Mythical, legendary and supernatural beings, monsters and creatures Books

Book SynopsisHonourable mention for The American Folklore Society's Wayland D. Hand Prize for outstanding book combining historical and folkloristic methods and materials. Runner up for The Folklore Society's 2022 Katherine Briggs Award for most distinguished contribution to folklore studies. The little-studied and once much-feared boggart is a supernatural being from the north of England. Against the odds it survives today, both in place-names and in fantasy literature—not least the Harry Potter universe. This book pioneers two methods for collecting boggart folklore: first, the use of hundreds of thousands of words on the boggart from newly digitized ephemera; second, about 1,100 contemporary boggart memories from social media surveys and personal interviews relating to the interwar and postwar years. Combining this new data with an interdisciplinary approach involving dialectology, folklore, Victorian history, supernatural history, oral history, place-name studies and sociology, it is possible to reconstruct boggart beliefs, experiences and tales. The boggart was not, as we have been led to believe, a ‘goblin’. Rather, ‘boggart’ was a much more general term encompassing all solitary supernatural beings, from killer mermaids to headless phantoms, from black dogs to shape-changing ghouls. The author shows how in the same period that such beliefs were dying out, folklorists continually misrepresented the boggart, and explores how the modern fantasy boggart was born of these misrepresentations. As well as offering a fresh reading of associated traditions, The Boggart demonstrates some of the ways in which recent advances in digitization can offer rich rewards.Trade ReviewThe amount of focus, lateral thinking and sheer dogged research that has gone into this work is admirable dedication, and leavened by a light touch that makes it intensely readable throughout. -- John Billingsley, Northern EarthIn stories, plays, films and folklore collections [the boggart] became remote from the anarchic and frightening creatures of lonely lanes, deserted houses and bleak moors that the ordinary people of the nineteenth century reported. These are the stories which Young has uncovered in searching digital archives of newspapers and other ephemera, allowing us a much clearer picture of the boggart as a creature of the folk, rather than the folklorist. -- John Rimmer, Magonia ReviewDetailed, scholarly, packed with great tales and interesting speculations, The Boggart is a groundbreaking study that rescues and re-establishes the scary boggart of the 19th century. -- Katherine Langrish, Gramarye...a highly informative monograph on the ‘boggart’...this book sets a benchmark. -- Ian Shiels, Northern History...one would have to struggle to find a comparative analysis of a supernatural being or myth/folklore-related creature that can be compared to the depth and detail presented in the work done by Simon Young. Young’s research successfully manages to empirically outline a myth by tracing the historical, linguistic, and cultural development of a phenomenon. -- Marko Lukić, Oral History SocietyThe Boggart is a brilliant piece of scholarship that brings to life, through a wide-range of research material, the essence of what lurked in the shadows of society. -- Nigel Watson, Fortean TimesThe Boggart is well written, with light touches of humor that make this a compelling and enjoyable read. Given both this and the quality of the research underlying it, the book represents a stellar study of British popular belief that should be seen as an exemplar for future works on similar topics...The Boggart is folklore history at its best, a book that deserves a very wide readership. -- Ethan Doyle White, Reading ReligionThis comprehensive and groundbreaking study will be essential reading for folklorists, historians, social scientists, and others interested in the world of the supernatural, not least in providing an outstanding model for innovative research in these and related fields. -- J. D. A. Widdowson, Tradition TodayThere is a wealth of information here to be drawn in and fully to inform the reader seeking to explore our forebears’ lives as they involved the supernatural both in earnest and in fun, and to understand how beliefs emerged, existed formerly, and are being transformed for the modern age. -- Clive Upton, Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect SocietyBecause Young’s writing style is lively, engaging, and accessible, The Boggart appeals to both scholars and general readers. One does not need to be a folklorist to enjoy reading about this supernatural figure’s development over time and to savor the local legends in which it has a starring role. The range of Young’s research is impressive, and his inclusion of intriguing images and maps adds to the book’s impact. For scholars who are interested in writing books about the development of a particular supernatural figure, this study offers a valuable model. -- Elizabeth Tucker, Journal of Folklore Research Reviews...there should be more studies of this quality on the subject of creatures of folklore, whatever the region concerned. We hope to read more books of this type in the future. -- Guillaume Oudaer, Nouvelle Mythologie ComparéeSimon Young has reclaimed a forgotten supernatural being in all its formless awe. -- Jeremy Harte, FolkloreThis is meticulously and reflectively researched, with rigorous academic argumentation, yet also eminently readable. While covering the wide philosophical and ethical debates surrounding interpreting, collecting and studying folklore generally, it doesn’t fail to pin down the material with ease–from delivering an in-depth study of historical toponymics, to a diagram depicting the 'folk taxonomy of Boggartdom'. A delight in every way. -- Katharine Briggs Award PanelAn immensely comprehensive examination of boggart-lore in a specific part of Northern England he calls “Boggartdom” throughout Victorian times and beyond. … This book should appeal to anyone interested in nineteenth-century supernatural subjects in general or the boggart in particular. -- Taten Shirley * The Incredible Nineteenth Century *Table of ContentsAbbreviations Illustrations and Maps Acknowledgements Preface Part I: Situating the Boggart 1. Boggart Definitions and Sources 2. Boggart Origins 3. Boggart Distribution Part II: Lived Boggart Folklore 4. Boggart Landscapes 5. Boggart Beliefs and Transmission 6. Social Boggarts Part III: The Death and Rebirth of the Boggart 7. Boggart Death 8. The New Boggart Conclusion Appendix: Boggart A–Z Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisComprising three parts, this book is a companion volume to The Boggart: Folklore, History, Place-Names and Dialect. Part one, ‘Boggart Ephemera’, is a selection of about 40,000 words of nineteenth-century boggart writing (particularly material that is difficult to find in libraries). Part two presents a catalogue of ‘Boggart Names’ (place-names and personal names, totalling over 10,000 words). Finally, part three contains the entire ‘Boggart Census’ – a compendium of ground-breaking grassroots research. This census includes more than a thousand responses, totalling some 80,000 words, from older respondents in the north-west of England, to the question: ‘What is a boggart?’ The Boggart Sourcebook will be of interest to folklorists, historians and dialect scholars. It provides the three corpora on which the innovative monograph, The Boggart, is based.Table of ContentsIntroduction Abbreviations Corpus One: Boggart Ephemera Corpus Two: Boggart Names I) Boggart Place-names II) Boggart Place-names by Landscape Type III) Boggart Place-names by County IV) Boggart Proper Names V) Bibliography to Corpus Two Corpus Three: Boggart Census Lancashire West Riding Cheshire Derbyshire Lincolnshire Rhodesian, Scottish and Other Boggarts Addenda Appendix: Questions and Prompts

