To think more should be made of our local myths, folklore and traditions

[Feelingathomenow]

Britain, and indeed the whole of the western world, seems to be becoming increasingly divided. Political ideologies v political ideology, Religion against religion, race against race, sex against sex.

For a society to be strong, it needs common values, common beliefs and common rituals. It needs shared stories we can relate to and make reference to.

This is where myths and traditions have always played a vital part. Britain is full of local stories that people have all eagerly shared, stories everyone knew that brought people together. story telling is so very important to humanity and always has been. Traditions where everyone played their part either as participator or spectator, either way it brought a community together, these kinds of rituals have proven benefits for all.

People in Devon and Cornwall always knew about the pixies and people round here often blame/thank the Pixies for good/bad luck. We have the Tar barrels every November which provides a focus for people, newer traditions referencing the old, like the pirate festival, celebrations around the landing of William of Orange etc. People talk about hairy hands grabbing the steering wheel of your car on a certain road, people know about Kitty Jays grave where fresh flowers appear on the grave of a suicide victim buried at cross roads even if your back is turned for a second or the Devil riding out across the moors with his hell hounds.

Many of these myths and legends have made it into some of the most popular stories, The hell hounds on Dartmoor made it into the hounds of the Baskerville (thanks to Doyle’s coach driver (a mr Baskerville) when he visited Dartmoor.obviously the Fantastic JK Rowling has introduced Dobies and Boggarts to children far beyond Scotland/East of England respectively. People across the world read these stories

So should we be talking about these things more, esp in schools to give common stories of Britain (or wherever you live) not so tied to the big religions or political ideologies, things that do however, fulfil the need for common stories and rituals based in the landscape of where people live? Should more be done to encourage everyone to take part in local traditions to bring communities together? Also interested to hear of any local legends/traditions etc.

Oh that would be amazing, sending you much positive energy for this

Absolutely. Mind you, even with their money hats on you would think they would see the tourism pounds making more of this would generate.

Yes absolutely everywhere has history, even if it’s connecting to the land. Even if nothing was built there before, people will have walked over it. The old trees will have witnessed changes as we revolve round the sun.

Thank you for starting this thread op. Some really interesting links.

I'll make the effort to see '3 acres and a cow'.

Oh that sounds fantastic- have you been tempted to join?

This sounds wonderful, exactly the sort of traditions I think are important to continue. I wish there was something similar near me.

Agree, OP! I love folklore, and try to weave celebrations into my kids lives. I'm Irish and live in England, so there's a plethora of fascinating stuff. DH is Norwegian so even more!

My friend is a folklorist so we go with him to interesting places a lot, and have discovered so many traditions and places that keep them up. I wish they were more taken notice of! The amount of people who don't even know where Halloween comes from is a crying shame.

We were taught some local legends and stories way back when I was at primary school (rural East Anglia) and others like the Green Man and Black Shuck cropped up fairly often. I've taught my DC about them, but I don't think any of it is now even mentioned at school. It's a shame because those things give you a sense of place, a sense of the continuity of people in the place.

Random treasures are often unearthed on rural land.

We're on many spring lines here, there's one just down the road that used to be the local water source. My neighbour has an old well capped off in her kitchen. The local history is fascinating but if you knew of my adopted town you wouldn't believe it as it's being rapidly over run by identikit blocks of high rise flats that no-one will actually own so why should they care.

I grew up in a place where that happened and it's tragic to see it playing out again. Money shouts louder than local interests.

You could always research a local tradition and revive it, as people on here have commented, there’s lots of interest in old traditions. Even an evening in a pub talking about old local myths and legends would be so interesting.

