The Folklore Podcast

The case of Gef, the alleged talking mongoose, which may or may not have been a poltergeist, or a ghost, or a hoax, or any one of a number of things, took place over a period of around 8 years on a remote farm in the Isle of Man in the 1930s. It was investigated by Harry Price, Nandor Fodor and other researchers, but there was never a definite conclusion as to what was going on. On this episode of The Folklore Podcast, creator and host Mark Norman talks to Christopher Josiffe, the author of the award winning book on Gef, published in 2017, and the result of 7 years of research by Chris into the subject.  

The skills of weaving, spinning and knitting were vital to clothe and keep warm members of every class, race, religion or social group from the poorest to the richest. And so, we find wool, yarn and thread and the working of those materials rooted very deeply in the folklore of countries around the globe. In this episode, Folklore Podcast creator and host Mark Norman discusses the folklore associated with wool, thread, spinning and associated crafts, through folk and fairy tales, customs and more. Support the Folklore Podcast at www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast and receive bonus content and rewards.

This episode of the Folklore Podcast examines the broad themes of witchcraft and the supernatural, but focuses down to look at how they were portrayed in the early modern period; specifically, how witches were represented on the 17th century musical stage. Folklore Podcast creator and host Mark Norman is joined by special guest and musicologist Shauna Caffrey who discusses her unusual research into the role of witches in the opera. To find out more about Shauna and her work, please visit the guests page on our website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com

In the second part of this two-part examination of vampire from lore from around the world, Folklore Podcast creator and host Mark Norman moves on to discuss ways of ensuring that the recently deceased do not rise again as vampires and, if these measures fail, what differing methods are available to destroy a creature. What are the differences between pinning and staking? Which wood should you use for your stake? Why were some bodies buried with farm implements? To access the entire back catalogue of the Folklore Podcast for free, purchase episode supplements or other folklore products or learn more about the guests on the podcast, please visit www.thefolklorepodcast.com To support the Folklore Podcast on Patreon, get extra content and rewards and ensure the continuing development of the show, please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast  

Many of the folk tales that inspire us, teach us or just intrigue us have been passed down through many generations. In some cases we can find a root for the story. In most, we cannot. But they draw on the knowledge, the beliefs and the imaginations of our ancestors. Many of the stories that we have today, both the well-loved tales and the more obscure lore, survive because of the practices and skills of the storyteller. In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, creator and host Mark Norman is joined by classically trained actor and professional storyteller Jon Buckeridge, of Parable Arts, to discuss the synergies between folklore and storytelling. Visit the Folklore Podcast website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com Earn rewards by supporting the podcast on Patreon at www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast Learn more about Jon and his work at www.parablearts.co.uk

Most people are familiar with the story of 'Count Dracula' and have more than a good general knowledge of the typical vampire tropes of stage and screen; the fangs, the pale skin, the blood sucking. But to truly understand the motif of the vampire in culture, we need to look across the world at all of our cultures and this is where the folklorists approach is so valuable. In the first of this special two-part examination of the vampire, podcast creator and host Mark Norman examines the origins and emergence of the idea of the vampire across races, religions and cultures through the folklore record. Part two next month will examine death lore and protection symbolism. An e-magazine supplement for this episode and the back catalogue are available at www.thefolklorepodcast.com To support The Folklore Podcast, pleas visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

Through the early to mid part of the 20th century there were a number of characters, often women, who would travel their parts of the world collecting folk songs, stories and superstitions and recording them for the future. These people are often forgotten in modern times, but without them we would not have the archives and knowledge of our folkloric past that we do now. In this episode of the Folklore Podcast, host Mark Norman talks to Cindy Campbell-Stone, Vice-president of the Helen Creighton Folklore Society about Canada's 'First Lady of Folklore' and offers a chance to hear some of Helen's original field recording audio as well as modern renditions of songs and stories that she collected. You can learn more about Helen and the Society at www.helencreighton.org

Returning from its month off for the summer, the Folklore Podcast takes to the water with an episode on the folklore of the mermaid. From Cornish folk tales to Slavic undead, from TV mockumentaries to outright hoaxes and all points in between, podcast creator and host Mark Norman offers a look at the nice, and not so nice aspects of the mer-creature, both male and female. The Folklore Podcast will always be free to listen to, but to help secure the long term success of the show please consider joining our Patreon page where you can get transcripts and bonus content in recognition of your help. Visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

WITCH - Preserving Tradition and Folklore through Theatre. The special guest on this episode of The Folklore Podcast is Historian and Author Tracey Norman. Tracey is discussing her acclaimed play WITCH, which takes as its premise actual events from witch trial documents and depositions from the early modern period and maps them onto three fictitious characters. This serves to give a voice to those people from our past who were denied one at the time, telling an important story. Tracey talks about her research, the play and the other projects which are coming out of this important work. Follow the project at www.traceynormanswitch.com

Animal totems as symbols in folk rituals are common and go back probably further than any of us can track. By far the most prolific of these is the hobby horse. Often associated with calendar customs as well as an accompanying figure for many Morris dance sides, there are a number of common varieties of hobby horse and they are found in customs around the world. In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, creator and host Mark Norman examines the motif of the hobby horse as well as telling a little about a very unusual one that he is currently preserving.

