# poetry skullfriday irish mythology 31daysofhalloween fairytale

Gwat, from Baloch lore, the shapeless evil spirit of the winds, is notorious for being the nemesis of young men and women, taking possession of their bodies, driving them to insanity, and being the cause of their death. It whispers.

15 36
2021-11-26

"While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —Only this, and nothing more."
Illustration for Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven (1845 / Engraving), by Gustave Doré.

14 35
2021-11-26



In Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, at a feast, Father Olavida sees a mysterious stranger: an Englishman, none other than Melmoth, the novel’s Faustian antihero. He reels away in terror and collapses to his death, in recognition of Melmoth’s devilish presence.

4 19
2021-11-19

"You are not you – you have no body, no blood, no bones, you are but a thought. I myself have no existence; I am but a dream – your dream, a creature of your imagination. In a moment you will have realized this, then you will banish me from your visions…"

4 15
2021-11-19

"Because this is just what a nightmare is. Walking about among people you know, looking in their faces – and suddenly the faces change – and it's not someone you know any longer – it's a stranger – a cruel stranger."

2 9
2021-11-19

'O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
...
Though you forget the way to the Temple,
There is one who remembers the way to your door:
Life you may evade, but Death you shall not.
You shall not deny the Stranger.'
T.S.Eliot

11 48
2021-11-19

"Now, man of the croziers, shadows called our names
And then away, away, like whirling flames;

And now fled by, mist-covered, without sound,
The youth and lady and the deer and hound."

The Wanderings of Oisin, by W.B. Yeats, 1889

5 12
2021-11-13

Did you drink too much night potatoe vodka.... or did she?

2 17
2021-11-13

The Brocken spectre is an optical illusion created by the shadow of an observer cast upon mist or clouds when the Sun is shining behind them, often observed in mountainous regions. A halo of light will frequently surround the figure's head.

Artist unknown

42 187
2021-11-13

"On many occasions the curious atmospheric effects enchanted me vastly; these including a strikingly vivid mirage—the first I had ever seen—in which distant bergs became the battlements of unimaginable cosmic castles." At the Mountains of Madness (1/2)

10 54
2021-11-12

In Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock's 'The Other Side' (1893), Gabriel is a boy in a beautiful Breton village that lies opposite an evil shadow land, separated by a brook. That is, until Gabriel crosses over, picks a witch flower and meets the beautiful Lilith 1/7

12 51
2021-11-12

Salamanders 🖤🔥

"Salamanders have been seen in the shape of fiery balls, or tongues of fire, running over the fields, or peering in houses" Paracelsus

It was believed that salamanders could withstand heat and flames (and even create fire).

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2021-11-05

Chinese mythology - Hui Lu, a magician and fire god who kept 100 firebirds in a gourd. By setting them loose, he could start a fire across the whole country.

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2021-11-05

Tikbalang are malevolent/mischievous creatures who waylay travellers and sometimes kidnap young women. It's said that one April night in 1580, a woman at a Manila ball was kidnapped by one, with horse's legs clearly visible under its coat
🎨 iantoy (deviantart)

4 9
2021-10-30

In Japan, if your child starts acting strange quite suddenly, there's a good chance they're dead and a goblin is wearing their skin! Called an Amanojaku, these spirits resemble changeling tales of Europe.

🖼: M. Meyer

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2021-10-30

The Princess and the Goblin✨
In George Macdonald's 1872 novel, the goblins plan to abduct Princess Irene and marry her to the goblin prince. This fairy tale book was inspiration for fantasy authors Tolkien, Lewis and L’Engle.

🌟Charles Folkard

32 137
2021-10-29

"I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd—'La Belle Dame sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!'" (Keats)

🖼️ Frank Dicksee "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (1901)

20 114
2021-10-29

"Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."

The Stolen Child - W. B Yeats

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2021-10-29

In the Scottish "Tam Lin," Tam Lin was kidnapped by the fairies. Though he enjoys his time in Fairyland, he knows that every seven years, on Halloween, the fairies offer up some of the humans they've abducted as tithes to Hell. Tam fears he'll be chosen next.

13 44
2021-10-29

To protect a child from being kidnapped by the Mamuna (a Slavic spirit), a mother would tie a red ribbon around her baby's wrist, put a red hat on its head, & keep it out of the moonlight. Other preventative methods include not washing nappies after sunset…

1 6
2021-10-29