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- Convenors:
-
Lotta Leiwo
(University of Helsinki)
Eiríkur Valdimarsson (Research Centre Strandir - The Folklore Institute)
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Short Abstract
This panel examines historical climate and weather narratives to reveal cultural attitudes and practices, informing current climate responses. It invites papers on vernacular expressions, mediums, and formats used to convey these narratives, aiming to deepen understanding of nature and weatherlore.
Long Abstract
Climate and weather penetrate all aspects of life on Earth. Narrating, imagining, and forecasting weather are cultural means for understanding and navigating the ever-changing conditions they bring. Throughout history, climate and weather have been used to explain and describe material and imaginative worlds, human experiences, events, and causation. Amid the ongoing climate crisis, research often focuses on present-day climate and weather narratives. However, studying these narratives historically can offer insights into cultural attitudes and practices that might inform present-day responses to climate change. It can also help us to understand the scale of these crises, as old local weather knowledge has become, in some cases, invalid within one generation due to changes in weather. This panel goes beyond the narrow understanding of weatherlore as merely folk beliefs about weather forecasting by exploring how climate and weather have been narrated, comprehended, represented, sensed, and (re-)imagined in vernacular expressions in the past. We also invite papers that discuss different formats and mediums used to convey these narratives in various contexts. By focusing on climate and weather narratives in the past, the panel aims to elaborate on comprehensions, vernacular vocabulary, and conceptions of nature.
We invite scholars from diverse disciplines to reflect on the following themes:
Mediums, functions, formats, structures, and practices
Vernacular weather predictions
Seasonal cycles
“Natural” and “unnatural” weather events
Spiritual, ritual, religious perspectives
Material, imaginative, and intangible aspects
Non-human interactions with weather
Methodological approaches
Effects of climate change on old weather narratives
Further questions related to climate and weather narratives
Accepted papers
Session 1 Tuesday 16 June, 2026, -Paper short abstract
Oral traditions in the Breton language (Western France) rarely mention extreme weather events. The references to the 'Great Winter of 1709' are an exception. This case invites us to analyse the unequal contribution of different folk genres to the study of climate narratives in the past.
Paper long abstract
Western Brittany – a region of Celtic culture and language in Western France – is known for its rich repertoire of oral traditions in the Breton language. Such folk narratives evoke a very large variety of themes related to everyday life. However, tales, legends or songs rarely mention climatic and weather events, excepted in the case of storms in the numerous folk narratives related to shipwrecks. Nevertheless, one unexpected event made such a lasting impression that it locally left a mark in oral memory: the ‘Great Winter of 1709’, an exceptionally cold winter that affected much of Europe and caused significant excess mortality. On a methodological level, a comparison of the different types of folk narratives collected in Brittany during ethnographic surveys since the nineteenth century invites us to analyse the unequal quality of the memory of such a traumatic event according to folk genres. Only ballads recorded from oral tradition until the end of the twentieth century preserve precise historical elements unquestionably related to the ‘Great Winter of 1709’. The climatic situation is not the main topic but it is essential to understand the tragic story related in the song, and it explains why several verses are dedicated to a climatic description. The different known versions of this folk narrative can be compared with other written documents related to the same context and confirming the link with 1709. They therefore form an original and little-known complementary source for further ethnohistorical studies on this extreme climatic episode.
Paper short abstract
The paper explores Lithuanian meteorological and agricultural magic and the ways it was employed to communicate with mythical beings believed to be responsible for the atmospheric phenomena and harvest.
Paper long abstract
The current climate crisis may seem like a new phenomenon. However, pre-industrial societies, including rural Lithuanian communities, were even more vulnerable to climate changes, weather instability and natural disasters. Poor harvests resulting from bad weather often led to famine, which was frequently accompanied by epidemics such as the plague. Being dependent on nature and lacking rational means to control it, people resorted to magical measures. Therefore, various meteorological predictions, which allowed people to forecast the weather, and agricultural magic, used to influence future harvest on which people's survival depended, played a key role in vernacular culture. In Lithuanian mythology, atmospheric phenomena such as wind, rain and cold were perceived as personified mythical beings. It was also believed that certain insects and birds, as well as Christian saints and deceased ancestors, could influence the weather during the farming year and determine the abundance of future harvest. The paper will explore Lithuanian meteorological and agricultural magic and the ways it was employed to communicate with mythical beings believed to control atmospheric phenomena.
Paper short abstract
Hai-i-Alun is a Ballad narrating the birth of the Weather Goddess among the Karbis, a community living in Assam, the northeastern state of India. Although the ballad is the story of common people in the historic past, it has become a sacred part of the Karbi belief system.
Paper long abstract
Hai-i-Alun: The Ballad Narrating the Birth of the Weather Goddess
This ballad Hai-i-Alun, narrates the birth of the weather goddess of the Karbi tribe, which lives mainly in the Karbi Anglong Autonomous District of Assam, in India. It is a mythical ballad as Hai-I, the mortal lady, is believed to have taken the form of the weather goddess after her death.
Hai-i was a housewife happily married to her husband Long Teron. Their mothers fixed their marriage while they were still in their mothers’ wombs. She displeases a vendor by not accepting a sensuous proposal. This enrages him, and he goes to the king and bids him to make Hai-i his queen, as a beautiful woman like her is suited only to the king. The king then forcibly brings her after she refuses to leave her husband. The path through which she was dragged to the king’s place is shown by people in the form of a long mark on a huge rock. The king could not subdue her to be his wife, and she finally breathed her last. The chief priest sings this ballad at the rock with the mark of dragging at the advent of Spring, resulting in the downpour of rain. The other people can sing this ballad only after the singing by the chief priest at the capital of the kingdom.
It has been attempted in this paper to analyze the Karbi collective consciousness from a functionalist's point of view, as expressed in this ballad.
Paper short abstract
Vernacular weather prediction in Assamese culture represents a deep connection with ecological knowledge, oral traditions as well as community practice. As such, mythical wedding of frogs for initiating rain during drought-like conditions was related to decisions on agriculture and ritual practices.
Paper long abstract
Proverbs and riddles are an integral part of folklore and are closely related to Assamese society and culture. It reflects the community’s relationship with land and nature. Behind every folk belief or proverb, there seems to be the cultural characteristics and thoughts of a society.
Vernacular weather prediction in Assamese culture represents a deep connection with ecological knowledge, oral traditions as well as community practice. In the past, people were mostly dependent on environmental signs to anticipate seasonal changes and monsoon patterns like animals and insects’ behaviours, agriculture cycles and different atmospheric conditions. Croaking of frogs before rains, shifting of ants from lower to higher grounds, wedding of frogs for rain during drought-like conditions etc. were related to decisions on agriculture and ritual practices.
"Baisakhe megh uthile aharu nai dukhile"- are among many proverbs, riddles and agriculture songs integrated with weather signs articulating collective experience and act as mnemonic devices transmitting ecological knowledge across generations. The Assamese festival, particularly Bihu, coincides with the vernacular meteorology, integrating weather expectations into cultural performance, offerings and communal celebrations, highlighting the interconnected cosmos between plants, animals and human beings. Despite modern technology, many Assamese continue to rely on vernacular weather predictions till date.
This paper examines the Assamese vernacular weather predictions as a form of intangible cultural heritage that encodes ecological knowledge system and agrarian life. By articulating the practice of frog-wedding, this paper argues that such knowledge systems not only preserve cultural memory but also offer valuable insights into human-nature relationship in uncertainty.
Paper short abstract
The lecture explores the significance of weather and the understanding of its progression for Icelanders throughout the centuries. It examines various traditional methods of weather prediction, how this skill has evolved over generations, and the impact of climate change on such folkloric knowledge.
Paper long abstract
Icelanders live in a land where the weather can be extreme, dramatic, and breathtaking—sometimes all at once. In earlier centuries, people had to find ways to understand their surroundings and combine the appearance of the sky with experience, tradition, folklore, and instinct. This gave rise to a body of weather knowledge that ordinary people needed to navigate daily life.
The presentation explores traditional Icelandic weather forecasting, its various categories, and how folk beliefs and environmental knowledge intertwine. Through the speacker´s qualitative research on popular weather folklore, diverse forms of weather knowledge emerged—surviving the technological advances of the 20th century that largely replaced folk methods. The talk aims to examine these insights and highlight the role of weather folk knowledge in contemporary life, including how recent climate change has impacted traditional Icelandic weather wisdom.
Paper short abstract
Presentation examines the narratives surrounding the storms of 1868–1870 and the subsequent bark beetle outbreaks that reshaped the central Europe. It explores how foresters, officials and communities recounted these events, shedding light on cultural perceptions of climate and forest change.
Paper long abstract
In 1868 and 1870, two devastating windstorms struck Böhmerwald, felling vast tracts of spruce forest. Their aftermath unleashed one of the largest historical bark beetle gradations in Central Europe. This presentation examines how these storms and subsequent infestations were narrated in forestry reports, administrative correspondence, and financial accounts. Such narratives were not merely descriptive but framed the meaning of disaster, linked natural forces to morality or politics, and shaped the responses of forest management and local communities.
By analyzing these events, the presentation traces how climate and weather was conceptualized in a borderland environment where imperial forestry, local practices, and cultural understandings of nature intersected. The narratives reveal tensions between natural and “unnatural” weather, between human agency and natural forces, and between scientific forestry and vernacular weatherlore.
The study highlights how storm and bark beetle events became embedded in broader debates about order, resilience, and vulnerability in forest landscapes. It shows how the explanatory power of weather narratives was mobilized to understand ecological crises, legitimize interventions, and construct historical memory of catastrophe.
Placing these historical narratives in dialogue with current climate challenges demonstrates how local knowledge, perceptions of weather, and cultural framings of forest change can inform our understanding of today’s rapid shifts. Ultimately, the Böhmerwald storms and bark beetle gradation illustrate how climate and weather narratives mediate between natural disturbance, ecological transformation, and human meaning-making.
Paper short abstract
This presentation concerns the coastal population's experiences of weather during the 19th century. A study of diaries in which coastal farmers made regular notes about the impact of weather on everyday life during the changing seasons of the year, as well as collections of 19th century weatherlore.
Paper long abstract
I would like to present the thesis I began working with in the spring of 2025, which deals with people's experiences of weather in maritime environments. In my research, I return to the 19th century to explore the coastal population's experiences of weather using a wide variety of sources. My main interest concerns the diaries in which coastal farmers made regular notes about the impact of the weather on everyday life during the changing seasons of the year. I also explore collections of ‘weatherlore’ from the 19th century. These include stories about heat, cold, rainbows, the northern lights, sunshine, halos, fog and wind from different directions, as well as various types of weather signs in flora and fauna.
I will provide insight into my initial impressions of the archival material. My research questions concern the meaning of weather and coastal farmers' experiences of various weather phenomena. I am also interested in the embodiment of weather and the sensory impressions within the observations and predictions of the weather. Furthermore, I explore the emotions associated with different weather phenomena and the connections between weather and the ritual year that emerge in people's stories. Climate history data suggests that the 19th century was a period of cooling, which meant that winters became longer. I imagine that the coastal farmers' struggle with the climate is reflected in the diaries they left behind and that their stories of an unpredictable weather can give us new perspectives on the encounter with climate change in the Anthropocene.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines vernacular weather and climate knowledge in Solčavsko, Slovenian Alps. Drawing on ethnography and oral histories, it explores how past weather narratives and practices are challenged by disrupted patterns, raising questions of memory, temporality, sensing, and climate change.
Paper long abstract
In August 2023, Slovenia experienced devastating floods that severely affected Alpine regions, including Solčavsko, a remote municipality in the country’s far north. The area is defined by high-pasture agriculture, forestry, (agri)tourism, and outdoor activities. After the initial fear for lives, homes, and possessions, the local community showed remarkable solidarity: collective efforts rebuilt critical infrastructure and addressed the economic losses caused by the collapse of tourism.
Yet the aftermath was not only about immediate recovery or future fragilities (Rubio 2024). The floods also gave an impetus to renewed reflection on vernacular weather knowledge, rooted in generational memory, oral histories, and embodied environmental experience. In a place where references to the past, and even to notions of timeless harmony between land(scape), non-humans, and human carers (farmers), remain central to local discourse (Bajič 2023), disrupted patterns have created new ambiguities. Weatherlore, seasonal knowledge, and the skilled, multisensory relations to the environment are at once valued and unsettled.
What is the practical and symbolic role of vernacular weather knowledge in times of disruption and irreversible change? How can one “read” the weather when the “language” of the environment itself is shifting? And how do narratives of past weather events – preserved in memory and oral traditions – shape present understandings of climate uncertainties?
Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in Solčavsko between 2020 and 2025, this paper examines local understandings of “traditional” weather and climate knowledge in the context of anthropogenic environmental transformation.
Paper short abstract
The paper examines various ways of depicting nature, climate change, and the impacts of weather changes on the environment and human life in Ignacy Czerwiński's work, Okolica Zadniestrska (The Area Behind the Dniester River), considering the author's comments on local beliefs and folk tales.
Paper long abstract
Okolica zadniestrska (The Area Behind the Dniester River, 1811), the book of Ignacy Czerwiński, was recognised as the first Polish ethnographic monograph. The work includes: detailed descriptions of the topography of the territory and the hydrographic network, combined with etymological research known from old chronicles and chorography, accounts of the author's in situ observations concerning weather variability, the related condition of rivers and land, natural resources, and the noticeable impact of climatic and natural changes on the state of local agriculture. Czerwiński successfully combined a synchronic approach with a diachronic one – the description of phenomena observed today complements a chapter that includes reflections, which encompass not only the social history of the area but also the history of local nature. The author pointed out visible remnants from past centuries, including traces of human activity and natural processes, which are evident in changes to river beds, soil quality, and climate deterioration. Czerwiński also gives voice to the Boykos, the people inhabiting the Transnistrian region (using italics to cite their proverbs, for example). Apart from the etic perspective – that of the host and owner of the local villages – it is also possible to notice the emic perspective, which provides insight into folk beliefs and practices related to, among other things, the weather. Both the author and the Boykos he describes take seasonal cycles into account. Vernacular weather predictions and phenomena categorised by the local population as 'natural' and 'unnatural' weather events also play an important role in Czerwiński's findings.
Paper short abstract
This paper examines the writings of Finnish women in the context of early 20th century North American socialist movement and how they articulated their ideas about weather and belonging. It explores the interplay of socialist politics and settler coloniality within weather narratives.
Paper long abstract
At the turn of the century, nearly 400,000 Finns migrated to North America in pursuit of a wealthier and happier life. They played a significant role in the early 20th-century North American labor movement, with socialists aspiring to a post-capitalist world. In alignment with this vision, nature emerged as a recurring rhetorical theme in the Finnish-language socialist women’s newspaper Toveritar (The Woman Comrade), published from 1911 to 1930 in Astoria, Oregon.
The newspaper featured contributions from grassroots journalists, including stories, poems, political and entertaining articles, advice columns, and travel reports. Toveritar also welcomed letters from reader-writers reporting on local socialist activities. In these letters, many writers reported local weather and shared vernacular climate knowledge, narrating their sense of belonging and forging socialist visions. These weather narratives portrayed the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, and winter—as representatives of a socialist worldview, serving as political metaphors. Furthermore, the weather narratives included settler colonial and racist imagery, as well as attempts to adapt to new climates.
This paper explores how women writers articulated their concrete and abstract ideas about weather and demonstrates how socialist politics and settler colonial ideas are embedded in weather narratives. My presentation directly engages with the conference theme of “nature(s) in narrative” in the contexts of labour history, migration, and weather narratives to better understand how Finnish migrant-settler communities have narrated their sense of belonging and expressed their political ideas.