Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Folklore and Popular Tradition
English fairy tales, folk custom, Robin Hood, West Country lore, games, seasonal practice, and popular tradition.
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Texts
A Peep at the Pixies — Anna Eliza BrayA Peep at the Pixies or Legends of the West by Anna Eliza Bray (1854) — traditional Devonshire legends of the pixies, the Small People, and the fairy folk of the West Country, drawn from oral tradition and the author's earlier Traditions of Devonshire.A Righte Merrie Christmasse — John AshtonJohn Ashton’s 1894 popular account of Christ-tide in England and the British Isles in thirty-two chapters, from the date of the Nativity, the Saturnalia and Yule through the Puritan campaign against Christmas, waits, carols, the Yule log and wassailing, mummers and the Lord of Misrule, Christmas fare and the Christmas tree, to Twelfth Night and Plough Monday, with the old carols and verses quoted in their original spelling.Cornish Feasts and Folk-lore — M. A. CourtneyM. A. Courtney’s 1890 book of Cornish folklore, revised from her papers in the Folk-Lore Society’s journals of 1886–87: parish feasts and the customs of the year, legends of parishes, fairies, the superstitions of miners, sailors and farmers, charms, children’s games and rhymes, and old Cornish ballads, with her index.Cornwall's Wonderland — Mabel Quiller-CouchMabel Quiller-Couch’s 1914 retelling for children of seventeen Cornish legends, from Corineus and the giant Gogmagog and the giant of St. Michael’s Mount to the fairies of the Gump, Lutey and the mermaid, the wreckers Coppinger and Madge Figgy, and Sir Tristram and La Belle Iseult.Domestic Folk-lore — T. F. Thiselton DyerThe Rev. T. F. Thiselton Dyer’s survey of the folklore of English home life, written in 1881: the superstitions and customs of birth and infancy, childhood, courtship, marriage, death and burial, the body, dress, the table, furniture and the household, divination, common ailments and dreams, with the author’s index.English Fairy and Folk Tales — Sidney Edwin HartlandEnglish Fairy and Other Folk Tales edited by Sidney Edwin Hartland (1890) — a wide-ranging collection of English folk tales organized by type (fairy encounters, changeling stories, bogies, witches, giants, ghosts) with scholarly attention to the underlying belief systems.English Fairy Tales — Joseph JacobsEnglish Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs (1890) — 43 classic English tales including Jack and the Beanstalk, Tom Thumb, Jack the Giant-Killer, Dick Whittington, and the Three Bears, drawn from oral tradition and early printed sources.Goblin Tales of Lancashire — James BowkerJames Bowker’s Goblin Tales of Lancashire, published in London by W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.: twenty-six tales of the Skriker, boggarts, fairies, witches, ghosts and the Devil, retold from Lancashire tradition, with Bowker’s introduction on the county’s superstitions and an appendix of thirty-four comparative notes.Hero-Myths and Legends of the British Race — Maud Isabel EbbuttHero-Myths and Legends of the British Race by Maud Isabel Ebbutt (1910) — heroic narratives from Old English, Norse, and medieval British tradition retold in prose, covering Beowulf, King Horn, Havelok, Guy of Warwick, Hereward the Wake, Robin Hood, and other heroes of British legend.Lancashire Folk-lore — John Harland and T. T. WilkinsonJohn Harland and T. T. Wilkinson’s Lancashire Folk-lore (1867): the superstitious beliefs and practices of the county palatine, from boggarts, charms, the Devil, divination, omens and wells to the Lancashire witches, and its local customs at the seasons and church festivals, at birth, wedding and burial, and in the manors.Legend Land, Vol. I — LyonesseThe first of four Legend Land booklets published by the Great Western Railway in 1922, retelling six Cornish legends (the Mermaid of Zennor, the Hurlers of St. Cleer, St. Piran, the lost child of St. Allen, the giants of St. Michael’s Mount, Tregeagle) and six Welsh (Llyn-y-Fan Fach, St. David, Fishguard, Bala Lake and others), with the Helston Furry Day Song.Legend Land, Vol. II — LyonesseThe second of four Legend Land booklets published by the Great Western Railway in 1922, retelling six Devon