I was thrilled to be invited by the Folklore Society to give the annual Katharine Briggs Memorial Lecture in November 2022, and I took for my theme the power of stories. “I have loved folk- and fairy tales since I was a child and I’ve been writing and telling stories for most of my life, so when I received the Folklore Society’s invitation I knew I wanted to talk about the power stories have, for both good and ill, and about the different kinds of belief with which we approach them. So I shall be talking about the gruesome tales children tell each other at sleepovers, about legends and fairy tales, and about those stories handed down in families, communities and nations which confer a sense of common identity and pride – sometimes at the cost of excluding others.” To read the full text, visit my blog https://steelthistles.blogspot.com/2023/03/fenrirs-fetter-and-power-of-stories.html
or check out the live recording of the event on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID3KbgJiimw