Welcome to Monstrous Folklore…
A personal research website dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of Folklore, Monstrosity and Gothic Fiction.
This website is run by Craig Thomson MA, BA (Hons), a current PhD Candidate at Birkbeck College, University of London. His current research is focused on Folklore, Popular Culture and the Werewolf in British Gothic Fiction (1846-1914).
Latest from the Blog
Gothica: Myths and Monsters – 17th June 2021 (5-7pm)
On Thursday 17th June 2021, the Gothica reading group at the University of Birmingham will be hosting an online session entitled Myths and Monsters, which will include two short papers by Rhys James Jenkins (University of Birmingham) and myself. For anyone interested in joining, feel free to tweet or email the following links: Twitter: @GOTHICA_UOBContinue reading “Gothica: Myths and Monsters – 17th June 2021 (5-7pm)”
“New Year, New Moon” – An update on my PhD project!
Happy New Year! Well, as much as it can be with the current lockdown rules now being placed across the United Kingdom. With not an end in sight, I thought it perhaps useful to give you all a bit of an update on my current PhD project. I’m hoping to do these every 6 monthsContinue reading ““New Year, New Moon” – An update on my PhD project!”
“The figure leaps with one bound onto a wall…” – A Secret Kept (1894) and the urban mythology of Spring-heeled Jack
01-08-2020 – Craig Thomson “The figure leaps with one bound onto a wall, and when the policeman is trying to follow the figure leaps down upon him, and seizes him by the throat.” “He trembles continually, and is also continually talking of a flash of green fire that came from the eyes of the personContinue reading ““The figure leaps with one bound onto a wall…” – A Secret Kept (1894) and the urban mythology of Spring-heeled Jack”
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“English folk-lore is singularly barren of were-wolf stories, the reason being that wolves had been extirpated from England under the Anglo-Saxon kings, and therefore ceased to be objects of dread to the people. The traditional belief in were-wolfism must, however, have remained long in the popular mind, though at present it has disappeared, for the word occurs in old ballads and romances.“
The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring Gould (1865)
