On the eve of Candlemas, witches dance at the crossroads, a liminal time at the end of winter before the last feast of Christmastide.
For our last #winterfolklore story, we go to the west of France in the 16th century and hear a grim tale of theirs.
Read it below.
🎨 Rosalie Lettau
"On the day of Bride of the white hills
The noble queen will come from the knoll,
I will not molest the noble queen,
Nor will the noble queen molest me"
A Highland charm to pacify adders on Imbolc. What if the adder is something older?
Find out in our 24th #winterfolklore story below
🎨Vreymouth
Tonight might be one of the last nights of this winter when the the hounds of the Otherworld run with the Wild Hunt – but who makes sure they return to Annwn when winter is over?
We go to the hills of Powys in our 23rd #winterfolklore and find out.
Read the story below.
🎨 Barbara Baldi
Tonight the karakış, winter’s longest black nights end and so does the time when the Karakoncolos walks, a hairy Winter demon, a riddler, a trickster from Turkish folklore.
We meet him in 1950s' Istanbul in our 22nd #winterfolklore tale, written for poet @lenaozge.bsky.social
Read it below!
Build an automaton and bring her to life with ancient magic - what could possibly go wrong?
You guessed it, "human factor" - but is it the machine's fault?
Read our 21st #winterfolklore story of Marvellous Metharme, the Maschinenbauer and Doctor Ambrosisus Wanzenbock the Thaumaturge of Göttingen
In old Wagria, ironically called Holstein Switzerland today because of the hills and woods, there is a huge lake. Plöner See. And in the Plöner See is a spot that does not freeze in Winter, they say... water folk used to live there once…
Read more in our 20th #winterfolklore tale ⬇️
🎨 Le Rolland
A week until Candlemas when our last #winterfolklore tale will be told.
I’ve a set of similar stories prepared for spring – but do you want so see in February?
Golden Age of Illustration? Picturesque darkness in oil from the long 19th century? Just assorted melancholy?
Tell me in the comments!
“Weel done, Beira!” ... meeting a Queen of Winter on Burns Night, a one just like today?
We do, of course, in our 19th #winterfolklore tale, which brings us to Argyll and Bute in Scotland.
Read it below!
🎨 Pavel Klementev
More than a seasonal decoration... holly keeps malign spirits at bay all through the bleak midwinter.
And of course we have a tale to tell about it. Meet Domča of the bohyně from the hills of Moravia and hear what she does with holly in our 18th #winterfolklore tale.
Read it below!
🎨Ivanowski
Really glad to hear that :-) ... and if you want more, you can find the other 50-odd tales under the # #winterfolklore & #yulefolklore!
Every now and then, Wolves appear as guardinas of liminal spaces in folktales.
In our 17th #winterfolklore tale we go to the slopes of El Turbón in the Pyrenees and meet three of them being just that.
And they take their job seriously – read their story below!
🎨 Christophe Chabouté
Inoshishi, the wild boar, is a creature of courage and strength, revered in Shinto tradition and with a firm place in tales of the uncanny.
And sometimes, he talks – about what?
Find out, in our 16th #winterfolklore tale below
🎨 Ohara Koson
Yellow Winter Skies, liminal Spaces and crows... that’s the stuff our 15th #winterfolklore tale is made of.
And do they really give wings to a consequential invention made in Glasgow?
Find out and read the story below.
🎨 Anna Törnquist
John Everett Millais "St Agnes Eve" (1855) - Delicate black-and-white drawing of a young woman standing on a stone step at an arched window, seen in profile and from behind. Wrapped in a long nightgown, she holds a candle and gazes out at a snowy village of steep roofs and bare trees, the cold winter scene framed by the dark interior of the window recess.
“St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!”, John Keats wrote in 1819 and since today is the day, we take a look at the divinations made by unwed girls on that liminal date and, like the poet, feel the past creep up on us, in our 14th #winterfolklore tale. Quite literally.
Read it below!
🎨 Millais
In the Eastern Baltics, owls are said to herald death and carry souls to the afterlife.
Here, Snowy owls are liminal creatures, flying silently on the borders between life and death.
Some may still have a job in this role... our 13th #winterfolklore tales is #owlishmonday material!⬇️
🎨 Kyle McQueen
The Korrigan are the Little People of Brittany. Anger them and you might be in for a very, very long winter stroll.
Our 12th #winterfolklore story is another cautionary tale, this time from the famed Forest of Brocéliande – read it below. At your own peril.