legends of Dartmoor and Tavistock, among them Brent Tor, the Parson and the Clerk and Drake’s demon, and six Cornish ones, among them Lyonesse, the Spectre Coach of Talland and St. Neot, with the Padstow May Day songs.Legend Land, Vol. III — LyonesseThe third of four Legend Land booklets published by the Great Western Railway in 1923, retelling six Welsh legends (Manawyddan and the mouse, St. Melangell, King Arthur asleep at Craig-y-Ddinas, Bronwen, Glasfryn, St. Govan) and six Cornish ones (the fairy gardens of Treen, the Dodman, Pengersick, St. German, Rosewarne, the Four Halls), with the old Fowey song “John Dory”.Legend Land, Vol. IV — LyonesseThe last of four Legend Land booklets published by the Great Western Railway in 1923, retelling twelve legends of the English country nearer London, among them the Rollright Stones, Bladud and Bath, Cadbury as Camelot, the Witch of Wookey, Wayland Smith, Herne the Hunter, Stanton Drew and Wild Darrell, with “Sumer is icumen in”.Legendary Yorkshire — Frederick RossFrederick Ross’s Legendary Yorkshire (Hull, 1892): fifteen Yorkshire legends retold with their history, among them Arthur asleep under Richmond Castle, the drowned city of Semerwater, the Worm of Nunnington, the Devil’s Arrows, the Dragon of Wantley, the saints Oswald, Hilda and John of Beverley, the Calverley ghost and the bewitched house of Wakefield.Legends of Longdendale — Thomas MiddletonThomas Middleton’s 1906 book of twenty-three tales founded upon the folklore of Longdendale, the valley in the north-east corner of Cheshire, retold as literary stories in chronological order from Roman Melandra and King Arthur through Robin Hood, witches, magicians and the Civil War to the ghosts and boggarts of Godley Green.More English Fairy Tales — Joseph JacobsMore English Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs (1894) — a second volume of 43 English folk tales including Cap o' Rushes, Mr. Fox, Whittington and His Cat, The Laidly Worm of Spindleston Heugh, and tales from every county of England and Wales.Myths and Legends of Christmastide — Bertha F. HerrickBertha F. Herrick’s short essay on Christmas customs and beliefs, printed at San Francisco in 1901 after its first appearance in the San Francisco Chronicle: the kneeling oxen and singing bees, the Christmas tree of Germany, holly and mistletoe, the Black Forest legend of the chrysanthemum, and the boar’s head, wassail, yule log and carols of old England.North Cornwall Fairies and Legends — Enys TregarthenEnys Tregarthen’s 1906 book of thirteen North Cornwall fairy stories and legends retold for children, of Piskeys, night-riders, Giant Tregeagle, the Padstow Doombar mermaid and St. Neot’s impounded crows, with an introduction by Howard Fox and the author’s own notes on the beliefs behind each tale.Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales — James Orchard HalliwellJames Orchard Halliwell’s 1849 sequel to his Nursery Rhymes of England: English nursery tales such as Mr. Vinegar, Chicken-Licken, Mr. Fox and Tom Hickathrift, with game, alphabet, riddle, nature, proverb, place, superstition and custom rhymes, a mummers’ play and nursery songs, gathered largely from oral tradition and compared with Swedish, Danish and German parallels.Popular Romances of the West of England — Robert HuntThe foundational collection of Cornish folklore — giants, piskies, knockers, mermaids, and local legends from the far West Country. Robert Hunt's third edition, London: Chatto and Windus, 1903.Robin Hood and His Adventures — Paul CreswickRobin Hood and His Adventures by Paul Creswick (1917), illustrated by N.C. Wyeth — a complete retelling of the Robin Hood legend from the original ballads, tracing the career of the outlaw of Sherwood Forest from his outlawry to his death at Kirklees Priory.Sports and Pastimes of the People of England — Joseph StruttThe Sports and Pastimes of the People of England by Joseph Strutt (1801, revised by J. Charles Cox 1903) — the foundational historical survey of English folk games, sports, seasonal festivals, dramatic entertainments, tournaments, and popular recreations from the earliest periods to the early nineteenth century.Stories and Folk-Lore of West Cornwall, Third Series — William BottrellThe third and last series of William Bottrell’s West Cornish