# cumbria folklore mythologymonday fairytaletuesday wyrdwednesday folklorethursday superstitionsat folkloresunday swampsunday japanesefolklore yokai dontgointothewoods ofdarkandmacabre carnival dustdevil

In Scotland Nicnevin is said to be a Queen of the Faeries. According to Walter Scott she's thought to be a sort of mother witch or the Scottish Hecate who 'rode on the storm and marshalled the rambling host of wanderers under her grim banner.'

🎨Thomas Maybank

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2022-03-11

Irish goddess The Morrígan (phantom/great Queen) incites warriors to battle! Trio of sisters; Badb, Macha & Nemain. Appears as a crow (badb)! When Cú Chulainn died (strapped to standing stone), only when a crow landed on him was his enemy convinced he was dead!

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2022-03-11

Many Ulverston locals will avoid the eerie woods at Plumpton, and lurking in the water of the flooded iron mines nearby, lives Jenny Greenteeth, a 'river hag' who pulls children and the elderly into the water to drown them


artist: unknown

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2022-03-11

It comes from a European belief that vampires cannot resist the urge to count things.There are stories that say you should carry bag filled with grains of rice with you. In case of a vampire attack, you can spill the seeds on the ground to divert their attention,#FaustianFriday.

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2022-03-04

I love the way the Victorians conceived of witch & bat-woman attire —the 19thc had such rich histories surrounding occult hobbyists 🖤🦇#FaustianFriday

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2022-02-26

Dressing for the Masquerade by Thomas Rowlandson

Masquerade balls have been a feature of the season since the 15th century. Full of allegorical costumes, pageants and triumphant processions.

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2022-02-25


I wonder if shapeshifting counts as dressing up? To this purpose I present the Irish goddess The Morrigan. Her rôle as a symbol of imminent death, and to influence the outcome of war, was achieved by appearing as a crow flying overhead.

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2022-02-25

Irish folklore tells of Stingy Jack, who never paid his own tab. One night the Devil offered to pay, in exchange for Jack's soul. Jack agreed, if the Devil would transform himself into a sixpence. Jack then put the coin in his pocket, thus trapping the Devil.

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2022-02-19

"Yet men have found so many methods, sadly,
To cheat the Devil of their souls, or try" (Goethe)

And in the end, Faust is indeed forgiven under some divine volte or the the other and poor Mephisto is left with his binding contract unfulfilled for all his pains

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2022-02-18

Mistrz Pan Twardowski is a Polish Faustian sorcerer who sells his soul in exchange for dark magic. According to an 1822 ballad, the devil releases the nobleman from the contract after finding a clause requiring the devil to spend a year with Twardowski’s wife.

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2022-02-18

💨According to myth a spinning counter clockwise is a shape-shifting demon drawn to suffering & self-destructive souls seeking release from the pain of their lives.

🌬A Dust Devil spinning clockwise is a benevolent spirit casting out the Devil.

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2022-02-18

The South African impundulu, with its hamerkop appearance, acts as a familiar to a witch, doing her bidding forever

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2022-02-12

“Ravens are the birds I'll miss most when I die. If only the darkness into which we must look were composed of the black light of their limber intelligence. If only we did not have to die at all. Instead, become ravens.”
-Louise Erdrich

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2022-02-12

In a Flemish legend a girl who refused to marry was imprisoned in a cellar. She was visited daily by two swans who helped her simply by being there. She escaped and gave the city a fortune on condition that they took care of the swans and their offspring.

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2022-02-12

In Hungarian the hero is often aided by a táltosló, a flying and speaking magical horse that can foresee the future and eats hot ember to recover from wounds. In other folktales the hero is a shapeshifter who can transform into a táltosló Bihrle

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2022-02-12

Sheridan Le Fanu’s ‘Squire Toby’s Will’: the Squire haunts his son (who has cheated his other son out of his inheritance) with the help of a familiar animal: a grotesque, ghostly dog, circling the squire’s grave, its chilling howls deathly and foreboding.

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2022-02-11

In a Flemish tale a witch and a cat who lived in a tree almost always went for a walk around the village at night. If they didn't, they had met a traveller who was unaware of their existence. The witch danced in the branches while the cat dug a grave.

🎨Rackham

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2022-02-11

"My dear sir, you see the thing
Exactly as all men see it: why,
We must re-order everything,
Before the joys of life slip by.
Hang it!" (Goethe)

...or, the beginning of one of world literature's most peculiar male bonding scenes

🎨 Harry Clarke "Faust" (1926)

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2022-02-11

In Greek mythology Hermes is the god of speech, eloquence, trade & travel. He was known as a trickster god, is the patron deity of thieves & was a psychopomp guiding souls to the afterlife. He stole his brother Apollo's prized cattle when he was only a day old

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2022-02-11