionary of British Folk-tales in the English Language, 2 vols in 4 (London, 1970-1971)
Bruce, Scott G., The Penguin Book of the Undead (London, 2016)
Campbell, J. F., Popular Tales of the West HighlandsLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, 4 vols (Edinburgh, 1860-1862)
Carr-Gomm, Philip, and Richard Heygate, The Book of English Magic (London, 2009)
Clarke, Roger, A Natural History of Ghosts (London, 2013)Link opens in a new window
Crowe, Catherine, The Night Side of Nature: Or Ghosts and Ghost Seers (1848), Vol. 1Link opens in a new window and Vol. 2Link opens in a new window
Davies, Owen, A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination and Faith during the First World War (Oxford, 2018)
Evans, George Ewart, and David Thomson, The Leaping Hare (London, 1972)
Evans, George Ewart, Horse Power and Magic (London, 1979)Link opens in a new window
Glassie, Henry, ed., Irish Folktales (New York, 1985)Link opens in a new window
Green, Miranda, The Gods of the Celts (Gloucester, 1982)Link opens in a new window
Groom, Nick, The Vampire: A New History (New Haven, 2018)Link opens in a new window
Handley, Sasha, Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-century EnglandLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Abingdon, 2016)
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 window (Oxford, 2019)
Hunt, Robert, Popular Romances of the West of England, 2 vols (London, 1865), Vol. 1Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window and Vol. 2Link opens in a new window
Hutton, Ronald, Pagan BritainLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (London, 2013)
Hutton, Ronald, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan WitchcraftLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 1999)
James, M. R., Collected Ghost Stories, ed. Darryl Jones (Oxford, 2013)
Jarvie, Gordon, ed., Scottish Folk and Fairy Tales from Burns to Buchan (Harmondsworth, 2008)
MacKillop, James, A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Oxford, 2004)Link opens in a new window
MacKillop, James, Myths and Legends of the Celts (Harmondsworth, 2005)Link opens in a new window
McCorristine, Shane, Spectres of the Self: Thinking about Ghosts and Ghost-seeing in England, 1750-1920Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (Cambridge, 2010)
Morrison, Sophia, Manx Fairy TalesLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window (London, 1911)
Nahmad, H. M., A Portion of Paradise and other Jewish Folktales (New York, 1970)
Ó Súilleabháin, Seán, A Handbook of Irish Folklore (Dublin, 1942)
Owens, Susan, The Ghost: A Cultural History (London, 2017)
Paciorek, Andy, et al., eds, Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies, 2nd ed. (Durham, 2018)
Palmer, Roy, The Folklore of Warwickshire (London, 1976)
Rhys, John, Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1901), Vol. 1Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window and Vol. 2Link opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window
Simek, Rudolf, Dictionary of Northern Mythology (Cambridge, 1993)
Stiffler, Muriel W., The German Ghost Story as Genre (New York, 1993)
Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England (London, 1973)
Vickery, Roy, Vickery's Folk Flora: An A-Z of the Folklore and Uses of British and Irish Plants (London, 2019)
Young, Simon, and Ceri Houlbrook, eds, Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies - 500 AD to the PresentLink opens in a new window (London, 2017)
Zipes, Jack, ed., The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales (Oxford, 2000)Link opens in a new window
Zipes, Jack, The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre (Princeton, N.J., 2012)
Electronic Resources
The Rest is History Podcast: Ghosts (24/6/21)Link opens in a new window
The Rest is History Podcast: Hallowe'en and Modern Paganism (1/11/2021)Link opens in a new window
The Battersea Poltergeist - BBC Radio series/podcastLink opens in a new window
The Folklore Podcast: PerchtenLink opens in a new window (discussing female monsters/spirts from the Alps)