A deviation from the normal format of the podcast for this edition by way of a change. In this episode, host Mark Norman introduces a reading of a fiction story which he wrote using themes from his research into Black Dog apparitions, and local tradition and folklore from his area of the world. In this podcast, the story is read by Sam Burns. "The Padding Horror" is a Lovecraftian style short story which was originally written for an anthology of similar tales put together by authors voluntarily to raise money for the mental health charity MIND. An ebook of the original anthology can be purchased by donating any amount to the charity. To do this, please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/secretinvasion

Before naturally occurring events were understand by humans, they needed stories in order to explain them, much in the same way as we have seen with physical conditions such as the Old Hag phenomenon which we examined earlier in this season. In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, creator and host Mark Norman looks at the eclipse in folklore, both solar and lunar, and relates some of the mythological and traditional tales associated with these events, as well as some obscure lore on what you should and should not do while an eclipse takes place. For the episode supplement for this episode, the Folklore Shop and more information, please visit www.thefolklorepodcast.com

Many people believe that the Chupacabra - the mysterious 'goatsucker' of New Mexico - is a folkloric creature of some age. Yet its origin cannot be traced earlier than 1995 and even then it has been reported in two very distinct forms. In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, our special guest is Benjamin Radford, author of the definite book on the lore of the creature, "Tracking the Chupacabra". In one of the most in-depth interviews given on the subject, Ben takes us through his 5-year long investigation into the Chupacabra, and explains how he believes he has solved the mystery of where it came from, and how its folklore will continue to disseminate.

Creator and host of the Folklore Podcast, Mark Norman, examines the lore and practices of those who follow a Traditional pathway of Folk Magic: the Cunning Man, the Wise Woman, the pellar and the wayside witch. This episode examines to what extent the role and the techniques of the Traditional Witch have changed over the last 200 years and how similar the folk magic beliefs are in more modern times.

The topics of spiritualism and mediumship have always been, and will always be, controversial. It is important to note that as folklorists, we should not be judging whether such things are 'real' or 'imagined', but rather the role that the phenomenon and the stories associated with it play within our cultures. What is certainly the case is that there have, through history, been people who claimed mediumistic powers when they had none. In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, host Mark Norman examines some of the cases of séance room fraud through history, why people did it, how they did it and how the law brought them to book.

In this episode, host of The Folklore Podcast Mark Norman links up with Blake Smith and Dr Karen Stollznow of Monster Talk podcast in the US for a joint episode examining the field of spectral hounds. Monster Talk is an official podcast of Sceptic Magazine and takes a critical, but open minded look at fields of the paranormal, cryptozoology and folklore. The show also goes more deeply into oral traditions and the use of the motif within folklore. This podcast is simultaneously released by Monster Talk and it is suggested that you listen to their version of the show too, as the edits will contain different material.

In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, host Mark Norman interviews special guest Carin Marais, a qualified language practitioner from South Africa and writer of specualtive and fantasy fiction, about the ways in which fantasy authors use the folklore of the real world as a basis to form their own fictitious worlds. Also, how the fictitious folklore then begins to bleed back into our own lore. Using authors such as Tolkein, Terry Pratchett and Jim Butcher, as well as examples from her own Africaans and other cultures, Carin explores many well known books as well as drawing upon her own writing. An episode supplement for this episode is available to download at www.thefolklorepodcast.com

This episode of The Folklore Podcast is the second part of our examination of the folklore surrounding sleep paralysis and Old Hag phenomena. This time we focus in on some aspects of the folklore relating to the witch trials, to the sexual aspects of the incubus and succubus demonic motifs ... and a look at the role of cheese in nightmares! Following on from this, we are proud to present a special guest interview with pagan rock band Inkubus Sukkubus, who draw their name from this lore and who use much folklore in their songwriting. To support this podcast, please visit our website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com and click on support. To download the e-magazine supplement for this episode visit the supplement pages on the website.

MORE THAN JUST A WORD: "Folklore" : What It Meant and What Happened To It. On this episode of the Folklore Podcast, host Mark Norman is joined by fellow Folklore Society committee member Dr Paul Cowdell. In what you might like to consider as a kind of 'Folklore 101', Paul goes back into history to examine the emergence of both the word Folklore and the discipline itself and traces them through to the modern day. What exactly was, and is, 'Folklore' and what do we study as 'Folklorists'? A full transcript of this valuable academic discussion on the nature of the subject with suggested reading is available from the website at www.thefolklorepodcast.com Patrons of the podcast receive this and all of the emagazine supplements as they come out. To become a patron for as little as $1 a month please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

In the days before we had a good understanding of many medical conditions, folklore would generate around them in order to reconcile what was happening and provide explanations. Such is the case with sleep paralysis, often referred to these days even in medical circles as Old Hag Syndrome. The name derives from the hallucinatory aspect where people often report a hag sitting on their chest preventing them from moving. In medieval folklore the demonic Incubus and Succubus were to be blamed for this condition. This is the first of a two part examination of Old Hag Syndrome and the theme was suggested by one of our listeners to the Folklore Podcast. The second part of this episode will be in two episodes time and will feature some very special guests. To download the e-magazine supplement for this episode please visit www.thefolklorepodcast.com Patrons receive all of our supplements free. To become a patron please visit www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast