So, according to this bit of folklore, if you hear a badger call, then hear an "Ullot" (an owl) hoot, you are not long for this world!

Another 200-year-old story says that badgers - like black cats - can bring bad luck or good luck. If the badger walks across the path that you have just walked on, you are in for very good luck. However, if the badger walks across the path in front of you, and if it happens to scrape up a bit of earth as it goes, then it is time for you to choose your coffin! The old rhyme goes like this:

Should a badger cross the path
Which thou hast taken, then
Good luck is thine, so it be said
Beyond the luck of men.

But if it cross in front of thee,
Beyond where thou shalt tread,
And if by chance doth turn the mould,
Thou art numbered with the dead.

Finally, some people believed that badgers could help to protect you against witchcraft! All you needed was some badger hair, and a bag made from the skin of a black cat. You also needed to be a bit of a star gazer . . .

"A tuft of hair gotten from the head of a full-grown Brock is powerful to ward off all manner of witchcraft; these must be worn in a little bag made of cat's skin - a black cat - and tied about the neck when the moon be not more than seven days old, and under that aspect when the planet Jupiter be mid-heaven at midnight."

I found the above stories in "The Badger", written by Ernest Neal in 1948. Do you know of any badger folklore? If you do, with the details, so that I can add to this page.