Tuesday, August 11, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org
Folklore and Occult Reception
Romani folklore and nineteenth-century occult reception, including language study, folk tales, fortune telling, and ethnographic collection.
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Texts
English Gipsies and Their Language — Charles Godfrey LelandEnglish Gipsies and Their Language by Charles Godfrey Leland (1874) — a study of the Romani people in England, their society, customs, language (the Romany dialect), and oral tradition, by the American folklorist who learned Romany and lived among Gypsy communities.Gypsy Folk Tales — Francis Hindes GroomGypsy Folk Tales collected by Francis Hindes Groom (1899) — 75 tales from Romani communities across Europe (Turkish, Russian, Hungarian, Transylvanian, Scottish, Welsh Gypsies), many with parallel variants and scholarly apparatus, the foundational English-language Romani folklore collection.Gypsy Sorcery and Fortune Telling — Charles Godfrey LelandA study of Romani magical practices, incantations, and divination methods, drawing parallels with pagan traditions worldwide.