Two bits of folklore that could arguably only exist in the current historical moment. Magical thinking cheek by jowl with biology, conservation efforts and extreme sports. The rational and the fantastic as complementary modes of experience.

At @storymachine-ht.bsky.social, we love playing with AI-enabled recommender systems to learn more about connections between folktales, but all our writing is done exclusively by humans. Don't believe it? Check out our blog to see for yourself: storymachine.iisys.de/blog/

Doc Rowe's six decades of recording folk customs meet the big screen. Read @hexnhart.bsky.social's report from the premiere screening of The Archivist at Sheffield DocFest: www.linkedin.com/pulse/review... #folklore #docrowearchive #docfest

Would you be a proud conedancer? @hexnhart.bsky.social attended the Therapeutic Landscapes conf at @worcesteruni.bsky.social, where the Museum of Roadside Magic was a definite highlight. MRM reimagines service magic for today & pushes the constraints of folk archives libbybove.com/projects/roa...

At @sheffdocfest.bsky.social for the premiere of The Archivist, celebrating folklore collector Doc Rowe. The room is packing up nicely. Write-up to follow on storymachine.iisys.de/blog/

Here at Therapeutic Landscapes conference at @worcesteruni.bsky.social asking what emerging digital tools researchers & creatives might want to use for folklore

Thank you to everyone who joined the @contemporarylegend.bsky.social panel today for Sabine Slowik's and @hexnhart.bsky.social's presentation. If you're interested in hearing more, follow the QR below, or click the link: storymachine.iisys.de

Enjoyable read. Two notes: 1) pagan antlered god in 10th century East Anglia; 2) red-berried mistletoe in Norfolk. #theresearchruinsyou

Too many buns

Just heard the phrase 'many philosophers are anti-science' at an academic conference. Chat, is this a dogwhistle? I think it's a dogwhistle

"technology is never neutral, because it takes on the characteristics of those who devise, finance, regulate and use it."

Finally a conference just for the pleasure of it. Lolly Willowes at 100, at #UCL200 I'll make sporadic notes about the date in the thread 🧵 👇

Sabine Slowik & @hexnhart.bsky.social are in excellent company for the @contemporarylegend.bsky.social conference; presenting @storymachine-ht.bsky.social. Join us on June 4th (the conference is in EDT, so the paper will be around the early afternoon for UK/Europe)

Almost time for @hexnhart.bsky.social to present a StoryMachine case-study at @labrc.bsky.social The Art of Storytelling: A Transdisciplinary Conference Join her on the 30th to hear about how StoryMachine can be used to understand the Green Man. Book your place here: labrc.co.uk/2026/02/24/s...

Always a pleasure to speak for @romgothsam.bsky.social! This time on Antlered Goddesses. If YOU would like me to talk to your audience of choice about folklore, witches, modern paganism, or LARP, drop me a line at [email protected] Should you wish, I can also wear a fun hat, at no extra cost.

Are YOU 'faced by the castrating prospect of brewing tea'? A question I'm led to ask reading Amanda Fernbach's 'Fetishization of Masculinity': www.jstor.org/stable/4240878

Malcolm Guite brings out that poem and now THIS?

mooncustafer mentions blue curtains as a staple of literary analysis. I've met this example several times, the first being during my own schooling 20odd yrs ago. Those curtains were about askribing unnecessary meaning to the mundane in the writing of... Pushkin. Anyone know where they come from?

I propose that, as From Friday, the 8th of May should be known as Attenborough Day. It should be a bank holiday where the public are encouraged to take part in conservation work or state funded educational sessions promoting the natural world.

I've just posted up a delectable line of sapphic Gothic/horror talks for July. Check them out and get your free tickets. (The image at the top is the Cover Art for Dowry of Blood by Martina Fačková)

From Jack-in-the-Green to Hypertext conferences, the project team have been busy. Check out the project's May newsletter on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/pulse/storym...

2014 REF: 2026: closing UG History

Well, there we go...

There's potential for ethically trained AI to be used for broadening fields of expertise, challenging biases, introducing unexpected concepts for storytelling. But why is it always sold as doing all the rewarding fun bits for the human. =.=

#Archive30 #WhyArchives Without #archives the #BritishMuseum would have little idea of its history, or who has worked there over the years. Judith Stanley was 1 of the 1st female employees & in 1756 our accounts show her employment & the wages book shows she accepted her salary with a X.

