The Folklore Podcast

​Folklore Podcast creator and host Mark Norman presents a study of the serpent-like creature of UK folklore, The Lambton Worm, and its place in the wider lore of dragons and similar creatures. Featuring guest contributions and a look at a new audio drama featuring the beast. Folk singer Roly Veitch performs the traditional song associated with the worm (click here to visit his website), Director Steven Sloss discusses the audio drama (available here).Musical guest: L.M. Cooke​Artwork donated by Laura Page. Visit her website here​Click here to support the Folklore Podcast on Patreon.

Author Edward Parnell joins The Folklore Podcast creator and host Mark Norman to discuss his book 'Ghostland', which examines the intersections between folklore, folk horror, the landscape and literature.

Musical guests: The Last Inklings

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In this episode of The Folklore Podcast, we hear from author of dark historical fiction Anna Mazzola about her book 'The Story Keeper'...

A dark tale of folklore and disappearances on the Isle of Skye.

Audrey Hart travels to Skye and to the mansion of a reclusive folklorist to collect the folk and fairy tales of the local people. It is 1857, the Highland Clearances have left devastation and poverty, and the crofters are suspicious and hostile, claiming they no longer know their stories.

Then Audrey discovers the body of a young girl washed up in the bay beneath Lanerly, and the crofters reveal that it is only a matter of weeks since another girl disappeared. They believe the girls are victims of the restless dead: spirits who take the form of birds

Anna discusses her research and the ways that she negotiates history and folklore to produce fiction based on historical fact and narrative.

This episode is closed with music from singer/songwriter Sharron Kraus.

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Released during National Storytelling Week 2020, this episode of The Folklore Podcast features guest interviewer Joana Varanda in discussion with British storytelling legend, and the first Storyteller Laureate Taffy Thomas MBE about his life and work. Taffy is the patron of the Society for Storytelling, has received the English Folk Dance and Song Society Gold Badge Award and his repertoire of around 300 stories, collected mostly by the traditional oral methods, makes him the most well known and respected of all English storytellers.

We present a recording of a performance by Bulgarian/English storytelling group 'A Spell in Time', recorded live in 2013 at the Folklore Society's Beasts in Legend and Tradition conference at Paignton Zoo.

Storyteller Moni Sheehan and musician Ivor Davies discuss the Bulgarian dragon known as the Zmey.

The episode is closed by special musical guest Polly Preacher.

Folklore Podcast Patreon: www.patreon.com/thefolklorepodcast

A Spell in Time: https://www.spellintime.co.uk/

Polly Preacher: https://pollypreacher.bandcamp.com/

Season 5 of The Folklore Podcast kicks off with a special extended episode. Host Mark Norman is joined by author Morgan Daimler to discuss their book 'A New Dictionary of Fairies' which builds on the research done by eminent folklorist Katharine Briggs, focusing on fairies in the Celtic and Western European traditions.

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Visit Morgan's Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MorganDaimler

Featured music guest, Chalk Horse Music: www.chalkhorsemusic.com

This special bonus episode of the Folklore Podcast, presented while the show is dark during December, gives listeners the chance to hear a talk on the folklore-rich Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by two very well-respected presenters.

Recorded at the Gothic Horror festival Hell Tor in November 2019, screenwriter Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch, Gothic) and actor and film historian Jonathan Rigby (English Gothic, American Gothic) discuss the development of the story of The Hound by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, look at some of the local stories which informed it, and talk through some of the film and TV adaptations of the story over the years.

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Compared to the amount of folklore surrounding death customs and beliefs, there is little discussion about the beginning of our timelines - the traditions relating to pregnancy and birth. Redressing the balance, on this episode of The Folklore Podcast host Mark Norman is joined by Jemma Nicholls, a doula who has recently begun developing workshops looking specifically at these traditions and customs. Jemma has been researching these areas for some time, leading to the putting together of her new workshop entitled Charms and Childbirth.

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The rugged coastlines of the county of Cornwall, on the south-western tip of the UK, are etched with stories. Here you’ll find tales of powerful mermaids, spiteful witches, crafty smugglers and woeful ghosts. Up on the moors are mischievous creatures, huge giants and elusive beasts.

Joining the creator of The Folklore Podcast Mark Norman on this episode of the podcast is Cornish folklore writer Anna Chorlton. Through her new book, Cornish Folk Tales of Place, Anna retells collected tales of North and East Cornwall. These stories were recorded through a community project called Mazed Tales, which can be found on the internet at www.mazedtales.org.

Anna discusses the project, her writing and folklore collecting in Cornwall historically, and more.