We’re currently open for short stories submissions for our folklore anthology. But when we ask for folkloric stories, what exactly are we looking for?
Folklore encompasses the tales and customs of different communities. When something is folkloric, it’s either drawing directly from these stories and traditions, or is inspired by their themes and how they are told.
When we read a folkloric story, we’re therefore interested in work that engages with one or more of the following areas. This of course isn’t exhaustive, and we’re very much interested in tales that subvert these themes and engage with them across different cultures and settings.
Community and class
First and foremost, folk culture is rooted in communities of working people. This culture isn’t just confined to stories, covering everyday items and activities, from clothing to cookery.
Because traditional folk- and fairy-tales come from these communities, they often take craftspeople and those who work the land as their central characters: blacksmiths, cobblers, farmers, and so on.
A folkloric story might explore or imagine different communities or cultures and their customs. It may depict a certain trade or craft. It might also engage with questions of class and social injustice, in the tradition of folk ballads and folk heroes.
Nature
Because working communities have close historical ties to the land, animals, plants, landscapes and seasons have importance as symbols and subjects within their stories.
Fables often use animals in metaphorical situations for moral instruction. Many stories act as warnings about the dangers of dark woods and deep water, of poisonous berries and wild animals. Hills, stones, trees, mushrooms, flowers, birds and beasts gain a mythical significance and magical properties.
A folkloric story might therefore explore our place in the natural world. It may be filled with imagery of animals, plants and weather, or be guided by the rhythm of months, seasons, and years; the circle of life and death.
Folk spirituality and the otherworldly
Folk traditions may take elements from organised religion, but their spirituality is often more flexible and animistic – that is, attributing intelligence and even divinity to animals and other nonhuman beings.
Folk stories are also filled with superstitions and encounters with the supernatural. The perils of life are often connected with otherworldly forces or creatures that may bring misfortune, disease, or death, like tricksters and vengeful sprites.
A sense of the mystical is often key to a folkloric story. We enter a world outside the conventions of the everyday. This allows us to explore questions of life, death, identity, and our place in the universe in a metaphorical or emotion-led way. Sometimes these stories involve literally moving out of our world and into another, like the fairy realm.
Traditional storytelling techniques
Finally, it’s worth considering how these stories are told. Traditional tales emerge through generations of retelling, where some of the finer details are worn down over time. Names get reduced to professions (like the blacksmith or cobbler mentioned above), and stock phrases are adopted (once upon a time, beyond seven mountains and seven valleys…).
The style of these stories might run counter to what we expect modern and literary short stories (there’s more telling, less showing) and may have peculiar turns of phrase or archaisms that have been carried on inside the tale over the years.
A folkloric story might use colloquialisms or dialect to give a sense of a particular region, or the impression it is being spoken aloud. It might have lyrical elements, tying it to the poetic storytelling modes used in times past.
Above all, we think a sense of playfulness is important to a folkloric story, and indeed any story – that the joy of creating it is present on the page.
Recommended reading
- The Lost Folk by Lally MacBeth
- Fernseed by Sarah Royston
- Mother Naked by Glen James Brown
- The short stories of Crow & Cross Keys, Carmina Magazine and Welcome to Willerby.
- Folk Tales of the North Country by Frederick Grice
- The works of folklorist Katharine Briggs
- Other authors: Angela Carter, Italo Calvino, Susanna Clarke, Lord Dunsany, Zoe Gilbert, Hope Mirrlees.
If this has sparked some ideas about writing folkloric tales, you can find out more about submissions to our folklore anthology here.
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