The first major new book on British superstitions and their history in over a generation, this survey not only explains what people have believed and why, but when superstitions arose, which parts of the country adopted them, how they evolved and what people believe today. Drawing extensively on literary sources from medieval times to the present, the book settles many arguments, debunks many myths and provides in the process a fascinating sideways view of social customs and beliefs over the centuries.
Did You Know? In Stacksteads, a village near Bacup, there is an annual event which has to rank among the wackiest in the country’s sporting calendar: the Gravy Wrestling competition. According to legend King Arthur’s mighty sword Excalibur is lying at the bottom of Lancashire’s deepest lake, Martin Mere. In Wigan, Eccles cakes used to be called ‘slow walking cakes’ because they were offered to mourners at funerals. St Walburge’s Church in Preston was named after the patron saint of people suffering from rabies. The Little Book of Lancashire is fun and informative guide to the things you did not know about this amazing part of England. Whether you want to sit down and read it cover to cover or dip into it for hilarious facts and anecdotes, this book will delight both visitors to this beautiful county and the residents who call it home.
Are black cats lucky or unlucky? What should you do when you hear the first cuckoo? Since when have people believed that it's unlucky to shoot an albatross? Why does breaking a mirror lead to misfortune? This fascinating collection answers these and many other questions about the world of superstitions and forms an endlessly browsable guide to a subject that continues to obsess and intrigue.
This is an open access book. The 5th ICLLE will be held in Padang, Indonesia in July 27th, 2022. The conference aims to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners, and professinals from the industry, academia and government to discourse on research and development, professional practice in linguistics, literature and education.
Rather than providing a dictionary of superstitions, of which there are already numerous excellent, exhaustive and, in many cases, academic works which list superstitions from A to Z, Bainton gives us an entertaining flight over the terrain, landing from time to time in more thought-provoking areas. He offers an overview of humanity's often illogical and irrational persistence in seeking good luck and avoiding misfortune. While Steve Roud's two excellent books - The Penguin Dictionary of Superstitions and his Pocket Guide - and Philippa Waring's 1970 Dictionary concentrate on the British Isles, Bainton casts his net much wider. There are many origins which warrant the full back story, such as Friday the thirteenth and the Knights Templar, or the demonisation of the domestic cat resulting in 'cat holocausts' throughout Europe led by the Popes and the Inquisition. The whole is presented as a comprehensive, entertaining narrative flow, though it is, of course, a book that could be dipped into, and includes a thorough bibliography. Schoenberg, who developed the twelve-tone technique in music, was a notorious triskaidekaphobe. When the title of his opera Moses und Aaron resulted in a title with thirteen letters, he renamed it Moses und Aron. He believed he would die in his seventy-sixth year (7 + 6 = 13) and he was correct; he also died on Friday the thirteenth at thirteen minutes before midnight. As Sigmund Freud wrote, 'Superstition is in large part the expectation of trouble; and a person who has harboured frequent evil wishes against others, but has been brought up to be good and has therefore repressed such wishes into the unconscious, will be especially ready to expect punishment for his unconscious wickedness in the form of trouble threatening him from without.'
Why do Brits call their flag a "Jack"? How did the leek become a symbol of Wales? Does the Tube run 24/7? Who was the Widow of Windsor? Can you take part in a coronation? What was a Greenwood marriage? Was the Giant's Causeway built by an Irish giant? Which British literary figures won the Nobel Prize for Literature? How can you register a record in the Guinness Book of Records? What is the emergency phone number in the UK? Providing well-organised material on the UK's history, geography, literature, royalty and society, Diana Cordea's "Britain Revealed" is a condensed and easy to read book about all things British. It is an excellent user-friendly reference for prospective visitors to the UK, Anglophiles, or readers wishing to know and understand popular British culture. Most importantly, "Britain Revealed" is aimed at teachers of English as a foreign language, who wish to make their English and optional classes more exciting. The plethora of information provided in this comprehensive teaching aid can be adapted to various levels of language proficiency and can be used in various classroom activities. Focusing on essential questions concerning British culture and civilisation, this volume is also attractive to learners, who will thus have the opportunity of brushing up on their English in a versatile and practical way.
Strange beliefs and even stranger omens have liferated through the ages. Here is a ripe collection which might change minds about broken mirrors, black cats and other ingrained beliefs.
The decline in power, popularity and prestige of religion across the modern world is not a short-term or localized trend nor is it an accident. It is a consequence of subtle but powerful features of modernization. Renowned sociologist, Steve Bruce, elaborates the secularization paradigm and defends it against a wide variety of recent attempts at rebuttal and refutation. Using the best available statistical and qualitative evidence Bruce considers the implications for the
In Victorian times, England was famously dubbed the land without music - but one of the great musical discoveries of the early twentieth century was that England had a vital heritage of folk song and music which was easily good enough to stand comparison with those of other parts of Britain and overseas. Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger, and a number of other enthusiasts gathered a huge harvest of songs and tunes which we can study and enjoy at our leisure. But after over a century of collection and discussion, publication and performance, there are still many things we don't know about traditional song - Where did the songs come from? Who sang them, where, when and why? What part did singing play in the lives of the communities in which the songs thrived? More importantly, have the pioneer collectors' restricted definitions and narrow focus hindered or helped our understanding? This is the first book for many years to investigate the wider social history of traditional song in England, and draws on a wide range of sources to answer these questions and many more.
The complexity of medieval & modern pre-metric weights & measures (W&M) in Britain presents an obstacle to scholarly research on Western European econ. history. The problem is: the approx. dimensions of many non-standardized measuring units, used by both the Crown & the regional & local markets, varied from time to time & from place to place; & the dimensions even of standard W&M used in any period are poorly understood. This book will clarify the confusion & bring a new focus to the field of metrology & a new understanding of the units. It includes: tables for rapid identification of all ruling English, Scottish, Irish, or Welsh sovereigns; current English Imperial, Amer. Customary, & metric units; & the basic equiv. for these W&M; & A Dict. of Brit. W&M.
