QED rewatch: Fairies, Folklore and Forteana (2023)

Human beings are storytelling creatures. Stories are the way we make sense of the world, the events that affect our lives, and the things that keep us awake at night. For centuries, societies across Europe have told tales of fairies, nymphs and other fae creatures that might cross our paths… occasionally with ill intent. Legends have been shared of the monsters that are said to inhabit the shadows at the edges of society, and at the edges of our psyche, as a warning to any who might stray from the light. And just because some of those stories aren’t true, that doesn’t mean they aren’t meaningful - even an untrue story can tell us something about the things we dread.

In this panel discussion from QED 2023, Dr David Clarke, Deborah Hyde, Claire Klingenberg, and Hayley Stevens discussed the strange tales that have caught the imagination of people throughout history, and what those stories tell us about society’s hopes, fears and anxieties.

Tickets for QED 2024 are available now, priced £164 for the weekend, or just £45 for the live stream.