Yes, we absolutely need to find a way of inspiring a connection to and pride in the places we live. There’s so much to the phrase “an Englishman’s home is his castle” the Lord of any castle has a pride in it, a responsibility to the local area (obviously also applies to other nationalities too). It’s the home element of this, a sense of belonging, a permanence and stability, a community

We are more mobile now than we were in years before and this leads to more transient communities, it is harder to put down roots and make solid connections. Obviously things like ridiculous house prices / rent prices and rising costs of living do not help with this. I’m a psychologist and I strongly believe that disconnection is at the heart of lots of peoples suffering. There is a lack of belonging, stability and meaningful connection in society now. The things discussed in this thread can help with this, I find it very grounding to be in nature and notice the seasons change, finding ways to celebrate this. This all became much more relevant to me during lockdown. I am currently going through a (stressful!) moving process to live closer to the sea and mountains and I cannot wait.

I love English folklore. I’ve spent a lot of time researching it as I don’t think it’s as easily accessible as folklore from the rest of the British Isles.

Absolutely, I don’t think you need to be born somewhere in order to immerse yourself in its culture. Having this common knowledge and partaking in the local rituals will undoubtedly give you that sense of belonging and stability within an established community.

We don’t originally come from Devon (well not in this lifetime) yet I feel a greater sense of belonging here than I have done anywhere, by learning about the myths and legends connected to the land and joining in local traditions. This is why I think it’s such a wonderful way of uniting a divided society., schools could play such an amazing part in this.

good luck with the move

Beltane are incredible! I spent some time at Sidmouth folk festival this year and was lucky enough to see many, many morris dancers.
As a child I always wanted to be from somewhere else and have stories and culture attached as I felt nothing! A friend of mine recommended the author Sharon Blackie, she’s fantastic!

My DD would love to do an undergraduate degree on this kind of thing, so if anyone knows of one please let me know! There are a few PG courses but not many UG...

The nearest I can think is Exeter history course who include modules on magic (there used to one on western esotericism which is slightly different but linked - there) unfortunately since he passed the funding dried up and there is now the PH course which inc modules on Arthur etc - for some reason it’s now under the school of Islamic studies - I tell myself this is also for funding reasons! As otherwise it’s bizarre.

This is a link to its interdisciplinary centre there - at least there’s the staff there for things like dissertations.

I’ve also got massively into folk music recently, love the stories but in particular female folk artists who are rewriting folk songs for modern times.
checkout Lady Maisery and suthering. Wonderful voices and superb stories!

@TangoTarantella I have been joining a lot of these events over the last few years and love the sense of community they bring

I would like to know as well. A couple of my friends have done adult learning classes at Imperial, there’s a course called Spellbound: A History of Witchcraft, Magic and the Occult which is slightly off topic however it did incorporate all kinds of interesting aspects of folklore, anthropology and psychology. It’s a brilliant course apparantly. It focuses a lot on history, literature and art.

I hope your daughter finds something suitable!

My parents were Londoners and I grew up knowing the tales of Spring-heeled Jack. I wouldn't think all that many Londoners have ever heard of him now.

Would you like to see them talked about more as say part of the school curriculum?

No, while i think this stuff is fun/interesting, my view is that school is for academic education/useful skills, and while this sort of thing already comes up via storytelling, i don't need it as some sort of separate cultural segment. Thats for parents & community to provide if they wish

If you are into paganism, that is a friendly group of people, like doing sea swimming, night bonfires, solstices, all nationalities, very back to nature.

We've just had Tar Barrels and I've got a bit of charred barrel in my house, not sure it's lucky!

I love the history of old churches, where the Christian church and local folk pre-Christian symbols are often found side by side, such as the Green Man in churches up on Dartmoor.

I agree with you OP, this is a slightly supernatural part of the world, I love it!

What I like about 'folk' in general is that it's remade in every generation, it doesn't stay still, so women for example, are making their own music. Folk means ground up. It shouldn't mean static and most traditions are reinterpreted time and time again.

Hmm. I think that traditions survive while people actually want them to, and while they are still passed down through upbringing. I don't think pixies etc are the kind of thing that should be taught through the school curriculum. These things have died out because people don't believe in them or find them important any more. I don't think that actively trying to revive them for the public good would work at all. A revival in children's popular fiction might work to an extent though.