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Richard 'Dickie' Doyle (1824-83): Teasing a Butterfly

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2022-09-25

John Dickson Batten (1860-1932) initially studied law before realising he'd chosen the wrong career. His subsequent paintings contained mythological & allegorical motifs which ultimately steered him toward illustrating fairy tales, nursery rhymes & nonsense tales.

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2022-09-25

In the Solway Firth, a mermaid fell in love with a sailor whom she rescued when his ship ran aground. She slipped a gold ring on his finger and promised to return, but after many years, he died, alone.


: Arthur Rackham

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2022-09-25


Illustrations for Robert Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Kate Greenaway (1846-1901.) Note the 18th century costumes in a Queen Anne style, so beloved by Greenaway, and known as the Kate Greenaway style.

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2022-09-25

In northern counties of England it was said that if you swept the dust from the house out of the front door then you'd effectively be sweeping all the house's luck and good fortune with it.

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2022-09-18

Witches' Kitchens by Hieronymus Francken II (between 1593 and 1623), Frans Francken the Younger (1610), David Teniers the Younger (between 1630 and 1690), and Francisco Goya (1797-98)

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2022-09-18

There is a place in the ocean where Neptune stores the heart of every whale that came to rest, at the end of its days, on the floor of the sea. A locket of sorts in lieu of the absent hearts of men.


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2022-09-18

"The very best of cooks are sorcerers, wizards, shamans and tricksters. They must be, for they are capable of powerful acts of transformation.
-Midori Snyder - In Praise of the Cooks

Alchemists in workshop engraving 1580

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2022-09-11

“The ripest fruit first falls...”
Richard II, Act 2, Sc 1

Image: The Crab-Apple Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker, 1926

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2022-09-11

In nasu baba is a with dark purple skin and the features of an ugly old woman resembling an eggplant with teeth. She haunts a temple complex on Mount Hiei, usually lurking in dark rooms to avoid being seen. Despite her wild and...

1/2

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2022-09-11



"Moshup was the first schoolmaster. From his home on the Cliffs he taught the people respect.... He also taught us to be charitable - for when he had great stores of fish he gave of his abundance." --a tribal member

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2022-09-11

Christina Rossetti's ‘Goblin Market’ tells the story of an encounter between Laura & Lizzie & goblin merchants. Laura exchanges a lock of her hair to taste the goblins’ forbidden fruit & deteriorates till she is ‘knocking at Death’s door’ https://t.co/HeSTxcb51O

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2022-09-11


The contents of Pandora’s Box has been likened to the story of the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden in Biblical lore, w/the “sin” of the knowledge of good & evil being likened to hindsight or afterthought (Epimetheus) thus robbing one of “innocence.”

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2022-09-11

According to legend, eating food offered to you while visiting fairyland, makes it impossible to ever leave and go back home. By consuming fairy food, Faerie becomes a part of you and thus you'll have to stay there forever.

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2022-09-11

Here's how Queen Medb of Connacht met her end! No more stealing bulls for her (Cattle Raid of Cooley)! A piece of hard from the slingshot of vengeful warrior Furbaide pierced her skull! He sought revenge for the death of his mother! 🎨 🧀

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2022-09-11

Central Asian lore has tales of the Vegetable Lambs of Tartary: sheep that grow from plants. They stay connected to the plant by stems resembling umbilical cords & can only graze as far as the cords allow. Once all nearby plants have been eaten, the sheep die.

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2022-09-11

in Jim Henson's Labyrinth our heroine is offered a peach 🍑. From Hades pomegranate to Rossetti's The Goblin Market... Accepting food from the Fae will tie you to their world
And here my own version of "As the world falls down" ↘️🎵 https://t.co/1D3drtGPKf

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2022-09-06

Eyebright is used to treat almost all eye ailments. Lore tells how the linnet first used eyebright to clear the sight of its young, & then gave the knowledge to humans. A few drops on the eyelids will bring prophetic dreams in sleep & reveal that which is hidden.

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2022-09-05

- Celtic Balor & the Fomorians mean the powers of darkness, evil & death. Balor was the king of the Fomorians. Like the Cyclops, he had only one magical eye ("the evil eye,") & it was his greatest weapon. One glance from his eye could kill.
https://t.co/S6sue7bQpC

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2022-09-04

In Latin American folklore La Patasola is a predatory supernatural woman preying on males. She has only one foot or leg and appears to her victims as a beautiful woman often taking on the likeness of a victim’s loved one https://t.co/LcfTDjBs1h

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2022-09-04