Mark Twain did not invent the Myth of the Wild West, but he certainly exploited and advanced it. Roughing It, one of his earliest books (1872), described his Western sojourn beginning in 1861 during the

This example of a set of Croatian bagpipes reveals something that is often not widely known, namely that there are dozens of species of this instrument spread from the Celtic fringe of Britain and Ireland,

Today on Facebook, this image appeared. It is an expression of folklore as it appears within the context of the internet. This image is a descendent of what Alan Dundes (1934-2005) once called Xerox lore,

There are really two questions here: did elves survive the crossing of the Atlantic? (occasionally they did) and why didn't they usually thrive? (the degree of survival generally can't be called thriving).

Volumes could be written on this and it's not easy to finesse a concise answer. First, let's restrict ourselves to the Northern European supernatural beings with the peculiar characteristic of living in

The origin of J. R. R. Tolkien’s elves are as varied as the sources he knew and as unfathomable as imagination itself. Tolkien was a well-read medievalist; not surprisingly, he drew heavily from period

A first-century sculpture from Homesteads on Hadrian’s Wall is a Roman-era image that refers to the local Celtic religion. These are three manifestations of the same god, Genii Cucullati, the hooded deities

The Anglo-Saxon Franks Casket dates to roughly 700 CE. The front panel depicts the Adoration of the Magi on the right. Runes above the three men spell the word “Magi.” The star of Bethlehem is above them

A widely-distributed story, common in Europe and represented in the folklore collections from Cornwall, draws on an array of popular beliefs and motifs. In most of Europe, the tale involved a devoted young

The idea that the sea is home to half-human, half-animal creatures is widespread, with examples from the ancient world and from nineteenth-century folklore collections. All the examples are not necessarily

What is the origin of elves, fairies, and other similar supernatural beings? This is a difficult question to answer. (This image is from the British Museum, dating to 1792) One of the reasons why this

The word "troll" entered mainstream English in 1859 with the translation of a collection of Norwegian folktales published by Sir George Webbe Dasent (1817-1896). His "Popular Tales from

There is a convention that maintains that belief in fairies, elves, trolls, and other similar supernatural beings are a thing of the past. Evidence suggests that the folk have always seen their beliefs

The origin of the name of "The Grateful Dead" is sometimes disputed: some claim it came from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, but almost certainly it originates with a common European folktale,

In December 2006, I documented graffiti along the fence of the famed "Grassy Knoll" - the focus of conspiracy theories involving the JFK assassination. Graffiti can be an expression of folk beliefs

These two coins were found beneath the floorboards of the Boston Saloon, an African American establishment operated by William Brown, a freeborn black from Massachusetts. who came to Virginia City, Nevada

This is a one-of-a-kind illustration of Cornish knockers from the nineteenth century. It comes from William Bottrell's 1873 book on the folklore of Cornwall. Cornish miners believed that knockers inhabited

The Roman-era stone face at the ritual springs at Aquae Sulis (the Waters of Sulis), Bath, England, is of uncertain meaning. The hot spring was sacred even before the Romans built a large complex at the