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The Boggart: Folklore, History, Place-names and Dialect
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.
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.
- GenresFolklore
330 pages, Hardcover
Published March 1, 2022
About the author
Simon Young
58 books14 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Simon Young was awarded a starred First in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Cambridge University, as well as the Chadwick Prize for Celtic studies. Since then he has lived in Spain, Ireland and Italy. The author of many academic articles, he has also written about the Dark Ages for History Today, the Spectator, and the Guardian.
Simon Young was awarded a starred First in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic from Cambridge University, as well as the Chadwick Prize for Celtic studies. Since then he has lived in Spain, Ireland and Italy. The author of many academic articles, he has also written about the Dark Ages for History Today, the Spectator, and the Guardian.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 2, 2023
Simon Young's Boggart is excellent. It traces the history of boggarts across English folk belief and into the 21st century, explaining how the concept was originally understood and how that has changed in recent decades as the term is repurposed, largely through fiction and the influence of fiction.
Its a heavier read but worth digging into, especially if English fairylore interests you as it really lays out how the wider concept of fairies was understood and how it interrelates to and is differentiated from ideas around the restless dead.
Its a heavier read but worth digging into, especially if English fairylore interests you as it really lays out how the wider concept of fairies was understood and how it interrelates to and is differentiated from ideas around the restless dead.
Displaying 1 of 1 review