Dark Folklore

by Mark Norman, Tracey Norman

The first entertaining, yet rigorously researched, modern anthology to explore a wide range of creepy beliefs, customs and stories

How did our ancestors use the concept of demons to explain sleep paralysis? Is that carving in the porch of your local church really what you think it is? And what’s that tapping noise on the roof of your car . . . ? The fields of folklore have never been more popular – a recent resurgence of interest in traditional beliefs and customs, coupled with morbid curiosities in folk horror, historic witchcraft cases and our superstitious past, have led to an intersection of ideas that is driving people to seek out more information. Tracey Norman and Mark Norman lead you on an exploration of those more salubrious facets of our past, highlighting those aspects of our cultural beliefs and social history that are less ‘wicker basket’ and more ‘Wicker Man’.

Genres: Nonfiction, Folklore, Horror, History, Mythology, Paranormal, Ghosts

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Line Saxtorph · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of well put-together and well researched folklore and cultural phenomena. What made this book work for me was the further reading material provided. I did however not agree with some of the observations presented towards the end regarding dark tourism and so-called "cancel culture"

[Verónica Fleitas Solich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and entertaining.
Each case is well elaborated and commented.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book looks at various aspects of folklore and explores how people of the past could have come up with them and what the modern scientific explanation often is. Very interesting.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4🌟
It is a very interesting short book to dip in and out of.

[Lenno Vranken · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat nice book about a very intresting topic, wich is afcourse folklore.
Unfortunatly, I didn't learn anything new from this one, all of the information was simply too short and most of the time very open-ended, leaving the reader with the standard: "No one knows the true origin of this story." It also delves a little bit to much into other stuff, whilst I would have liked to stay in the realms of folklore, instead of branching out to much into other themes.
The book also consist out of alot of Christian-related information, wich I didn't like all to much. That is my own personal problem, however. I simply would have liked more information relating to the witchcraft side of things.

[Gery · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 ⭐

[G. Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting material, but too much skimming over the subject for me, because the book was short. I would prefer a deeper dive into the subject. What is here is good, but not enough

[John-Owen Hicks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really helped feed my folk lore hyper fixation. Sometimes goes off on some weird tangent but overall an interesting read. Kind of does a brief overview of folk lore and urban legends as a whole but never really goes into too much detail.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative book written in an engaging and accessible style. Lots to take in and each section has a bibliography of sources which I will certainly be following up. Anyone interested in folklore should give this a read.

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

This slim volume reminds me of older works by authors like Sabine Baring Gould and Montague Summers. It's definitely classic folklore explicated by pro folklorists but it rarely veers into the language of academic folklore, maintaining a conversational tone and ranging freely among topics related to each chapter's theme. Each chapter is an essay unto itself but if the book has a central thesis, I missed it. The essays are fun, lively, and informative. My favorite chapter was on "Folk Ghosts," mostly because it was educational for me to read how folklorists differentiate varying types of ghost story. The section on phantom carriages resonated especially with my interest in American car ghosts and ghost roads. Other chapters, on Urban Legends and Dark Tourism, felt unduly aimed at trendy topics that have been hashed over in many places recently.

On the whole, a book worth the time to read it for anyone with an interest in ghost lore, the darker side of churches in the British Isles, hags/nightmares, Slenderman, and legend tripping but by no means essential.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is nothing revolutionary here. I don't think I'm the target audience—it's more like the pool's shallow end for people first dipping their toes in. I like the way they present things and how they tie the shared global cultural folklore to the science behind it. The best part—for me—was the further reading list provided when they cited their sources.

[Chelsea R.H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I’m running out of folklore to learn about unfortunately!

[Chris Cornutt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a really good little book and I loved the content it covered. It really made me want to do some additional research on folklore in general and some for around my area (there's folklore everywhere!)

I'd definitely recommend it to anyone that has even a passing interest in the topic. It's a bit on the shorter side, but there's a lot in there - and plenty of references to other sources to check out.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started this one on October 1st getting ready for the spooky season with a curious set of stories about folklore from Slenderman to sleep paralysis to Japan's dark tourist attraction of the suicide forest. It's an exploration of cultural, religious, and scientific understanding and why these stories persists.

It's a short, specific, curious little book (I listened to the audiobook).

[Anastasiya M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book delved into the eerie and unsettling aspects of folklore, exploring tales that lingered in the shadows of cultural history. It examined stories of ghostly apparitions, sinister rituals, and mysterious creatures with a captivating mix of detail and atmosphere. The blend of historical context and narrative made each tale feel alive, pulling the reader into a world where the line between myth and reality blurred.

The writing was both informative and haunting, striking a perfect balance between scholarly research and engaging storytelling. Each chapter uncovered the darker side of human imagination, reflecting societal fears and beliefs across different times and places. It was a fascinating journey into the heart of the unknown, leaving plenty to ponder long after the final page.

Read more here: https://annietheinkdrinker.wordpress....

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read--not a collection of stories, but something stranger and even more interesting. This is the sort of book you shouldn't read in bed at night because you'll find yourself poking your half-awake spouse saying "I need to read you this! They're trying to blame CHEESE*!" And then said spouse mumbles "What'd cheese ever do to them?" But then, despite a desire for sleep, said spouse listens to you read and finds themselves giggling along with you.

