Blúiríní Béaloidis 43 - Indexing Folklore (with Steve Roud)

About this episode

Steve Roud discusses his work on the Roud Folk Song Index and contributions to folklore scholarship.

Steve Roud is a Librarian, folklore scholar and creator of the Roud Folk Song Index, which contains upwards of 750,000 entries to around 45,000 English language folk songs, as found in books, recordings, manuscripts and other sources the world over. His index, and ‘Roud Numbers’ (a numbering system employed to identify the same song across many different titles) are widely acclaimed for the scope, breadth, depth and impact. Steve worked as a local studies Librarian in the London Borough of Croydon, and also served as Honorary Librarian for the Folklore Society for eighteen years. He has published books on calendar custom, popular tradition, folk belief, London lore, children’s games, and folk drama. In 2004, he was the winner of the Folklore Society’s Katharine Briggs Folklore Award for The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland. In 2009, he was one of five people to be awarded the Gold Badge of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. This award recognises "those who have made unique or outstanding contributions to the art or science of folk dance, music or song, and/or those who have given exceptional support in furthering the aims of the Society”. For four…

People in this episode

Guest: Steve Roud

Topics covered

• folklore
• music
• indexing
• scholarship
• cultural traditions

Keywords

• Roud Folk Song Index
• folk songs
• folklore
• cultural traditions
• scholarship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Folklore Society, English Folk Dance and Song Society

Books & works: The Penguin Guide to the Superstitions of Britain and Ireland

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