Ten Classic Folk Horror Stories
by H.J. Dutton
Folk horror, in general terms, centers around folklore. More specifically, “folk horror” includes any horror story that derives its unease from folk tales, mythology, superstitions, and rites/customs outside mainstream social norms. While the term “folk horror” is relatively new, its roots in modern horror reach into the early 19th century, with literature such as Washington Irving’s classic “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820) and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” (1835). The inspirations behind folk horror go back to early civilization, when people first dreamed of monsters (consider the Biblical Witch of Endor). The following ten stories are a handful of examples of literature that helped to build the foundations of today’s folk horror.
“The Child that Went with the Fairies” – J. S. Le Fanu (1870)
I first read the short fiction of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu during my master’s program in Cork, Ireland. He was one of the pioneers of folk horror, popularizing tropes that would later become mainstays in the subgenre. As an Irish author who lived throughout the 19th century, Le Fanu witnessed the British occupation of his country firsthand, an experience that frequently bled into his writing as allegory. The following story exemplifies this tendency. In it, a group of traumatized children recount to their mother and elder sister their encounter with a woman riding in a carriage, one who may or may not have been human. The ending’s implications are bleak to say the least.
Read the full story here: https://www.vb-tech.co.za/ebooks/Le%20Fanu%20J%20Sheridan%20-%20The%20Child%20That%20Went%20With%20The%20Fairies%20-%20HO.pdf
The White People – Arthur Machen (1904)
One of the few authors whose ventures into cosmic horror predated Lovecraft, Machen, alongside writers such as Blackwood, had a huge hand in the shaping of weird horror. Having grown up in the Welsh countryside, Machen developed a deep interest in faerie folklore, an interest he commonly wove into his folk horror. The faerie, contrary to modern popular culture, was not always a benevolent figure. Far from it, in fact. The jolly woodland spirit persona arose during the Victorian Age, a result of cultural appetites at the time and a response to the Industrial Revolution. Popular characters from children’ s literature such as J.M. Barrie’s “Tinker Bell” further exacerbated this change. Machen’s faeries and trolls are, by comparison, much more fitting avatars of a natural world under siege. His most famous faerie story – and arguably his best story period – follows the diary entries of a girl who details her encounters with the titular “white people” and the realm of eternal night they herald from.
Read the full story here: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601371h.html
“Gavon’s Eve” – E.F. Benson (1906)
Benson is second only to the master, M.R. James, in his contributions to the ghost story tradition. Where James often relies on the power of suggestion to make the reader feel the presence of his stories’ apparitions, Benson’s supernatural nasties are a much more tangible, visceral force. Stories like “Negotium Perambulans” and “The Face” feature monstrosities that operate not on very human grudges or bloody morals, but on unspoken pathologies their human victims could never comprehend. “Gavon’s Eve” offers a departure from this trend in Benson’s work, following two fishermen who suspect an old witch in their village plans to perform a profane ritual on Halloween night.
Read the full story here: https://www.lecturiels.org/lecturiel/0638.pdf
“The Willows” – Algernon Blackwood (1907)
Blackwood, one of my favorite authors, is among the late 19th- and early 20th-century authors who popularized weird horror, a rather broad category that blends horror with other speculative genres like science fiction and/or fantasy. Blackwood’s best-known works, though, are his many ventures into the realm of folk horror. Works such as “Secret Worship” (1908), “The Wendigo” (1910), and “Ancient Lights” (1912) feature many core tenets of the subgenre, such as secluded rural settings and old-world superstitions. But his most famous contribution to the genre is without a doubt his magnum opus, “The Willows.” During a canoe trip down the massive Danube River, two men gradually realize that they’ve attracted the attention of things not from this world.
Read the full story here: https://algernonblackwood.org/Z-files/Willows.pdf
“The Music on the Hill” – Hector Hugh Munro (1911)
Munro – pen name “Saki” – is renowned for his satire of upper-class British culture through the short story form. He used his masterful brand of wit and black humor to deliver cutting social commentary, communicating a wealth of depth in relatively few words. Though not as prolific in the horror genre, his handful of dapplings in the genre are as perfect as the bulk of his resume. His most famous horror short story follows a recently married woman through her brief stay in the English countryside, and it shows how her disrespect toward the land’s moss-cloaked effigies provokes the ire of powers old and fierce.
