Folklore is thriving on social media, says Charlie Cooper

“Folklore is always in a state of flux,” Cooper says, “it’s always changing.”

Cooper argues that while we might think of folk traditions like Morris dancing as “trivial” or belonging in the past, people are continuing to modernise it – like the all-female Boss Morris dancers, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, who make their own costumes and share their dance routines on TikTok.

“It’s about taking something that’s rooted in tradition, but making it their own, and bringing it up to speed a little bit, which is so lovely,” Cooper adds.

Professor Cheeseman says folklore is not necessarily “old and ancient” but rather about the process of sharing stories with each other. He adds that nowadays “we’re talking to each other over a screen. Now, we tell scary stories of the things that we might glimpse in images on the internet.”

Ms Powell adds that urban legends widely shared on the internet have “become their own form of folklore,” adding: “I don’t think something has to be supposedly 1,000-years-old to have any value.”