Making my way slowly back from Hull after a quite excellent #FolkloreSociety conference. I'm absolutely knackered, yet somehow my head's still fizzily full of ideas - that's how good it was. #folklore

Hey #queer #folklore! Have you booked for next week's #FolkloreSociety talk on St Sebastian, Queer Icon, yet? Tickets available at the link below.

I'm excited to be chairing this one, but this probably means I'll get to exercise chair's prerogative and mention (again) my delirious formative moment when the infant Channel 4 screened Derek Jarman's Sebastiane way back when.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-legend-of-saint-sebastian-the-queer-icon-tickets-536044402237

A picture I never tire of, and regularly post on #InternationalWomensDay. Here are three of the towering figures in recent British #folklore #folkloristics, all of them former Presidents of the #FolkloreSociety.

Venetia Newall (RIP) on the left, was instrumental in reorienting the FLS after a period of intellectual and scholarly torpor, mainly by turning outwards to the best international scholarship, where her contribution was enthusiastically welcomed and recognised.

She was ably supported by brilliant younger FLS members like Jacqueline Simpson (right), happily still with us.

Their work restored the FLS's intellectual status and provided a platform for excellent scholars like Marion Bowman (centre) to build on.

My discipline would not be what it is without them and their work.

@folklore

Excited to be chairing this #FolkloreSociety talk this evening by the wonderful Professor Margaret Bennett. I gather there are still some tickets available...

https://folklore-society.com/event/there-wis-a-lady-dressed-in-green/ #Folklore @folklore

Excellent to see this advance notice of the latest 1-day workshop for newer researchers in #folklore, jointly organised by the #FolkloreSociety and #ElphinstoneInstitute.

These have always been stimulating and exciting events, bringing together newer researchers and consolidating folklore studies and scholarship in Britain.

More details will follow, so keep an eye out for it.
@folklore

With my #folklore hat on, I'd like to remind you that the CfP for the #FolkloreSociety conference 'Folklore, #Geography and #Environment: Ways of Knowing #Water, #Landscape and #Climate in the #Anthropocene' remains open till the end of this month.

Details here:
https://folklore-society.com/event/folklore-geography-and-environment-ways-of-knowing-water-landscape-and-climate-in-the-anthropocene/

@folklore

@boysmithers A phone call came into the #FolkloreSociety office in 2013 when I happened to be there, soliciting a speaker on #Kalevala, which I'd just finished reading. The result was this: https://humphreywithhisflail.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-announcement-last-month-that-id-had.html

As I said there, the talk was rudimentary - and to an audience much more knowledgeable than me on it! - but it carries on fascinating me.

Nice review of Jeremy Harte's new #folklore book, driven by his fascination with 'devil' toponymy.

Full disclosure: I serve with Jeremy on the #FolkloreSociety Council, and he's a mate, but that doesn't affect him actually being one of the most effortlessly and incessantly fascinating people you're ever likely to meet.

My small contribution was to take Jeremy down the Devil's Chimney here on the #isleofwight https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/23/cloven-country-by-jeremy-harte-review-in-search-of-englands-devil
#Bookstodon @bookstodon

Re-tooting this in the vain hope that I will eventually remember to tag @folklore with these.

Revised deadline for the #FolkloreSociety 2023 conference CfP
All details here: https://folklore-society.com/event/folklore-geography-and-environment-ways-of-knowing-water-landscape-and-climate-in-the-anthropocene/ #folklore #geography

Revised deadline for the #FolkloreSociety 2023 conference CfP
All details here:
https://folklore-society.com/event/folklore-geography-and-environment-ways-of-knowing-water-landscape-and-climate-in-the-anthropocene/ #folklore

Oh, #otd it's St Catherine's day. This means that St Clement's day (23/11) passed me by.

I've long been fascinated by St Clement's day observations, and by the way they've tended to overlap and merge with observations around St Catherine. Part of it was about proximity of likely observing trades, especially in shipyards, as Clement was the patron saint of blacksmiths and Catherine the patron saint of ropemakers. And observations for both included processions.

I did an online talk on this last year for the #FolkloreSociety, but I'd sketched out just a few of the swirling collection of topics and ideas involved a while back: https://humphreywithhisflail.blogspot.com/2010/06/st-clement.html

I have belatedly got around to noting that I've been talking and listening to some lovely people about interesting things over the past months.

I've heard, for example, a terrific #FolkloreSociety #KatharineBriggs lecture by #KatherineLangrish on stories. I look forward to revisiting it when it finally makes print.

I've also had some lovely chats which have now finally made it into podcasts. I can't quite believe no one's been using a #Polari HT, but my chat with the splendid #PaulBaker on his book about it is now included as part of a @thefolklorepodcast episode.

I also talked (and sang) #cannibalism with the lovely people at Casting Lots: A Survival Cannibalism Podcast, which was a lot of fun.

Links etc are in the blogpost: http://humphreywithhisflail.blogspot.com/2022/11/hello-anybody-there.html