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Book SynopsisThe modern myth of America alludes to a bipedal ape-like species that predominantly haunts the Pacific North West rain forest, except that it is both an ancient and modern myth. The Native Americans have as many names for it as there are tribes. It is a myth that strangely connects to another, thousands of miles away, that is equally as old as it is modern - the Yeti at the roof of the world, the abominable snowman of the Himalayas. The Yeti Society is about the believers and the witnesses, it's about the non-believers, the naysayers and sceptics, but it's also about us.

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Book SynopsisTold is the story of an alternate world within a Christmas Tree; a fully realised world, not populated by humans, but by the Tree's ornaments. Power - held by a governing fairy - is handed on to the next in line every few seasons. One fairy though - Phaedria - refuses to stand down. Forcibly removed and stripped of magic, she is banished, but formulates a plan to retake the Tree. By hunting and absorbing the Tree's lights with the help of an enslaved ice-creature, she's able to regain her powers and gather an army. The Tree's ornaments, many and varied, must put aside their differences and come together. Little do the Tree's owners (the young boy Henry and his father) know of this world, until Henry - along with his faithful teddy bear - are pulled in and embroiled in a war. On his journey Henry is burdened with a perilous mission. Kidnapped by elves, he falls into the hands of Phaedria the fallen fairy. If he wants to keep his beloved Bear alive (a stuffed teddy from home, now animated) he must agree to deliver a 'gift' to Lilly, the current governing fairy. Henry hitches a ride on a giant snowflake, transforms to a bird, meets a tiny wizened king and the winds he commands, amongst many other encounters - and all in pyjamas and a dressing gown.

