Introducing Commonplace Folklore

My next seasonal notebook, running throughout March.

I can’t remember when I first fell in love with all things folklore, though the fact I grew up in Orkney - where it seeped out of the very stones beneath my feet - probably had something to do with it. I remember a book my Granny used to read to me that had a story about stones coming alive, and I was hooked (even though, looking back, I’m sure there was a deep sinister undercurrent - possibly even blatantly brutal retribution - in the way there is in many folktales). A few years later, I won a prize for writing a story set at the Standing Stones down the road.

When I undertook a taught postgraduate degree many, many moons after that, my dissertation focussed on folklore and, though I swore at the time that was me done formally studying (mostly because I was working full-time in an entirely unrelated job, which was a tad exhausting), I then went on to undertake a research degree, again focussing on folklore. A true glutton for punishment.

During my time studying (and before, and after), I collated quite the library of books on folklore, identity, literature, landscape and place, and Orkney. For my next seasonal notebook, I thought I’d share some excerpts from these books - the folklore ones in particular - to share the magic.

I’ll see you all on the first of March.

Lydia Crow
The Highlands, Scotland