Talk: Traditional Fairies
Winterbourne Medieval Barn
Join celebrated historian Prof Ronald Hutton for a fascinating talk on traditional fairies.
Fairies have become very familiar, often rather cute, figures in British literature and art from the last 400 years, from the work of Shakespeare to Victorian and modern children’s stories. But in this talk the fabulously entertaining historian Ronald Hutton looks at the folklore that inspired these figures. He examines the ‘real’ fairies of Britain and Ireland, and the older, darker, and more scary world of traditional peoples who lived alongside fairies, elves, gnomes, brownies and pixies.
This evening's talk is designed to answer two big questions. The first is what ordinary British and Irish people have traditionally believed about fairies, as distinct from the purely literary images of them which began with Shakespeare and flourished in Victorian and Edwardian children's tales. The second question is what function the telling of stories about fairies actually served, in making people understand each other, and the world around them, better, and to interact with both.
Speaker: Professor Ronald Hutton is a Professor of History at the University of Bristol who specialises in Early Modern Britain, British folklore, pre-Christian religion and Contemporary Paganism. He is a leading authority on history of the British Isles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on ancient and medieval paganism and magic, and on the global context of witchcraft beliefs. He has has appeared on British TV and radio, written 14 books, held a fellowship at Magdalen College Oxford, and is a Commissioner of English Heritage. Prof Hutton was also awarded a CBE in the this year's King's New Year Honours list for services to history. We are delighted to welcome him back to The Barn!
The bar will be open for refreshments from 6:30pm. Cash and card payments accepted.
Free parking on site. Tickets are £7.50. Book online direct on Ticketsource or via the Barn website below.
The primary purpose of the event is to raise money for WMBT and to support conservation, management, maintenance and improvement of the WMBT site.