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Book SynopsisThe Insta Grammar series explores the most interesting corners of the incredibly popular social media site, Instagram. After Cats, City, Nordic, Green, Graphic and Dogs, three new subjects are revealed: Unicorn, Cars and #fail. Hitching a ride on the back of today's unicorn trend that's flooding Instagram, Unicorn shows the most original posts revolving the mythical creatures. Cars gathers the most beautiful classic car shots, while #fail is an hilarious collection of ridiculous houses, 'creative solutions' and situational humour.

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Book SynopsisMonstrous Beings and Media Cultures examines the monsters and sinister creatures that spawn from folk horror, Gothic fiction, and from various sectors of media cultures. The collection illuminates how folk monsters form across different art and media traditions, and interrogates the 21C revitalization of “folk” as both a cultural formation and aesthetic mode. The essays explore how combinations of vernacular and institutional creative processes shape the folkloric and/or folkoresque attributes of monstrous beings, their popularity, and the contexts in which they are received. While it focuses on 21C permutations of folk monstrosity, the collection is transhistorical in approach, featuring chapters that focus on contemporary folk monsters, historical antecedents, and the pre-C21st art and media traditions that shaped enduring monstrous beings. The collection also illuminates how folk monsters and folk “horror” travel across cultures, media, and time periods, and how iconic monsters are tethered to yet repeatedly become unanchored from material and regional contexts.Trade Review“Monstrous Beings and Media Cultures offers an outstanding series of analyses of folk horror as a complex, contested subgenre or mode. Showing sensitivity to vernacular creativity as well as tackling professional media, this edited collection smartly explores folkloresque monstrosities in a range of digital, national and regional contexts. Let these authors be your guides among lurking shadows, through liminal woods, and back to the safety (?) of illuminating scholarship.” -- Professor Matt Hills, University of Huddersfield, author of Fan Cultures “This book reframes the concept of ‘folk horror’ with remarkable ambition. By imagining folk horror’s monsters at the junction of folklore, visual media, and regional identities, Balanzategui and Craven’s contributors make us think anew about the convergence of ‘folk’ and ‘horror.’” -- Professor Adam Lowenstein, University of Pittsburgh, author of Horror Film and Otherness Table of ContentsIntroduction - Folk Monsters and Monstrous Media: The Im/materialities, Modalities, and Regionalities of Being(s) Monstrous (Allison Craven and Jessica Balanzategui) Chapter One - The Momo Challenge as Urban Legend: Child and Adult Digital Cultures and the Global Mediated Unconscious (Jessica Balanzategui) Chapter Two - Every Imaginable Invention of the Devil: Summoning the Monstrous in Eurocentric Conceptions of Voodoo (Karen Horsley) Chapter Three - The Forest and the Trees: The Woods as Intersection between Documentary, Fairy Tale, and Internet Legend in Beware the Slenderman (Naja Later) Chapter Four - Mark Duplass as Mumbelgore Serial Killer: Fictional Vernacular Filmmaking in the Creep series (Andrew Lynch) Chapter Five - Monsters in the Forest: ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ Crimes and Ecologies of the Real and Fantastic (Cristina Bacchilega and Pauline Greenhill) Chapter Six - A Mother’s Milk: Motherhood, Trauma, and Monstrous Children in Folk Horror (Emma Maguire) Chapter Seven - Documenting the Unheard: The Poetics of Listening and Empathy in The Family (Stephen Gaunson) Chapter Eight - Reimagining the Pontianak Myth in Malaysian Folk Horror: Flexible Tradition, Cinema, and Cultural Memory (Andrew Ng) Chapter Nine - An Uncommon Ancestor: Monstrous Emanations and Australian Tales of the Bunyip (Allison Craven) Chapter Ten - The Folk Horror “Feeling”: Monstrous Modalities and the Critical Occult (Jessica Balanzategui and Allison Craven)

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