The Folklore Society

Cunning Folk : An Introductory Bibliography

By Owen Davies and Lisa Tallis
ISBN 0 903515 24 5
£4.95 + .50 P&P in the UK (US $8.95 & $2.45 airmail to USA)
£3.30 + .50 P&P in the UK (US $5.95 & $2.45 airmail to USA)

Until a century ago cunning-folk were well-known figures in English and Welsh society. These practitioners of popular magic offered to solve a myriad of problems relating to ill health, theft, love and the future. Their significance and role in English and Welsh society in the early modern and modern periods requires much further study. This bibliography aims to direct those with a general interest in the subject to appropriate reading material, and to provide those interested in pursuing further research with a comprehensive guide to sources.

The Pace-Egg Plays of the Calder Valley

by Eddie Cass
£6.99 plus .84 p&p (USA $11.96 plus $3.64 p&p)

The pace-egg play is similar to other forms of English traditional drama, but uniquely, it occurs at Easter, rather than Christmas. This book supplements Dr Cass's The Lancashire Pace-Egg Play in that it deals with the one area of west Yorkshire in which this Easter play was widely known. It covers the history of the play in the Calder Valley and outlines the story of the revival of the play. Schools were vital to the revival and continuance of the tradition, notably the Midgley School in the 1930s and in the 1950s, Calder High School. The Midgley pace-egg play, which has traceable, personal links into the nineteenth century, is discussed at length. The book also considers the revival of the play at Heptonstall where, on Good Friday, large crowds come to witness one of west Yorkshire's most popular calendar customs. Texts of both plays are included.

Dr Eddie Cass, is an Honorary Research Fellow at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield, part of the James Madison Carpenter Collection Project team, and a member of the Traditional Drama Research Group.

The Lancashire Pace-Egg Play: A Social History

by Eddie Cass
ISBN 0 90 3515 229
155x235mm, 256 pages
FLS Books, August 2001
£16.95/US$34.00

Eddie Cass's history of the Lancashire pace- or peace-egg play puts traditional drama into a regional and social context. Pace egging is related to other popular hero-combat plays, but unusually is associated with Easter, not Christmas. Diffused through Lancashire's burgeoning mill towns in the early nineteenth century, in part by chapbooks, the play was performed in the pubs and streets by working-class men (and some women), for whom it was an important way of earning money. This rare study of urban folklore explores the interplay between close-knit communities and the development of a literate working-class culture. Firmly located in the history of industrialization and its consequences, the book also considers the post-war revival of pace egging and its new social role following the death of 'King Cotton' and the transformation of the communities his mills sustained.

Dr Eddie Cass is an Honorary Research Fellow at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield, and a member of the Traditional Drama Research Group.

The Jack-in-the-Green: A May Day Custom

by Roy Judge
148x210mm, xii + 212 pages, illustrated
ISBN 0 903515 202
£15.95/US$32.00
Revised second edition, FLS Books, August 2000

"a turning point in folklore studies which showed how much could be learned from a systematic investigation of historical evidence"
Ronald Hutton, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain

The 'Jack-in-the-Green', a dancing figure in a foliage-covered wicker shell, is often centre-stage in contemporary May Day celebrations. Many have chosen to see him as a survival from pagan religious ritual, an expression of the 'Green Man', and the embodiment of the spirit of spring. But Roy Judge's exhaustive historical survey finds no evidence for the 'Jack' before the mid-eighteenth century, when he originated among the May Day revels of the urban lower classes aimed at collecting money. The evidence (including the book's forty images) suggests that the 'Jack' has only taken on his mythological significance in the twentieth century, largely thanks to the influence of Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough. The book concludes with a geographical survey, giving references to all known 'Jacks'.

This revised edition brings the subject up to the present time and includes an account of the emergence of the 'Green Man' as a symbol of the modern ecological movement.

The late Dr Roy Judge, who died in November 2000, was a recipient of the English Folk Dance and Song Society's Gold Badge, and was awarded the Folklore Society's highest honour, the Coote-Lake Medal, in recognition of his outstanding research into the customs of May Day.

