Have you listened to our discussion about reinterpreting disability in folk and fairy tales through storytelling yet?
The show referred to in this episode has now taken place and I'll be releasing some of the video footage from it soon. It's a meaningful discussion - take a listen if you can.
If you wash your eyes with elder tree sap, it gives you the ability to see fairies. Similarly, Scottish #folklore says if you stand beneath an elder at Samhain you'll see the Wild Host. redbubble.com/shop/ap/3653... #FairytaleTuesday #wallart #art #mythology #homedecor #fairytale
Hawthorn trees are planted near homes for protection and are used for increasing intuition, fertility and to ward off negative influences. They are also home to the fey.
🎨Florence Anderson redbubble.com/shop/ap/4190... #FairytaleTuesday #vintage #art #illustration #folklore #mythology
The fair maid who, the first of May,
Goes to the fields at break of day,
And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree,
Will ever after handsome be.
🎨Arthur Rackham www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/3564... #FairytaleTuesday #art #folklore #illustration #vintage #fairytale #Spring26 #flowers
The first tulip bloomed from the blood of doomed lovers Farhad & Shirin. They represent deep love, rebirth & charity.
🎨Ida Rentoul Outhwaite redbubble.com/shop/ap/3762... #FairytaleTuesday #art #illustrationart #vintage #illustration #folklore #decor #gift #flowers #SpringVibes
In Irish folklore, the "Hare’s Corner" is a small, uncut section of a field left during meadow cutting & harvest as a sanctuary for hares. This tradition blended conservation with superstition, as hares were often feared as shape-shifting spirits or witches whose harm would bring misfortune
Guidebook to Arthurian Britain, Ashe, pg 8
One Twelfth century French writer quotes a poem about Arthur himself fighting it, and actually being slain by it, but he wore us this is a 'proven lie'.
After all, a large species of seal is still called a sea lion; the feline notion has lingered on. Whatever Palug's Cat was, it left a memory of terror.
But in the background of the Welsh legend there may be Irish ones about huge 'sea cats'. Some of these sound as if they are based on yarns told by sailors who had seen walruses.
A 'rational' explanation would be that the story grew round a leopard cub which escaped from a ship bearing exotic cargo to some rich chieftain.
This giant Anglesey cat is mentioned in several writings and spoken of as speckled. It began as a kitten that swam ashore from the Menai Strait. Palug's sons rescued and raised it, finding too late that this was ill advised.
Palug's Cat
An early Welsh poem says that Cai (the Sir Kay of Romance) went to Anglesey and confronted a monster, Palug's Cat, which had eaten 180 warriors. The poem breaks off before making it clear which killed the other, although it seems to imply a win for Cai.
Photo of Kat
Image of the cover designs for the game GAST
The next episode of The Folklore Podcast should be hitting your feeds on Tuesday evening.
Join me as I chat with @loremistress93.bsky.social about folklore and games, and we profile the upcoming Folk Horror game GAST which will be on Backerkit from @hatchlingdm.itch.io very soon
Source: Fiske, Myth and Myth Makers pg:92
In Denmark it was believed that if a woman were to creep through a colts placental membrane stretched between four sticks, she would for the rest of her life bring forth children without pain or illness; but all the boys would in such case be werewolves, and all the girls Maras, or nightmares.
🏵️💘🏵️Marigold flowers symbolise constancy, and featured in a love charm that was said to ensure faithfulness - in secret, dig earth from a lover's footprint, place in a plant pot and sow marigold seeds over it.
#FolkyFriday #ValentinesDay
Goddess adorned with leaves and plants carrying a hair and surrounded by butterflies and an owl.
Welcome to Nollaig na mBan or Women's Little Christmas! In Ireland, traditionally the day when women were "allowed" to rest and not do any chores for the rest of the household. But it was also the day (and still is) when women were celebrated in the community... #MythologyMonday 🎨Helena Nelson-Reed
Welcome to Bluesky.
Depiction of three water spirits in the castle pond (oil painting in green, purple and black)
Just me and my swamp sisters chilling by the pond on Sunday evening
✨🪷✨
Illustration: Anna Kanfer
#swampsunday #artsky
Photo from the late 1800's of the Chesser family of Chesser Island in the Okefenokee Swamp. Photo: US Fish and Wildlife Service
Photo taken in 1999 showing where the large burial mound beside the Chesser Family home on Chesser Island of the Okefenokee Swamp once stood. Photo by Tara D. Fields.
Okefenokee swamper, Tom Chesser, stated he unearthed 13 giant skeletons contained in a burial mound in the 1920s. SE Native Americans had tales of a giant race who lived in the swamp. What happened to the skeletons Tom found is unknown! (1/3) #SwampSunday #Okefenokee #SouthernFolklore
Illustration by Matthew Meyer of a fish dressed in a monk's robe wearing a conical hat and holding prayer beads. It is standing beside a river with a forest behind.
In #JapaneseFolklore iwana bozu are char (a type of river fish) who grow to an enormous size and transform into #yokai. They are able to shapeshift into human form, dress in Buddhist priest's robes, walk and talk. Mostly they approach people who are fishing in rivers to ask them...
#SwampSunday
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To study the Long Neolithic is to study the duration of intimacy. Not just the intimate relationships people have had with the stones for millennia, but often the intimate relationships stones have with each other. Lithic tensions, power dynamic alignments. – Dr. K. Brophy #StandingStoneSunday
🎨 Unknown 貓之為獸，其性屬火，故善升喜戲，畏雨惡濕，又善驚，皆火義也，與虎同屬寅。或謂貓屬丁火，故尤靈於夜 ~《貓苑》
In ancient Chinese culture, the cat is considered a creature of the fire element, which is why it enjoys climbing and playing, but fears rain and dislikes dampness. Cats are also easily startled, all of which are traits associated with fire. #caturday
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Medeina, (Lithuanian for "tree" or "forest"), is one of the main goddesses in Lithuanian #mythology, & similar to Latvian Meža māte (Forest Mother). 🌳 She is a ruler of #forests, trees & animals. Her sacred animal is a hare. 🐇
Young Hare, by Albrecht Dürer ca 1502 #FolkyFriday
#FolkyFriday
Did you know there were once dragons in Somerset, well Gurt Worms at least. If you visit Crowcombe and the Church of the Holy Ghost you can still see a wood carving of brave Somerset folks fighting the Worm.
If you are ever in Shervage wood on the Quantocks and find an egg, Run!
The earliest and most common folklore story accounting for the origin of "hunt the wren" tells of a fairy/enchantress/witch whose beauty lures the men of the Isle of Man to harm, for which she is chased and is changed into the form of a wren.
Further justification for this possible root to the custom is sometimes seen in the wren's status as 'The king of all birds,' as it is described in both the Hunt the Wren song and independently in Manx folklore.
It has been suggested that the tradition probably originates in sacrificial practices due to the reverence with which the wren is held outside of this one day of the year, and the value given to obtaining one of the bird's feathers.