🎨 Serge Lassus
Today is Old Wassail and Here's to thee, old apple tree...
Some places have very, very old wassailing customs, though, and we go to the West Country on Old Twelvey to witness such a one in our 11th #winterfolklore tale.
Read it below.
🎨 Arthur Rackham
"This is the chase: I am gone for ever.
[Exit, pursued by a bear.]"
quoth Antigonus in "A Winter's Tale".
Today, we have yet another wintry tale for you, of straw bears and those for-ever bears who can make you weep in our 10th #winterfolklore tale – read it below!
A deal struck in the shadow of a standing stone on the Mull of Kintyre... and the hat a fairy wore.
Our 9th #winterfolklore tale brings us to the west of Scotland in the middle of a snow storm and right into the clutches of the Unseelie.
Read the story below.
🎨 Joseph Farquharson
In the Middle Ages, they had the Feast of the Ass on 14 January, allegedly to celebrate the Donkeys of the Scriptures.
We go back to the days of the Hundred Years’ War in our 8th #winterfolklore tale and meet an ass for the occasion.
What she brays is a hearty “hee-haw”, of course… is it?
Foxgloves are said to grow where the fae gather, but famously foxgloves do not bloom in winter.
Or do they?
Let's join Mair the Witch in our 7th #winterfolklore tale, go to a place where Cheshire and Gwynedd meet and have a closer look.
Read Mair's story below.
🎨 Le Rolland
Today is Plough Monday, the day when work begins anew after Yuletide has ended on Epiphany in the previous week.
But some find, traditions are a bit... too much.
Read our "Plough Monday" #winterfolklore story below
🎨 Clare Leighton
The Carmentalia, celebrated on this day in ancient Rome, are one of those forgotten holidays of forgotten deities or are they... not quite forgotten?
So we go to Italy today, where it all began, and maybe we have a chance to ask the Cumean Sibyl how it ends, in our 5th #winterfolklore tale below
A crane that once was a bride, dancing in the snows of the Hidaka Mountains and luring men to their death.
Our 4th #winterfolklore story brings us to Hokkaido today – read it below.
🎨 Utagawa Hiroshige
Guess who Ireland’s “Black Gentry” is.
And if they leave their rookery is a sure sign of bad luck coming... but what if the rooks return?
Well, we’ll find out in our 3rd #winterfolklore tale. Read it below.
🎨 Carton Moore Park
A restrained black-and-white drawing set in a dim woodland. In the centre stands the Huldra, appearing as a young woman with a tail seen from behind, dressed in a simple, pale gown and headscarf. She pauses on a narrow path amid tall grass and uneven ground, her posture quiet and inward, as if listening. The surrounding forest is dense and softly textured, with dark trees and tangled undergrowth pressing close. Nothing overtly supernatural is visible.
Half-measures? When dealing with a Huldra, one of those beautiful but rather mischievous Scandinavian forest spirits? Thread warily, friends, it's all-in-time, lest...
Read all about it in our 2nd #winterfolklore story below!
🎨 Theodor Kittelsen
A quiet, monochrome drawing in charcoal-like tones. A woman sits in profile, turned slightly away from the viewer, her face partly hidden beneath a white bonnet. She works at a tall spinning wheel that fills most of the foreground, its circular rim catching the light in a pale halo against the surrounding darkness. One hand steadies the distaff of bundled flax, the other guides the thread as it twists. The background is largely in shadow, emphasising the simple figure, the old wooden wheel, and the meditative stillness of the act of spinning.
Yuletide is over today and work begins anew and since "work" meant "spinning" when you had nothing else to do for the female population back in the day, 7 January became known as St Distaff Day...
But what if your distaff was made by dark elves?
Read it in our first #winterfolklore story below
White Rabbit! White Rabbit! White Rabbit! for Good Luck and Happy New Year!
I trust you began the New Year as well as you could and it started as well as it should!
No story today, but a simple announcement – we continue to tell #WinterFolklore until Candlemas on 2nd February.
🎨 rainhowls
Christmas Bauble in deep red. Unwrapping the story of fruit in your christmas stocking. thesarahcoles.co.uk
🍊🎄 Why fruit in your Christmas stocking isn’t just tradition — it’s history! 🎄🍎
thesarahcoles.co.uk/unwrapping-t...
#ChristmasTraditions #HolidayHistory #FruitInStocking #FestiveCustoms #SeasonalStories #WinterFolklore #NatureAndTradition #ChristmasCheer