Truculent Rustics: Molly Dancing in East Anglia before 1940

by Elaine Bradtke
1999, 40 pages, paperback, illustrated
£5.50/US$14.00 (p&p included)

What is Molly dancing? What did it look like? Who performed it and why? Truculent Rustics shows how Molly dancing developed from Plough Monday and other wintertime communal celebrations. It was boisterous, even riotous, combining elements of rough music, alms-seeking, and guising. An appendix gives details of known troops of Molly dancers, their home village, appearance and performance.

Ballads in Wales/ Baledi yng Nghymru

edited by Mary-Ann Constantine
1999, 96 pages, paperback
£5.95/US$12.50 (p&p included)

Popular ballads provide a vibrant record of Welsh society over the last two hundred years. The contributors study both Victorian parlour songs and Welsh street-ballads. Their production and dissemination are examined, as well as their vital role in forming public opinion, making this collection invaluable for students of popular culture both in and outside Wales.

A Coven of Scholars
Margaret Murray and her Working Methods

by Caroline Oates and Juliette Wood
148mm x 210mm. 104 pages. Illustrated. July 1998 0 903515 16 4
£6.95/ US$15.00 (p&p included) Folklore Society, FLS Books: Archive Series

Presented here is a selection of items from the Margaret Murray Collection in the Folklore Society Archives. Murray's notes and correspondence relate mainly to witch beliefs and legends, seasonal customs, and fairy lore - including first-hand accounts of sightings of fairies and other apparitions. Of particular interest are the materials concerning Fenland legends, the Dorset Ooser, the Puck Fair at Killorglin (Co. Kerry), and Mother Ludlarn's Cauldron, Frensham (Surrey). These papers, published here for the first time, offer illuminating insights into Murray's methods of collecting and interpreting folklore. The edited texts are preceded by an introductory essay examining the sources and formation of Murray's "witch-cult" theory, its impact on neo-pagan witchcraft and its reception among folklorists and historians. Although now discredited, her idea that early modern witches were the followers of a secret religion was extremely popular. That many people shared her basic assumptions about the survival of secret cults and esoteric traditions is amply illustrated by the extracts from the Murray Collection.

Warts
Summary of Wart-cure Survey for the Folklore Society

by Gabrielle Hatfield
148mm x 210mm. 26 pages. .March 1998. 0 903515 15 6
£3.50/US$8.00 (p&p included) Folklore Society FLS Books: Survey Series

Why is it that imagination seems to run wild where wart-cures are concerned, and why is it that even in the 1990s there are wart-charmers who claim success with both people and animals? In a recent survey of members of the Folklore Society, the variety of wart remedies reported was very surprising. The present leaflet reports on this survey, and compares it with the findings of an earlier study done by the English literature department at University College, London.

This is a small study which raises more questions than it answers. As one informant has commented, warts really need a book to themselves. Hopefully they will get one soon, when the present author has completed current work on the subject.

Gabrielle Hatfield studied Botany at Cambridge (BA), following that with a PhD at Edinburgh on the history of domestic medicine in Scotland. She has been pursuing her interest in the use of plants in domestic medicine for 20 years.

May Day in England: An introductory bibliography

by Roy Judge (Revised edition published in association with the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library)
22 pages, paperback
£5.50/US$14.00 (p&p included)

Roy Judge has followed up his Jack-in-the-Green with an invaluable guide to the literature on May Day, from its disputed origins to its current practice. He considers the customs associated with May Day, their religious and political aspects, local celebrations, the roles taken by children, sweeps and milk-maids, and links to other folkloric topics such as the Green Man and Victorian ruralism. This revised edition contains well over 100 entries, and is the first in a series of FLS Books bibliographies.

The English Mumming Play: An introductory bibliography

by Eddie Cass, Michael J. Preston and Paul Smith
40 pages, paperback
£5.50/US$14.00 (p&p included)

British traditional drama has generated fierce scholarly debate, as the 280 works listed in this bibliography can testify. The three authors, all members of the Traditional Drama Research Group, guide us through the vexed questions of mumming's origins to more sociological investigations. The bibliography draws out the ties with other traditional drama, points to overseas connections, and helps the reader find the play texts themselves. This, the second of FLS Books bibliographies, will prove an indispensable research tool.