English Folklore

As one of the leading characters in william shakespeare s midsummer night s dream puck boasts of.
English folklore. English folklore takes a heavy influence from pagan tradition with a number of figures legends and creatures being adapted from the pre christian traditions of the region. The following result is both folklore and straightforward. In old and middle english the word meant simply demon in elizabethan lore he was a mischievous brownielike fairy also called robin goodfellow or hobgoblin. This section has texts about the folklore and legends of england and other resources at sacred texts about the british isles.
From king arthur to garden gnomes it has shaped the folk culture of english speaking countries around the world and inspired globally successful works of literature like harry potter. The characters within the stories include mythical creatures or spirits such as brownies elves boggarts ogres giants and trolls. English folklore has its own dialect with each region s tale offering something new for the reader. These are indicated by pb.
English folklore is among the most well known in the world. The folklore society fls is a learned society based in london devoted to the study of all aspects of folklore and tradition including. Puck in medieval english folklore a malicious fairy or demon. From cambridge english corpus.
A collection of articles related to witches fairies and monsters in british folklore. You ll also encounter heroes cunning folk wizards and plenty of royalty in the english folk tales. Once attached to a family the boggart will pester them forever chasing them wherever they may run and making their belongings disappear. In northern english folklore a boggart is a nasty piece of work a rotten creature that causes milk to sour and dogs to run lame.
Fairy also spelled faerie or faery a mythical being of folklore and romance usually having magic powers and dwelling on earth in close relationship with humans. From cambridge english corpus this implies that there is such a thing as personal folklore a collection of elements that has been influential for one singular person. Ballads folktales fairy tales myths legends traditional song and dance folk plays games seasonal events calendar customs childlore and children s folklore folk arts and crafts popular belief folk religion material culture vernacular language sayings proverbs and nursery rhymes folk medicine plantlore and weather lore. Some of the english folklore texts on this page were originally transcribed by phillip brown at his now defunct belinus co uk website.