Folklore and Occult Reception

Romani folklore and nineteenth-century occult reception, including language study, folk tales, fortune telling, and ethnographic collection.

Pages

  • English Gipsies and Their Language — Charles Godfrey Leland — English 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 Groom — Gypsy 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 Leland — A study of Romani magical practices, incantations, and divination methods, drawing parallels with pagan traditions worldwide.