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Where the Folk

A Welsh Folklore Road Trip

A road trip through Wales and its rich history of folklore.

Russ Williams was raised on Welsh stories, like the one about a mountain that would send you mad or turn you into a gifted poet if you camped out on it, or the one about the lost civilization drowned by the sea, and the one about the bottomless lake leading down to the Welsh Otherworld. Stories of witches and giants and heroic kings, dragons and mad doctors, ghostly women, giant beaver monsters, vampire furniture, and pirate-fighting monks.

As entertaining as it is informative, Where the Folk follows Russ Williams as he travels in Griff, his creaky red Fiesta, in search of places associated with Wales’s legends, folklore, and urban myths. In this joyful travelogue, not only does Russ recount some of Wales’s most interesting stories, but he also explores the origins behind the myths, talking to experts and storytellers to find out how and why they might have come about, and what they tell us about Wales past and present.

240 pages | 5.31 x 8.5

History: British and Irish History

Travel and Tourism: Tourism and History


View all books from University of Wales Press

Reviews

"‘Where the Folk’ reveals how stories might have evolved and the pitfalls of over-analysis. They are stories after all, kept alive for new audiences with constant refreshing.

It is this continuous endeavour I find touching. From Victorian-era entrepreneurs eager to entice tourists, the Welsh Language Board teaming up with Tesco to promote Santes Dwynwen, Pat and Ellie working hard to maintain the custom of the Mari Lwyd (despite the weight of the skull), or a host of creative primary school teachers, Russ Williams reveals a rich storytelling tradition in which ‘Where the Folk’ absolutely merits its place."

Nation.Cymru

“Russ Williams’s nationwide search for some of Wales’s most enduring folkloric landmarks propels the reader on a colourful whirlwind tour through millennia of weird history and culture. From heartbroken saints and tree-bound skeletons to ghostly apes and the mischievous Mari Lwyd, here you’ll find a treasure trove of Welsh myth and legend waiting to be cracked open.”

 

Delyth Badder, folklorist and author of The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts

“A thoroughly entertaining romp through Welsh places and stories. Russ Williams is a gifted storyteller with a real knack for bringing places and old legends to life.”

Claire Fayers, children’s writer and author of Welsh Giants, Ghost and Goblins

“Russ's stories are told in the context of the Welsh people who hear them for the first time and say ‘wtf’? If anyone has ever asked ‘Is that story true?’ just read Russ’s book. It won't answer the question because it's the wrong question, but you'll understand why you asked it in the first place.A delicious blend of academia and anarchy, Russ retells Welsh folk tales in our time through the life and humour of a 21st-century Caernarfon boy.”
 

Peter Stevenson, storyteller and author of Illustrated Welsh Folk Tales for Young and Old

Table of Contents

Pronunciation Guide

Foreword

List of illustrations

Some main characters





Prologue: Rebecca’s roots



Part One: Rebecca rises

1 The final straw

2 Respectable radicals, rough music

3 Men in the middle

4 ‘Faithful to death’



Part Two: Taking the reins

5 A thorough revolution

6 Lovers of justice

7 Rebecca in the spotlight



Part Three: The summer of discontent

8 A losing battle

9 All but open rebellion

10 Rebecca goes south

11 Organised chaos

12 Ladies of letters

13 Out of the shadows

14 ‘More than one hundred thousand strong’



Part Four: At the point of a bayonet if necessary

15 Rebecca rules

16 Raising the stakes

17 Death at Hendy

18 Are the government mad enough?



Part Five: ‘We are all of us Rebeccas’

19 ‘Becca there is now dead’

20 From lawbreakers to legends

21 Throwing open the books

21 What Becca did next

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