
Dr. Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a United Kingdom researcher and author on folklore and legend. She studied English Literature and Medieval Icelandic at Bedford College, University of London. Dr. Simpson has been, at various times, Editor, Secretary, and President of the Folklore Society. She was awarded the Society's Coote Lake Research Medal in 2008. In 2010 she was appointed Visiting Professor of Folklore at the Sussex Centre of Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy at the University of Chichester, West Sussex. She has a particular interest in local legends (as opposed to international fairytales), and has published collections of this genre from Iceland, Scandinavia in general, and England (the latter in collaboration with the late Jennifer Westwood). She has also written on the folklore of various English regions, and was co-author with Steve Roud of the Penguin Dictionary of English Folklore. She lives in West Sussex, England. She has been a point of reference for Terry Pratchett since he met her at a book signing in 1997. Pratchett, who was then researching his novel Carpe Jugulum, was asking everyone in the queue how many magpie rhymes they knew; and whilst most people gave one answer – the theme from the TV series Magpie – Simpson stated that she knew "about nineteen". This encounter eventually led to collaboration.
Series
Books

Everyday Life in the Viking Age
1967

Icelandic Folktales and Legends (Revealing History
1972

Green Men & White Swans
The Folklore of British Pub Names
2010

Lore Of The Land
A Guide To Englands Myths And Legends
2005

British Dragons
1980

The Folklore of Sussex
1973

The Penguin Book of Scandinavian Folktales
1989

A Dictionary of English Folklore
2000

European Mythology
1987

Sagas of the Norsemen
Viking and German Myth
1998