This book covers a handful of grim folklore tropes that span continents and oceans, looking at their universality, the stories we tell cross-culturally as humans, and the actions we take in the pursuit of belief, myth, and legend. Delightful, readable, and deeply fascinating.

*I'm not giving this away--the sleep paralysis chapter is full of many fun things.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I didn't necessarily learn anything new in this book, it did pull things together differently than many I've read before pulling different folklore tales into groups within each chapter, covering the classic old hag tales, church folklore, folk ghosts, urban legends, and finally dark tourism. There is some crossover between the chapters but for the most part they are very much their own complete with their own reference lists should you want to delve further into the tales and/or groupings covered. I'd say this is a really good introduction into the darker side of folklore as it is written in a pretty conversational manner which makes it easier to get into and read compared to more academic books (although this can also make it a little harder to draw conclusions from if that's what you're after).

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good general overview of dark folk lore. It has references at the end of the chapters with original references. I learned the origins of a lot of the stories. History and folklore are interesting facets of who is telling and like the game of telephone, each story evolves with time. This book explains things such as sleep paralysis and urban legends. I learned about cocker ride ghosts that come on at certain times, midnight. It touches on witches and eat is sanctioned and not sanctioned by culture. I like the dark tourism. The origin of demons and all sorts of little thinggs with illustrations. It is a good general overview of dark folklore from an an academic standpoint. This book was $1.99 on bookbub.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the examples of folk ghosts (as opposed to hauntings), historical legends, dark tourism, legend tripping, urban legends, and cultural folk tales as well as the in depth discussions of how they are all part of our collective human experience and exist along side (and are part of) religious and cultural aspects of our lives.

Found it so interesting that I purchased a couple more books on different aspects of folk lore. Some of my favorite books (fiction and non-fiction) are those that I find so interesting that they make me want to know more and this is definitely the case here.

To me this book presents like a really interesting college survey course with the Normans (husband and wife authors) both really engaging professors.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting, scholarly book about the dark side of legends and folklore and the concept of dark tourism related to all of that. At times, it was dry or rambly and there were points where I was dying for MORE info but, overall, it was a well done, basic treatment of the topic - everything from folk ghosts to urban legends. I have to admit that my favorite bit was the thought that modern day ghosts and hauntings are the evolution of the faeries of previous generations and that alien abduction stories are the evolution of the future. I know, I know. It sounds a bit bonkers but think about it. The language used is awfully similiar.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection lays out some more basic knowledge on some of my favorite spooky folklore-centered topics - sleep paralysis/the night hag, the dark church, folkloric ghosts, urban legends, and dark tourism each have a chapter. The book focuses more widely than deeply on each topic, but I enjoyed the anecdotes that the authors included, and learned a bit more on each topic than I previously knew. I really appreciated the writing style as well. I’d recommend this one for people who are just starting to dip their toe into reading books about creepy folklore, like me - but I definitely think the footnotes are rich with books that more experienced readers would also enjoy.

[Danni Cooper-Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not quite sure why but I wasn’t as interested in the traditional ghosts and chariots etc discussed in the first half of the book.. maybe because they were more familiar as concepts and it didn’t feel I was learning anything new? But I really did enjoy the second half of the book, especially the links and comparisons to more “modern” folklore such as Slenderman and Momo. I also really enjoyed the information about Legend Tripping. It was a good read for this time of year but easier to digest in small bursts!

[Rebekah Phillips delahunty · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some nice facts and insights into the history, but I found it very academic and difficult to stay focused when reading (as I was hoping for it to be more immersive, as opposed to a list of facts and examples)

I found some of the facts and examples were needlessly repetitive, as though the same sentence was being repeated in a different way to fill space.

So, not what I was expecting, but it was fine. Feels like an extended academic paper.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Audiobook. Some chapters were more interesting than others, generally felt like it needed more depth to the topics. Enjoyed that the church linked to my old primary school was mentioned though - so will be looking into that further. The comment on 'cancel culture' towards the end felt like it was the author's opinion shoehorned in with little discussion of the morality of dark tourism and how it can be done appropriately.

[Marsha · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part, it has good information about different forms and sources of folklore. I like both narrators, but the male one had a tendency to appear to drone on and really get boring, occasionally.
I like the fact that it presented both some (famous) urban myths AND discussed folklore overall and its current and traditional roles and uses in society.

[Nick Griffiths-Haynes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I loved the more academic style discussing folklore as a part of social history and as a way of exploring cultural fears through time. The folklore podcast, presented by the author, very much continues the discussions on a whole range of folkloric themes and is well worth a listen. More folklore books like this please!

[MKF]

DNF

After so many days I finally made it to chapter 4 than after many more days I just gave up. This book is dry and dragged on to the point that it felt like I would never reach the end of any of the chapters or book. I wasted so many days trying to finish it that I could have used to read other books.

[Scotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an entertaining book, and it delved more into urban and contemporary legends than I initially expected. Each chapter takes a certain focus, such as sleep paralysis, ghosts, urban legends, etc. It's a short read, so if you're interested in folklore and legends, pick it up. I'm a frequent listener of the podcast Myths and Legends, so there was plenty of overlap in interest.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is good introduction to folklore, but not a very in-depth treatment. Still worth a look, if only to find ideas for research. The writing style is like that of a good story-teller and there are footnotes (!) for further exploration.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read that includes information about urban legends as well as what people might think of as traditional folklore themes. Not an in-depth academic study, but a nice overview of the subject if you're interested.