London Lore The legends and traditions of the worlds most vibran by Steve Roud

London Lore The legends and traditions of the worlds most vibran by Steve Roud

Few places are so steeped in folklore as London, a city with almost as many ancient legends and deep-rooted customs as it has streets and landmarks, and in "London Lore" leading folklorist Steve Roud brings together an astonishingly rich selection of them: tales of ghosts and witches, stories about fabled events, heroes and villains, and accounts of local superstitions and beliefs. His range extends right across the capital, from Hampstead in the north, where wild beasts were once thought to roam the sewers, to Anerley Wood in the south, haunt of the much feared Norwood Gypsies, and from Hounslow Heath with its notorious highwaymen to Bethnal Green, long associated with Earl Henry de Montfort, better known as the Blind Beggar.But "London Lore" does more than simply retell these stories and traditions; it also delves through layers of hearsay and speculation to investigate how and why they arose in the first place. In the process, it shows how the familiar story of Dick Whittington and his cat has connections with the ancient Middle East. It explains why lions rather than ravens at the Tower of London were once felt to be inextricably bound up with the city's fate.It pinpoints precisely where the story of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street, was first recorded. And it explores the origins of the once widespread custom of handing out 'farthing bundles' of ribbons, buttons and beads to poor children in the East End. Some of these stories and beliefs are shown to have their origins in actual historical events; others to have stemmed from contemporary preoccupations and fears. What they all reveal is the powerful hold that London has exerted on the popular imagination over the centuries, as each successive generation has reshaped existing tales and added new ones of its own.

It is a wonderful collection of stories and legends, to be recommended to anyone who is at least half in love with the dark side of London's past -- Peter Ackroyd The Times [An] absorbing compendium by folklore expert Steve RoudHe excavates the history of the capital, from obscure suburban streets to famous sites like the Tower of London The London Paper I've been enthralled ... The book's real strength lies [in] its exposure of deeper levels of custom, tradition and magical thinking that lie beneath the smooth Tarmac of contemporary realism -- Will Self Evening Standard A spellbinding study of our city's folklore ... digs through layers of hearsay and speculation to investigate how and why the stories and traditions arose in the first place Newham Recorder An absorbing and fascinatingly thorough book Harrow Observer

Steve Roud recently retired from his position as Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and served as Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society for over fifteen years. He has been researching British folklore for over thirty years and is the author of many books on the subject, including The English Year, published to great acclaim in 2006, and The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland, which won the Katharine Briggs Folklore Award in 2004. He is also joint author, with Jacqueline Simpson, of the Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore. His other work in folklore includes compiling the Folk Song Index and the Broadside Index, two internationally renowned computer databases of traditional folk and popular song.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781847945112
ISBN 10	1847945112
Title	London Lore The legends and traditions of the worlds most vibran
Author	Steve Roud
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Cornerstone
Year published	2008-10-09
Number of pages	464
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable