Review: 'Queer as Folklore: The Hidden Queer History of Myths and Monsters' by Sacha Coward

There is something inherently transgressive and seductive about folklore, about all the monsters and creatures, both good and evil, which may hide in the nooks and crannies of our culture. In Queer as Folklore Sacha Coward traces both how queer people find comfort in folklore and how folklore itself builds on the queer. Thanks to Unbound and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 5/11/2024
Publisher: Unbound

Queer as Folklore takes readers across centuries and continents to reveal the unsung heroes and villains of storytelling, magic and fantasy. Featuring images from archives, galleries and museums around the world, each chapter investigates the queer history of different mythic and folkloric characters, both old and new.

Leaving no headstone unturned, Sacha Coward will take you on a wild ride through the night from ancient Greece to the main stage of RuPaul’s Drag Race, visiting cross-dressing pirates, radical fairies and the graves of the ‘queerly departed’ along the way. Queer communities have often sought refuge in the shadows, found kinship in the in-between and created safe spaces in underworlds; but these forgotten narratives tell stories of remarkable resilience that deserve to be heard.

Join any Pride march and you are likely to see a glorious display of papier-mâché unicorn heads trailing sequins, drag queens wearing mermaid tails and more fairy wings than you can shake a trident at. But these are not just accessories: they are queer symbols with historic roots.

To truly understand who queer people are today, we must confront the twisted tales of the past and Queer as Folklore is a celebration of queer history like you've never seen it before.

I have adored fairy tales, folklore, legends, and myths for as long as I can remember. And I fully believe that reading them was foundational to who I am, what I value, and how I live my life. It is how I ended up now working with medieval material, much of which features similar creatures, motifs, and tropes. I have read a few books on fairy tales now, ranging from new collections, adaptations, to discussions of the tradition itself. I'd especially recommend The Fairy Tellers by Nicholas Jubber, for those interested in the tradition of fairy telling. I think that everyone who has encountered fairy tales, especially the wilder, darker, more outrageous ones, has a sense that they play with the taboo, the forbidden, the odd, the queer. They give a voice to forbidden desires, to unseemly wishes, and to hopeful dreams. So when I saw Sacha Coward's Queer as Folklore, I immediately connected to what he wanted to do. 

Throughout this book, Coward explores various creatures, from the famed werewolf and vampire, to the mermaid, unicorn, and robot from a queer perspective. This is very much a book written for queer readers, in the sense that it gives them the space to see themselves reflected in the broad tradition of fairy tales and folklore. Coward mostly focuses on European folklore and addresses why in the introduction. Folklore exists across the world, but it is marked by the cultures from which it emerges. This cannot necessarily translate easily into another culture and not wanting to appropriate or misconstrue, the focus is on Europe and the West. I think this is a very valid reason and explained well by Coward, but I do hope someone writes the book on the other folklores soon, because it is a crucial piece for someone interested in folklore like myself. I enjoyed a lot of Coward's takes on the folklore and for a solid 60%, I'd say, his queer reading was apt and appropriate. I even followed him wholly when it came to including more "modern" folklore creatures like the robot, where he made a good case for its inclusion in the book. The other 40% however, I sometimes felt like he was reaching a little with his connections. At times he even stated this himself, that he saw a connection somewhere but appreciated it was open to interpretation. The nice thing about this is that it makes folklore something very open and accessible, something everyone gets to look at, work with, and use. But for a book that might be read by readers as "the word" on queerness in folklore, that stretching needed more scaffolding.

As someone who (just about) ekes out a living in academia, I have become used to a certain kind of writing style. When I write articles, or when I'm working on my PhD, I need to reference almost every claim I make, by referring to the work of other scholars or directly to the primary material from which my claim stems. Popular knowledge books, such as Queer as Folklore but also, for example Feeding the Monster by Anna Bogutskaya, do not need to reference to the same extent, or even at all. They get to claim things and make grand statements in ways I am deeply uncomfortable with, as a hopeful academic. This is in no way a critique of Coward and his work, it is clear that he has done his research, cares deeply about the material, and does not want to make incorrect statements. But when it comes to material I am familiar with, specifically Old Norse literature, I can't help but be a little piqued when statements are made of which I can't trace the origin. This came up when Coward discusses the poem Þrymskviða, in which Thor's hammer is stolen and he cross-dresses as a woman to retrieve it, and compares it to the Red Riding Hood fairy tale. I did some digging and this is apparently discussed by Iona and Peter Opie in their book The Classic Fairy Tales. It might be that, tracing folktales back to their motifs etc. one arrives at a common folktale type with the two, but they are two vastly different kinds of texts, and so this kind of stuck with me. But again, this is a me thing because I am used to a particular way of writing about these materials. Coward does provide references and background information, but Queer as Folklore is more of an introduction to this kind of material, from which you yourself need to take the next step.

A thing to end on, however, is something I immensely enjoyed about Queer as Folklore, which is Sacha Coward's clear passion for the material and his genuine love for his audience. Coward wants his readers to feel embraced by the material, to keep that door towards the magical, odd, and beautiful open to them. My own experience within academia means that I am familiar with the gatekeeping which can take place, where certain texts or ideas are considered capital-C Culture and therefore not for the masses. Vice versa, some material is considered low brow and therefore not given the same cultural cache that other works receive. Folklore straddles this divide, on the one hand something "of the people" and on the other something adored by parts of academia. Queer as Folklore is a relevant work in making sure folklore remains of the people, remains alive to us today and not something hidden and sanitised in books. While I have my issues with some connections and what feels like a lack of referencing to me, Queer as Folklore is an excellent introduction to folklore considered through a specific lens. If you're already familiar with a lot of folklore it might not hold a whole lot of new material, but it might suggests a new way of reading it. If you are new to folklore, take this as your starting point and enjoy digging for more info, more tales, and more delight.

I give this book...

4 Universes

Queer as Folklore is a delightful read, a book on folklore written with passion both for the tales and for their readers. The book is as much Coward's love letter to folklore as to the queer community.