# shakespearesunday flowerfairy folklore plantfolklore botanicalfolklore armenia

"I used to meet her in the garden, the ravine, and in the manor fields. She was always picking flowers and herbs, those she knew her father could use for healing drinks and potions."

- Hans Christian Andersen's,
The Wind's Tale
🎨 Illustrated by Edmund Dulac

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2022-08-14

🌿🪶🌿Celandine was sometimes known as Swallow-wort, from the belief that swallows would feed the plant to their young to cure weak eyesight.

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2022-08-14

“When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight..”

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Image: The Lady’s-Smock Flower Fairy by Cicely Mary Barker

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2022-08-14


Toadflax (Linaria Vulgaris) is also known as Trwyn y Llo or Calf’s Nose in Wales.
In England, three Toadflax seeds strung on a linen thread were said to ward off evil.

🖼️The Estate of Cicely Mary Barker

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2022-08-14

In Mersin, Turkey, it was once believed that if a woman couldn't get pregnant, she should sit in the steam of a whole sunflower being boiled 🌻


🎨 Jessica Roux

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2022-08-14


Marsh mallow, a perennial plant found growing in damp marshland. Its pink & white flowers bloom in August/September signalling summer’s transition into autumn. Valued for its healing properties and in folklore for its links to benevolent fairy spirits.

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2022-08-14

Marriage of an Armenian woman, 1797, Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur

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2022-08-08

Shamshir-e Zomorrodnegār (translation: "Emerald-Studded Sword") appears in the Persian epic The Shahnameh. Only a magic potion can heal injuries caused by this sword. It's guarded by the demon Fulad-Zereh, because it's the only thing that can kill him.

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2022-08-07

In the Syrian tale "The Cat Who Went to Mecca," a mouse tries to congratulate a cat on his holy pilgrimage, believing it means he'll stop hunting mice. The cat tries to attack & the mouse declares, "He may pray like a Hajji, but he still pounces like a cat."

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2022-07-31


The Camino de Santiago, or "The Way of St. James" is a walk of pilgrims to what is believed to be the remains of St James located in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northwestern Spain. There are several routes in Spain, France and Portugal.

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2022-07-31

My drawing "The Green Fairy" linked to the green liquor Absinthe which green colour was enhanced originally with copper sulfate and antimony trichloride which caused toxicity and poisoning, and thus cause hallucinations (and green fairies of course)

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2022-07-25

🍎🌗🍓Accepting even the smallest morsel of food or drop of drink in the Otherworld means you will be trapped there forever - but within the mortal realm, declining such generosity from the Fae will cause great offence and end in curses or death for the refuser.

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2022-07-24

NEVER EAT FAIRY FOOD It is transformed by their use of GLAMOUR & made up of weeds or rotten fruit. Fairies themselves prefer stalks of heather & the milk of red deer🎨Mary Evans, A human girl is fed night mist scented with flowers; Rackham

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2022-07-24

Morning all, here, welcoming you to this Sunday’s theme:
REFRESHMENTS & ALCOHOL

Serve up your tweets about tea, cucumber sandwiches, Victoria sponge, gin & tonic & other delights to for a retweet!
(Image: Charles Maciver Grierson, c.1900)

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2022-07-24

In Germany it was believed that if you did not wash your face after seeing the first cuckoo of the year you would become sunburnt and covered in freckles.

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2022-07-17



Here Summer in her wheaten garland crown'd.
–Ovid, Metamorphoses, 2, 34.

🎨Alphonse Mucha.

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2022-07-17

The Celtic Otherworlds (such as the Welsh Annwn and the Irish Tír na nÓg) are often depicted as places of eternal youth and resplendent beauty, their trees heavy with fruit. Thus, they're sometimes referred to as the "Summerland" or the "Summer Country."

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2022-07-17

The Scottish Play is cursed by a real coven of witches, mad at Shakespeare for using a real spell in the play. Those who break the taboo of speaking it's name must undergo cleansing to be reinvited back into the theater so the play can be performed.

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2022-07-11



Poetry was once a hallowed profession the world over. It was associated with Brigid, goddess also of healing and blacksmithy. Irish and Scottish poets were possessed of powerful magics, such that their satires could steal the luck even from a king.

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2022-07-10

"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury. Signifying nothing."
Shakespeare, Macbeth

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2022-07-10