In this episode of Fabulous Folklore, I’m chatting to Marion Gibson about Helena Scheuberin and her witchcraft trial in 1485 in Innsbruck, how her clash with Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer...

In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I chat to Dr Andrea Wright about the fairy tale film as a concept, Jim Henson’s career in film and television, the...

In this episode, we’re chatting about witchcraft in Shropshire, a specific 19th century witch named Ann Morgan, and what Ann’s life – and death – can tell us about...

In this first episode of Fabulous Folklore’s Witches theme for July, I’m chatting to Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack from the End Witch Hunts project about the Salem Witch...

I’ve covered three British herbalists so far on this podcast, and each has made a notable contribution to the development of botany and apothecary practice in Britain. This week,...

Last week, we met William Turner, who revolutionised English herbals in the 16th century by publishing the first one in English. This gave more people access to the herbal...

In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I’m talking to archaeologist Wayne Perkins, who worked as a field archaeologist before moving into Historic Building Surveys. He supervises urban excavations...

Herbalism has seen a boom of interest in recent years as people seek to find closer relationships with nature and create ways to supplement their wellbeing. The practice has...

If you’re interested in herbalism or plant lore, chances are that you’ve perused a herbal or two in your time. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal: A Compendium of Herbs and Their...

Storytelling is something we all do on a daily basis, whether we’re aware of it or not. Maybe we’re telling a funny anecdote about something that happened on the...

Dr Steph Lay is a folk horror writer, psychologist and researcher, gathering and sharing local stories of the unexplained for a project investigating whether the new city of Milton...

Visionary film director and stage magician Georges Méliès is perhaps the earliest filmmaker who saw the visual potential of folklore. Among others, mermaids, sirens, ghosts, devils, and sorcerers are...

Musical instruments appear scattered throughout various folktales. A drum lies at the centre of the Tedworth Drummer story. Pipers and drummers try to follow underground tunnels, only to mysteriously...

Going to the theatre can often feel like a magical experience. You sit in the dark, watching a story unfold in front of you, with your imagination filling in...

Folklore and the arts are almost natural bedfellows. As we saw with the work of Newcastle-based painter Ralph Hedley, artists can capture local traditions for posterity. The Pre-Raphaelites created...

Studying the shapes of things is a popular means of divination, relying on human pattern recognition abilities. Look at reading tea leaves and coffee grounds, or tasseography, which rely...

Divination is a beautifully varied practice, with a plethora of tools and practices designed to give insight into situations. Practices like reading tea leaves or tarot cards already appear...

Last week, we looked at the use of dowsing to find treasure or criminals. Like water dowsing, this method requires the use of a rod that twitches in the...

Morgan Daimler is a witch who has been a polytheist since the early 1990s. Following a path inspired by the Irish Fairy Faith blended with neopagan witchcraft. Morgan teaches...

Dowsing is often used to find water, minerals, or even lost items. Where divination usually seeks to provide information, here the information is of a directly practical or tangible...

When it comes to the walnut tree, we’re probably more familiar with their produce than the actual tree. Walnuts are easily recognisable, and present in everything from nut selections...

Poplar trees are perhaps one of the lesser-known trees that I’ve featured on this blog. Many people can recognise an oak tree on sight, but how many could recognise...

Joanna Tarnawska is an animist, folkloric witch, and psychologist residing in the mountains of Lower Silesia, Poland. Her practice intertwines animism, bioregional traditions, and lore, drawing inspiration from the...

Back in November 2020, I explored the folklore of the yew tree; specifically, the common yew, or English yew (Taxus baccata). Yes, it’s a poisonous tree. Yes, it’s linked...

Periodically, I choose a plant, tree or fungus to explore, only to find there is very little folklore about them. Invariably, there are two reasons for this. First, the...