As Halloween approaches, the Wisconsin Historical Society digs deep into the origins of European witchcraft legends. On Tuesday, October 30 at 7:00 p.m., Halloween Eve — if you will — Amber J. Rose, a University of Wisconsin Ph.D. candidate in Old Norse and Swedish folklore, gives a presentation entitled “The Devil Goes North: Witchcraft Trials, […]
Taste Traditions of Wisconsin: The Legend of the Hodag
The Hodag. Imagine a 7-foot-long, 30-inch-tall, hairy, wild-eyed creature with horns along his spine and razor sharp claws roaming the thick, dark forests of the Northwoods in the 1890s! Well, that’s exactly what Timber Cruiser and Entrepreneur Eugene Shepard did. “He Imagined” and the legend of the Hodag began. Aprelle Rawski, Coordinator of the Pioneer […]
Journey into the ‘Polka Heartland’
As Wisconsinites, we can pretty easily observe the ways in which polka and its various cultural trappings (read: beer, dancing, more beer) have shaped public life. Folklorist, musician, and author Rick March’s new book, Polka Heartland: Why the Midwest Loves to Polka, seeks to document this influence and chart its trajectory from European parlor fad […]
Wisconsin Folklore from the WPA Writers Project
Giant lake sturgeon that swallowed an elk, ghosts and John Muir’s handcrafted locks. They’re all in a reissue of the WPA 1937 collection of Wisconsin folklore. The Monday Buzz talks with editor Jim Zimm.
We Are The Vampires
Blood-sucking undead roaming the streets, terrorizing the good citizens. No, we’re not talking about the banksters and the one percent. Or are we? Tomislav Longinović is Professor of Slavic and Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His new book Vampire Nation: Violence as Cultural Imaginary was published by Duke University Press in 2011 and […]
Digital Jesus and How The Web Shapes Religion
On the Monday 8 O’Clock Buzz, host Brian Standing was joined by Robert Glen Howard, folklorist, communications professor at U.W. Madison and author of Digital Jesus. His work focuses on the folklore in online religion and specifically how this has shaped Christian fundamentalism.
