Forums: Folklore and Legends

Up-Helly-Aa Festival takes place this evening in Shetland – not a truly ancient festival, but probably one of the more famous ones.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7852092.stm

On Saint Valentine’s Day 1945 Charles Walton, age seventy-four, left his home in Lower Quinton to trim a hedge on the nearby Meon Hill. When he failed to return home that evening his niece went looking for him. He was found dead in a ditch near the hedge he had been trimming, his throat cut with his own trimming tool.

Are there any tales of fairy folk in the United States?  If not, why not, given that America was settled by Europeans and they could have brought their folklore with them.  Could it be down to the religious beliefs of the original settlers?

Something to add to the gazzetter…

 One of the few pieces of evidence that Uther Pendragon existed are in the legends of Cumbria which associate him with various folk tales, including the defeat of a dragon, but more concretely as the founder of Pendragon Castle, a very real ruin in the locality. These legends have been part of some current research I’ve been carrying out, and some curious material has emerged.

 While I believe the Knights Templar were a relatively orthodox military order, it seems to be the case that they allowed excommunicates and just about anyone able to fight into their ranks. I suspect this means that there were localised cells of heresy in the order.

What is the differance between a folktale and a legend?  Are the boundaries seperating them murky or is there a clear divide? 

The title says it all really. We were asked a while ago whether we knew of any and I can’t think of any off hand. Do you know any?

The British Isles have some rich Dragon legends that actually play important roles in some of our key folktales and traditions. Chief amongst these would be that of the Welsh Dragons and of course Englands St George and the Dragon. What other dragons have we got and what exactly were they, monsters or myths?

Was William Rufus the victim of a hunting accident, a political murder or killed as part of a Pagan ritual where he took the role of the ‘Sacrificial King’ or ‘Divine Victim’?