Them Owls Know’

Vernacular death portents and divinatory customs attested in Victorian and early twentieth-century English folklore collections reveal that contemporary, subjective experiences of mortality were more complex than can be accounted for with a simplistic dichotomy between modernity and magical thinking. Instead, magical thinking informed the prediction and prevention of death in both town and countryside, and in some cases up to the eve of the Second World War. Therefore the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century modernization of mortality was neither straightforward nor inevitable, highlighting the resourceful creativity which characterized responses to the greatest existential challenge

Art · Creativity · Epistemology · Existentialism · Folklore · Literature · Magical thinking · Modernity · Modernization theory · Political science · Vernacular · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices · Social Psychology

• Integrating the Strands of Victorian Diversity

  Peter Andersson, Peter K Andersson•Journal of Victorian Culture•2016

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• An Experience-Centred Approach to Animal Folklore in Denmark

  Adam Grydehøj, Ping Su•Folklore•2025

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• Mother-Die

  Roy Vickery•Folklore•2019

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• Death in the Victorian Family

  Pat Jalland, Patricia Jalland•Death in the Victorian family•1996

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• The Magical Imagination

  Open Access•Karl Bell•Magical Imagination•2012

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• Customs in common

  E P Thompson•Customs in common•1991

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• Drawing the pillow, laying out and port wine

  Helen Frisby•Mortality•2015

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• The Nightingale an Ill-Omened Bird

  E F Bennion•Folklore•1914

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• Folklore of Lincolnshire

  Mabel Peacock•Folklore•1901

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• Oxfordshire Village Folklore, II

  Angelina Parker•Folklore•1923

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• Oxfordshire Village Folklore (1840–1900)

  Angelina Parker•Folklore•1913

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• Folklore from Naphill, Bucks

  P J Heather, Peter Heather•Folklore•1932

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• An Unpublished Scottish Lullaby

  John Abercromby, Isabella Barclay et al.•Folklore•1894

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• Some Birth Customs in East Anglia

  Barbara Newman, Leslie Newman•Folklore•1939

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• Scraps of English Folklore, XII

  Barbara Aitken•Folklore•1926

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• Scraps of English Folklore, III

  E J Ladbury, S O Addy•Folklore•1909

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• Scraps of English Folklore, II

  E B Pitman, Harry Lowerison et al.•Folklore•1909

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• Scraps of English Folklore, IV

  George Blackburne, G M Ireland Blackburne et al.•Folklore•1909

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• Folklore in the Kennet Valley

  L F W Salmon, L Salmon•Folklore•1902

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• Superstitions Relating to the Newt

  Edward Peacock, H Wildon Carr et al.•Folklore•1899

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• Death and Burial Customs in Wiltshire

  L A Law•Folklore•1900

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• Scraps of English Folklore, XV

  Esther Wright, L F Ramsey et al.•Folklore•1926

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• Folklore Scraps from Several Localities

  Alice B Gomme•Folklore•1909

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• Shropshire Folklore of Yesterday and Today

  L H Hayward•Folklore•1938

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• Norfolk Folklore

  Mark R Taylor•Folklore•1929

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• Scraps of English Folk-Lore, VI

  A Lukyn Williams, Dennis Read et al.•Folklore•1912

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• The Folk-Lore of Somerset

  Edward Vivian, F W Mathews•Folklore•1920

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• Scraps of English Folklore, IX

  Ruth Anderson•Folklore•1924

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• Lincolnshire Folklore

  Open Access•Ethel H Rudkin•Folklore•1933

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• Scraps of English Folklore, V

  Geoffrey I L Gomme, R V H Burne et al.•Folklore•1910

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• Death, Dissection and the Destitute

  Bruce P Lenman, Ruth Richardson•The Economic History Review•1988

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• Unlucky Plants

  Thomas E Graves, Roy Vickery•Journal of American Folklore•1987

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