Unearthing Weird Albion








It's time for a post with more than a hint of self-indulgence. A book has just come out called Leaves from the Albion Library: A Gathering of Folklore Tapes Essays 2013-2023 by Jez Winship. Yes, you guessed it, the author is yours truly. But before I am accused of shameless self-promotion, let me say in my defence that this book is in many ways the record of my own decade of sleuthing in the stacks. These essays were written for a ragtag troupe of artists, musicians and writers operating under the aegis of the Folklore Tapes collective. Folklore Tapes started down in these parts and was initially known as Devon Folklore Tapes. They recorded music which drew on local and national folkloric stories and superstitions, sometimes including field recordings from resonant landscapes and ancient sites - of which there are plenty aroundabout, of course. These were presented in found objects such as hollowed out books, refashioned into beautifully designed art objects. As the project progressed and found greater success and momentum, compilation albums based around particular themes were released. They included accompanying essays, which is where I came in. 





































Initial compilations took the old festive seasonal celebrations of Halloween, May Day, Midsummer and Midwinter as their subjects, with all the myriad calendar customs and supernatural beliefs which they encompassed. I immediately took to delving down into the stacks for esoteric knowledge and discovered an excellent collection of folkloric matter. Further compilations covered plant lore, fairies, the folklore of the planets (which I took to mean the historical development of astrological belief systems), UFOS (folklore in the making?). Witchcraft and magic was an element which reoccurred in a number of the essays, unsurprisingly given the prevalence of such beliefs in pre-modern, agrarian societies. For all of these subjects, there were bountiful riches to be unearthed down below in the stacks. The area of folklore, magic and the supernatural is particularly strong in the historic Exeter collection, as you might expect in this enchanted corner of the land. So I thought I'd share with you some of the books which I happened across, some of which were gathered to inform the essays in Leaves From the Albion Library. So let's explore the strange and curious byways of British lore and legend and learn of the customs which used to prevail as the seasons turned. Perhaps we might even be stirred to resurrect a few.  



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