Book Review: "A Treasury of British Folklore" by Dee Dee Chainey

If you did not think I was going to eventually read an anthology of folklore this year then you really don't know me at all. Folklore is one of the most interesting genres of literature I have ever encountered because it is basically stories, customs and traditions that have weird narratives attached to them that get passed down over generations to create strange things we do and say without fully paying attention to its significance. From Halloween to the Mari Lwyd to Pancake Day to St Stephen's Day being called 'Boxing Day'. Folklore explains what happened here and why. It gives us stories about how we might understand them and what we might gain about the understanding of our country and ourselves through that process. There are hundreds of thousands of folklore all over the world, but for now I am reading about my home country of Britain. Note: I am actually interested in all folklore, I generally do not care which country of culture it's from. I like all of it.

The first thing I love about this book is the fact that it goes through the entire year and covers some important topics about each major festival. It goes from September, moves into the Halloween era, then the Christmas and 12th Night stages, after this it goes into spring and the rest of them. It is a brilliant homage to the yearly occurences that happen and how we as normal people encounter folkish tales in our everyday lives without really realising that most of these have evolved from religious or cultural things to become something of lore and legend.

The next thing I love about this book is that the second chapter is all about the natural landscapes and how they have become inspired by the stone circles, the rocks and mountains, the valleys and the boulders. There's a lot of history behind it and spirituality associated with it of communities and eras that came before us in Britain. There is a sense of history here and yet, the only thing that connects us to this history are the stories that come out of the rocks and stones that litter and mark the lands. I do love the way this chapter is written as well, it feels like I am being given a lesson on how these rocks and stones can give us entire narratives of the ancestors of the land, the way they lived and how they used nature to mark out their existence.

Part two is all about witchcraft and magical creatures and honestly, what better part two to have than to have it all about the magical beings that have thousands of stories about them all over Britain? I loved reading about Jack the Giant Killer and Geoffrey of Monmouth's reason for the people of the empires coming to Britain (which includes stuff about the Trojan War too). But quite possibly one of the greatest tales that I never get tired of hearing about from Britain is the legend of King Arthur. Now, in the past I have read many versions of King Arthur including the ones by Thomas Mallory, Geoffrey of Monmouth and Chrétien De Troyes and I have always enjoyed reading about the romances and wars of the Knights of the Round Table because the story is so expansive it feels like a whole universe of history (though I know it didn't happen).

Alongside the stories of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, we also have the stories regarding Robin Hood and Lady Godiva. It was clearly the best part of the whole book and gives the reader fantastic insight into stories of the British Isles that are older and more adapted than we think they are.

All in all, I feel like British Folklore is well-investigated but it is nice to see that someone has taken such time to put it altogether into a handy package of a book, an anthology of great stories and their origins, their adaptations and the meanings behind them. These are stories that we can all enjoy from any age in any age and throughout the histories for generations to come. It's great to have an account of them.