Picture this: a sixth-century Welshman places a leek on his helmet before going into battle. No, this isn’t an act of physical comedy – for those who participated in the custom, it was quite serious indeed. This is just one of the anecdotes readers will find in A Feast of Folklore: The Bizarre Stories Behind British Food by Ben Gazur.
Gazur has been interested in folklore since he was a child. An enthusiastic reader of British magazine Fortean Times, the esoteric stories found in its pages fascinated him. He didn’t realize how many people felt the same, however, until he discovered the #FolkloreThursday trend on X.
Inspired by those connections, his released his new book in late 2024.
“I love food, and I love folklore – so it seemed quite natural to bring the two together,” Gazur explains via email. “I liked the idea of focusing on the folklore of food because it is so personal. We all need to eat, and that has always been the case. When people in the past needed a cure, or a way to keep evil away, sometimes the only things they had to use were the things in their cupboards. The things that people used food for turned out to be very weird, such as curing warts by rubbing them with bacon, and the more I looked the weirder things became.”
To research the book, Gazur had to dig into “old and obscure” sources. Fortunately, he found no shortage of those. Even for time periods for which historical records are lacking, the remnants of folklore tell us what those people believed and, to some degree, how they lived.
“For instance, a lot of food folklore exists about curing children of whooping cough. That’s not a disease that particularly fills us with dread anymore. However, based on the sheer number of cures and rituals invented to help it, we know how terrifying it must have been in those times.”
A large part of his creative process involved narrowing down what he could reasonably include between two covers.
“Sitting in the library surrounded by these books was one of the best times of my life. Instead of searching out enough information to write my book I found myself with too many notebooks filled with too many facts I wanted to share.” The sheer volume of folklore regarding bread, he notes, could take up an entire tome in itself, as bread has been a household staple for so many years. For example, some believed there were supernatural creatures that needed to be fed by throwing a crust of bread over the left shoulder. “There is a whole field of folklore dedicated to rituals to make sure your bread bakes properly, too.”
A Feast of Folklore is Gazur’s third book. It is typical for him to go down rabbit holes in his research, he says, but that was especially the case here. “With this book, I seemed to always be turning up interesting historical oddities that I wanted to track down to their source. Folklore is a shifting thing that you can never really tame…”
Fortunately for Gazur, plenty of readers are equally enthralled by the bizarre beast that is British legend. “I have been so happy that other people have seemed to enjoy the history of food folklore as much I have. I thought it would be a very niche book!”
As for the popularity of folklore in general, the scribe has some theories on the widespread appeal; these ancient tales and traditions manage to feel universal and personal all at once, and every family has its own traditions – including Gazur’s. “My Nan thought Lucozade and eggy bread could cure any illness.”
At the same time, some beliefs seem to transcend generations and geography. “How many people toss salt over their shoulder when they spill it?”
What’s more, folklore is its own kind of magic. These little rituals, mundane or silly as they may be to some, can add some sparkle and hope to a difficult time. “You might not be able to control what’s going on in the world outside, but by performing a little folklore rite, you feel like you can ward off some of the bad stuff.”
Gazur is currently working on his next book, but – due to his own personal superstitions – he’s mum on the details. “You don’t want to upset the publishing gods!”
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