Read the full story here: https://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/MusHil.shtml
“A Warning to the Curious” – M.R. James (1925)
A list of classic supernatural horror stories wouldn’t be complete without old Monty. Originally a provost at King’s College Cambridge, James wrote ghost stories as a pastime at first and only shared these stories with a handful of colleagues and students at Christmas Eve gatherings on campus. James is credited with popularizing many mainstay tropes in the ghost story genre, most notably the use of cursed artifacts and heirlooms as a means of inviting ancient supernatural forces into contemporary settings. Along with “Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad,” this seaside terror is considered one of his finest. The story follows Paxton, an antiquary who discovers and unearths one of three Anglian crowns buried near a coastal English village. Unfortunately for Paxton, the crown has a fierce protector–and not a human one.
Read the full story here: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0605921h.html
“Randalls Round” – Eleanor Scott (1929)
A professor (and later principal) by trade, Scott isn’t as prolific as some of the other authors on this list, but her contributions to the horror genre are no less brilliant. Her horror collection–named after the titular story–explores similar themes of isolated communities and their taboo customs. Said titular story is its most enduring installment. In it, an Oxford student visits a town in the English countryside to study a recent revival in its pre-Christian traditions. The ritual–a dance around a maypole adorned with fur and horns–strikes him as unnerving but ultimately harmless. That is until he learns the town festivities are a mere rehearsal for much more sinister rites under the cover of night.
Listen to the full story here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1UbRNt9brptkWRjsHRXVIj
“The First Sheaf” – H.R. Wakefield (1940)
Compared to James and other practitioners of the ghost story, Wakefield has been sadly forgotten since the turn of the century. I’ve mentioned in earlier lists that he may be my favorite writer of folk horror, and a big reason is his immense trust in the reader to fill in whatever blanks he deliberately leaves. This minimalist style for horror imbues his work with a somber, creeping atmosphere of dread that’s addictive to lovers of quiet horror like myself. In no story of Wakefield’s is his skill in suggestion better illustrated than in this one. In it, a vicar visits a rural parish that has recently experienced a severe drought only to find the locals want nothing to do with his religion. The more he pries, the more he suspects the townsfolk have resorted to more ancient means to alleviate their burden.
Read the full story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys76M7DobRg
“Ringing The Changes” – Robert Aickman (1955)
If Wakefield was a master of suggestion, then Aickman was a master of the uncanny. His works had, and still have, a tremendous influence on the atmosphere of modern weird fiction and domestic horror. His ability to delicately craft everyday settings whose moods are ever so slightly off is unparalleled. In his most famous work, a young pair of newlyweds visits a gloomy seaside town populated with an abnormal number of bell towers. One by one the bells begin to ring, the sound escalating into a town-wide clamor. At first, they brush it off as one of the town’s weird quirks, until a frantic resident warns them of the bells’ true purpose. This is, in my opinion, one of the greatest zombie stories ever written.
Read the full story here: https://xpressenglish.com/our-stories/ringing-the-changes/
“In The Hills, The Cities” – Clive Barker (1984)
To limit Barker to the moniker of “horror writer” is to do him an immense disservice. Among the multitude of dark fantasy authors whose work is falsely categorized as fantasy horror, Barker’s beautiful nightmare odysseys are some of the only fictions I consider truly worthy of the term. His ability to walk the line between beauty and horror, fantasy and bitter reality, have spawned fictional worlds that I can confidently say are like nothing else in the genre. My favorite story of his opens with Mick and Judd, a gay couple traveling through the Yugoslavian countryside. Though their relationship is in its infancy, the two have quickly found each other incompatible, their interactions giving way to bitter, uncomfortable standoffs. Backdropping this domestic conflict is a far larger one, a periodical war between communities that culminates in one of the most original ideas I’ve ever come across in horror fiction. This story is a must-read for any horror fan, seamlessly combining body horror spectacle with nuanced interpersonal conflict and brilliant socio-political commentary.
Read the full story here: https://midcenturymiskatonic.tumblr.com/post/87329239958/in-the-hills-the-cities-1984-by-clive-barker
If you’re craving more folk horror, check out these stories in our archive: