of 2006, the Catholic broadcaster on Dutch public television, KRO, screened the Lord of the Rings trilogy on prime time, three nights in a row 1 . The airing of this fantasy trilogy on the most important Christian holiday illustrates the typical twenty-first century take on spirituality and religion. The focal point of a Christian celebration (along, of course, with the joint family dinner) was a fantasy story depicting a world populated by elves, dwarves, and wizards, composed of fragments of Norse and Germanic mythology, Christian elements, European history, New Zealand nature, British nostalgia, Hollywood conventions, and much more. Indeed, to many viewers of this globally successful blockbuster trilogy, watching The Lord of the Rings is a spiritual experience, Christian or otherwise.The Lord of the Rings trilogy is not just a visual spectacle but also a multilayered narrative: it deals with the battle between good and evil, loyal friends, true heroes, vile villains, and as such is a traditional fantasy fairy-tale. But the story also involves supernatural powers, spiritual moments, fate, redemption, self-sacrifice, self-fulfilment, and, at the end (after all, Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic) the Return of the King. The KRO's choice to air these films on Christmas, therefore, was more than strategic programming of a film fit for the entire family on a family holiday. The Lord of the Rings speaks to modern-day spirituality, which has to some extent replaced traditional organized religion. The trilogy's worldwide success reveals the importance of popular culture for the display and construction of this contemporary spirituality. Even though the majority of Dutch viewers may not have gone to church on Christmas Eve or morn, they still could have their spiritual moment at home, in front of their television.A century after Max Weber, in 1905, announced the disenchantment of the world 2 , we seem to witness quite the opposite: a highly mediated re-enchantment of the world. New forms of spirituality, drawing on traditional Christianity as well as many other sources, flourish, and appear to partly replace tradition-organized

LivingTV's flagship series, Most Haunted, has been haunting the satellite network since 2002. The set-up of the series is straightforward: a team of investigators, including a historian, a parapsychologist, and "spiritualist medium" Derek Acorah, "legend-trip," spending the night at some location within the United Kingdom that is reputed to be haunted, with the hopes of catching on video concrete proof of the existence of ghosts. However, unlike other reality television or true-life supernatural television shows, Most Haunted includes and addresses the audience less as a spectator and more as an active participant in the ghost hunt. Watching Most Haunted, we are directed not so much to accept or reject the evidence provided, as to engage in the debate over the evidence's veracity. Like legend-telling in its oral form, belief in or rejection of the truth-claims of the story are less central than the possibility of the narrative's truth-a position that invites debates about those truth-claims. This paper argues that Most Haunted, in its premise and structure, not only depicts or represents legend texts (here ghost stories), but engages the audience in the debates about the status of its truthclaims, thereby bringing this mass-mediated popular culture text closer to the folkloristic, legend-telling dynamic than other similar shows.

The study of folklore and popular film and television, although frequently ignored by folkloristics and film scholars alike, has produced a number of articles and paradigms which not only inform its own study, but also other disciplines. This current study is a much-needed critical survey of the existing academic literature on the relationship between contemporary folkloristics and popular film and television.

The ® gure of the golem, the Jewish ª mud man,º has persisted not only in folklore, but in popular culture as well; not only in Jewish tradition, but in Gentile too; it has inspired not only horror writers, but also scientists, who see in this legend a metaphor for humanity's quest for the creation of life. One particular variation of this story is the focus of this paper: in February 1997, Fox Television's highly acclaimed weekly television show The X-Files told the story of the golem, but with certain new features added. These additions annoyed a number of fans, and they expressed their concerns on the Internet newsgroup, alt.tv.x-® les. Not all of the problems identi® ed by these tuned-in vernacular theorists were errors, I think; instead, they point to a number of issues concerning the nature of ª monstrosityº and ª horror.º In this case, those issues are framed within a Jewish context. This paper will begin with a brief overview of the legend of the golem, which, like most folk legends, exists in multiple forms. I hope to demonstrate that The X-Files episode should be regarded as one further variant of this legend. I also outline the objections many of the show's fans had to that particular episode, speci® cally the variance between The X-Files version and Jewish tradition. Finally, I will say why I feel these ª errorsº are not mistakes, but perhaps operate to de® ne the monstrous within Jewish culture. [1] ª Go ahead ¼ make my mitzvah!º (Dennis Terrell, on alt.tv.x-® les)

The study of folklore and popular film and television, although frequently ignored by folkloristics and film scholars alike, has produced a number of articles and paradigms which not only inform its own study, but also other disciplines. This current study is a much-needed critical survey of the existing academic literature on the relationship between contemporary folkloristics and popular film and television.