traditions, printed for the author at Penzance in 1880: ghost-laying parsons and haunted lawyers, St. Just and Madron feasts, Zennor hearthside stories, the walk from Penzance to Carn Galva, the Penzance of his grandfathers, parish nicknames, dialect drolls and dialogues, carols, Midsummer customs, charms and piskies, with a glossary of local words.Tales and Legends of the English Lakes — Wilson ArmisteadWilson Armistead’s Tales and Legends of the English Lakes (1891): twenty-seven tales, legends and sketches of the Lake District, among them St. Herbert of Derwentwater, the skulls of Calgarth, the Luck of Eden Hall, the spectre army of Soutra Fell, the Beauty of Buttermere and the Bridal of Triermain, with the Border ballads of Carlisle and much quoted verse.Tales of the Dartmoor Pixies — William CrossingTales of the Dartmoor Pixies by William Crossing (1890) — folk tales and legends of the pixies of Dartmoor, Devon, collected from local oral tradition by the foremost chronicler of Dartmoor life, covering pixy mischief, pixy stealing, pixy-led travelers, and the relationship between pixies and the human world.The Book of Christmas — Thomas K. HerveyThomas K. Hervey’s illustrated essay on the English Christmas season, in the Boston edition of 1888: the mingled origin of the festival, the Lord of Misrule and Ben Jonson’s masque, the feelings and signs of the season, then each of the Christmas days from St. Thomas’s Day to Saint Distaff’s Day, with the mummers’ play of St. George, the Yule-clog, the boar’s head, Boxing Day, Hogmanay and Twelfth Night.The Book of Hallowe'en — Ruth Edna KelleyA comprehensive exploration of the pagan roots and folk customs of Halloween, tracing the festival from ancient sun-worship through Celtic Samhain to modern American practice.The Piskey-Purse — Enys TregarthenEnys Tregarthen’s 1905 book of five long Cornish fairy tales, “The Piskey-Purse”, “The Magic Pail”, “The Witch in the Well”, “Borrowed Eyes and Ears” and “The Little White Hare”, set at Polzeath, Padstow, Harlyn Bay, Lanherne and the moors of West Penwith, with Piskeys, Spriggans, Nightriders and witches and footnotes on Cornish dialect words.The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Vol. I — Alice Bertha GommeThe first volume (1894), Accroshay to Nuts in May, of Alice Bertha Gomme’s alphabetical dictionary of the traditional children’s games of England, Scotland and Ireland: 447 entries giving the local versions of the singing-rhymes with their places and informants, the methods of playing, analyses of the rhymes, and her suggestions as to each game’s origin.The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Vol. II — Alice Bertha GommeThe second volume (1898), Oats and Beans to Would You Know, of Alice Bertha Gomme’s dictionary of the traditional children’s games of England, Scotland and Ireland, with the versions of the singing-rhymes, methods of playing and analyses for 282 games, addenda to both volumes, and her memoir on the study of children’s games.Traditions and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, Second Series — William BottrellThe second series of William Bottrell’s traditions of West Penwith, printed for the author at Penzance in 1873: the Christmas guise-dance of Duffy and the Devil, drolls and family legends of Buryan, St. Levan, St. Just, Zennor and Sennen, fairy, giant, witch and knocker tales, West Country superstitions and charms, with the author’s notes, a glossary of local words and an index.Weather and Folk Lore of Peterborough and District — Charles DackCharles Dack’s 1911 collection, published for the Peterborough Natural History, Scientific, and Archæological Society, of the customs, weather sayings, charms, rhymes, games and beliefs current within about fifteen miles of Peterborough, arranged through the months of the year and then by subject, with verses from John Clare.Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs of the North Riding of Yorkshire — Richard BlakeboroughRichard Blakeborough’s 1898 record of the North Riding of Yorkshire: dialect stories of wit and character, customs of the year, of courtship, marriage, birth and death, omens, charms, witchcraft, sayings, similes and proverbs, children’s lore and the grammar of the folk-speech, with a glossary of some four thousand words and idioms.