About Mythfolks: in pursuit of forgotten folklore and hidden cultural stories

Hi there and welcome to Mythfolks, thanks for stopping by!

I’ve been fascinated by folklore since I was a kid - even if I didn’t fully realize it at the time.

From Goosebumps to the fantastical stories of Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton, to binge-watching The X-Files (a classic), I always loved those weird, sometimes creepy, unknown tales that felt so far removed from regular life.

I’m definitely more of a “monster of the week” kinda fascinated and have a great interest in all kinds of stories (except for aliens, they've never quite done it for me apart from the movie).

I've spent the last 20 years actively cultivating my folklore fascination and learning that it’s so much more than just mythical creatures, fairy tales and cryptids; though it’s all of those things too of course.

Broadly, folklore is a massive collection of always-evolving beliefs, explanations and traditions passed down through generations, unique to individual cultures - but often with a lot of influence and crossover from different peoples and countries. 

The study of folklore is firmly rooted in the humanities with a heavy crossover into the social sciences, including anthropology and genealogy.

It’s not just “stories people made up”, which is what most people probably think (I may be wrong!), but it’s a way for us to understand how societies explain the unexplainable and often it’s reflecting deeper cultural truths and our shared, universal fears.

So much of folklore has been passed down through word of mouth over time - a simple story about someone being startled in the night slowly evolves into the tale of the Boogeyman. Folktales are packed with these nuggets of reality twisted over time.

I started Mythfolks as a project to share my passion for lesser-known or forgotten stories and to keep these overlooked pieces of folklore alive.

I want people who love history, culture, travel and entertainment as much as I do, to experience folklore in all its depth and glory and my aim is to make it accessible and enjoyable for everyone, for wherever they are in the world. 

The other thing I’m exploring with this website is looking past just the surface detail and trying to uncover the hidden meanings and timely lessons these stories are highlighting. I love learning about the details of each story but I also like to use them to make me think and I hope you enjoy it too! 

I spend a lot of time researching for this site, digging into early 20th-century texts (and older) along with more recent journals to find and support each story.

My mother, with 30 years in genealogy, is an expert at uncovering stories from the past, and her insights have been invaluable as I keep building Mythfolks into the useful resource i know it can be.

I run the entire website myself, so it’s always a work in progress - some of my earlier pieces could use a refresh and I’m getting to it!

So if you’re curious about the stories that shaped us, the myths we tell ourselves, or just want a little bit of strange and wonderful history, welcome and come on in. There’s plenty to explore!