Post by @Siiin@pagan.plus

2026-09-09 22:58 UTC

Does anyone have any good book recommendations specifically for European folklore or even folklore symbol reference material? I have this idea to twist the typical Halloween flash into All Hallow&#39;s Eve/Samhain flash by creating images of the actual folkloric origins of the &quot;typical&quot; Halloween imagery. For instance, I think if I remember correctly the Jack-O-Lantern comes from some story about a turnip and a lump of coal and the wielder needing to walk about with it to find something, but I cannot for the life of me find a genuine, non-internet reliable source to verify this random half memory. #Folklore #AskFedi

Replies (4)

@transmascdruid@sunny.garden 2026-09-09 23:01

@Siiin@pagan.plus What part of Europe? Because I have several books I could recommend about either Scandinavia or Eastern Europe.

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@lydiaschoch@mastodon.social 2026-09-09 23:30

@Siiin@pagan.plus A wonderfully knowledgeable person to ask about this is @TarkabarkaHolgy@ohai.social.

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@billstatler@forum.statler.ws 2026-09-10 03:32

It's not a printed book, but there is an extremely large collection of folk tales online here: Folktexts: A library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology

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@dar@mastoart.social 2026-09-10 04:11

@Siiin@pagan.plus Look up the motifs ( turnip, lantern, coal etc) in Stith Thompson's Motif Index of Folk Literature. There is an online version. It will give you the stories and the countries where those motifs appear. Should be fairly easy to find the story you need. Also, the 'ask a historian' sub on reddit has a very well respected professor of folklore who will most likely know which story you mean. I can't remember their name, but a search for 'folklore ' in the sub.

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