If you can't hold your own rituals. store-bought is fine? It is surreal & somewhat disheartening, that everything I love that used to be sub- or countercultural now costs money. £££ larp 'experiences', occultism used as a marketing strategy... am I getting old & crotchety?

Survival of UK folklore archives often feels like folklore itself. In 1947, A. Irving Hallowell wrote: 'these archival collections, once published, often moulder on our shelves waiting for... a dim and uncertain future.' Is that dim uncertain future now? Eager to hear your thoughts below.

We have a folklore exhibition review up on @storymachine-ht.bsky.social blog. Check it out here: storymachine.iisys.de/2026/04/22/u...

If the recent book haul is anything to go by, by the end of the decade, I will build myself a house out of fantasy novels that include the Wild Hunt #Herne'sHunt

Listeners who can’t be there in person … Zakia is happy for this to be recorded so you’ll get to hear the interview on a future episode 🙂

They call the church 'the witch's hat'. Even in their holy places they cannot help but think of us. Fear of our witchery, the appeal of our witchery, long ago seized their imagination. We live in their stories and desires, but they can never possess us. – #EmilyCBanting, 1982 #WitchSky

Currently at the 'please let me start again' stage of manuscript revisions. What happened to spending a decade on a meandering monograph?!

Cat in the Summer Meadow, Bruno Liljefors (1860-1939).

A spectacularly detailed piece of research. And the illustrations are gorgeous. I'm chuffed both ways that this book beat mine to the printing press. #Herne #HornedGod

We've had a restful Spring break, & it is full steam ahead into conference season. Catch @hexnhart.bsky.social & Sabine Slowik presenting digitally at @contemporarylegend.bsky.social Perspectives on Contemporary Legends in June: contemporarylegend.org/meetings/per... More confs to be announced!

Who's your favourite for the role of Pan's literary successor. The Sunday talk will delve into detail on this topic and on why all rebels need antlered hats. Submit your bets!

Found a truly cursed book about the Green Man with genAI illustrations, including this one. It's not my phone, the boy's face is pixelated on the page. It is surreal to me that a book ostensibly about a nature spirit guiding people to appreciate the land can draw on genAI. An artefact of our time

Festival of Magical History online weekend 11-12 April. I’ll be talking about the research for my new book Witchland! Tickets via QR code in photo 1. Please also enjoy random photo of my little dog, Friday, who might interrupt… #history #witches #folklore

Spotted in Devon: a cat on parade, a parking ram and some assumptions about a wizard's music tastes

We have so many brilliant YA fantasy and science fiction authors' stories that deserve adaptations: Tracy Deonn, Sabaa Tahir, Holly Black, Sarah J. Maas, the list goes on. Don't get me started on adult SFF! Very long list. There are 1000 books I'd like to see on TV/film. Hollywood, stop rebooting!

In English folklore, some prehistoric sites were associated with dragons, including Drakestone at Stinchcombe in Gloucestershire, a natural stone by an ancient earthwork; Dragonhoard and Brokenbarrow, at Garsington, Oxfordshire; and Drake Howe at Bilsdale and Midcable, Yorkshire. #FolkloreThursday

How indeed? Come to my online talk at @folkloretodmorden.bsky.social on April 1st to find out: www.folkloremythmagic.com/event-detail...

Online Festival of Magical History! Talks on witches, ghosts, cursing, folklore and myth! Tickets via the QR code on the poster 🧙‍♀️ @magic @history @witchcraft

Trialing some two block ‘Great God Pan’ linocut prints on green paper. I’m not sure they work…

This is the recently conserved 1753 foundation deed of the British Museum, where Hans Sloane’s executors vest his collection into the hands of the Trustees. It’s now safe to be viewed & exhibited after being permanently folded since the 1750s. Harwell have done a great job! #britishmuseum #archives

I'm delighted to announce that I've just been appointed by @cambridgeup.bsky.social to edit a brand new and exciting Elements series, 'Elements in Folklore' (with Dr Tabitha Stanmore), which will aim to publish the latest research in folklore that's 20-30k words long! #folklore 📚

At StoryMachine, we think a lot about connections. Among others, connections between place and story. This is Scorhill Stone Circle on Dartmoor, a perennial feature of the landscape that still attracts tales, speculations, and imaginings. What story would you tell about it?