# mythologymonday fairytaletuesday wyrdwednesday folklorethursday superstitionsat swampsunday ireland folklore myths legends darkgreenweek

But when my glass shows me myself indeed, Beated and chopp'd with tann'd antiquity, Mine own self-love quite contrary I read; Self so self-loving were iniquity.

—Shakespeare, Sonnet 62 ✨

Unattributed 16th century 🎨 Hall's Croft in Stratford-upon-Avon.

8 21
2021-07-16

Le Fanu often plays with the Death and the Maiden motif. A. Milbank argues it’s fundamental to his theology. It forces us to see death materially and face its monstrosity. Carmilla is a clear example. So is Laura Silver Bell, seduced by a sinister fairy lord.

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2021-07-16

Hel looks like death: half of her body is alive, the other half in decay. She reigns over the vast majority of the dead in Norse cosmology, giving them respite from a life of hard work and toil or misfortune; but she holds resentment in her heart.

🖼: IrenHorrors

19 70
2021-07-16

“Once upon a midnight dreary….”
When Gustave Doré illustrated Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” in 1884, it was like finding like. Poe died tragically young shortly after it was published, but what gothic images! “Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore.’”☺️🖤🖋#FaustianFriday

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2021-07-09

The mythical patron saint of magic, St Cyprian, has “authored” numerous grimoires from Scandinavia to Portugal and onto the new world. Here in the unique Clavis Inferni are depicted Demon Kings Urieus (East), Paymon (West), Maymon (South) and Egyn (North).

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2021-07-09

Altogether more erotic than Dracula and one of the many inspirations Bram Stoker drew from, "Carmilla" is a tale of sapphic friendship turned to dark seduction as the nameless Carmilla inches into the life of her victim.

🖼: IrenHorrors

15 64
2021-07-09



"Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind;
...
Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?
“Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlenkönig mit Kron und Schweif?”"

From "Der Erlkönig" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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2021-07-09

I believe–I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! 

—Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights 

🎨 Edmund Dulac

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2021-07-09

In Japan there are many gothic tales about yurei, or ghosts, particularly involving women who return to seek revenge on those who hurt or betrayed them. Some of the most famous tales are: 'Oiwa: The Ghost Story of Yotsuya', 'Okiku: The Manor of the Dishes'...

1/4

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2021-07-09

Beloved (1987) is a novel by Toni Morrison set after the American Civil War, that tells the story of a family of former slaves whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit. "Like a classic Gothic protagonist, Sethe is haunted by a past wrongdoing."

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2021-07-09

“By Hecate, the goddess I worship more than all the others, the one I choose to help me in this work, who lives with me deep inside my home, these people won't bring pain into my heart and laugh about it.” (Euripides)

Hecate is also the Queen of Witches.

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2021-07-03

Tales sometimes portray Bilquis, the Queen of Sheba, as a bad influence, a dark foreign queen who influences Solomon negatively: but read the tales. She grows too. She finds love in her soul, and replaces material pleasure with devotion.

🖼: MoishPain

9 26
2021-07-02

Daji was not officially queen but she acted like one, ordering her subjects to do bizarre and outlandish things for her amusement. To deny her whims or fail was death for you and your loved ones, and for that reason, she was hunted down and killed.

🖼: QCreator

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2021-07-02

The original 'Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs' intended the Queen to have 7 black panthers guarding the entrance to her room with the Mirror. A concept art of the Queen walking a panther can be seen in The Walt Disney Family Museum and at Disney California Adventure

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2021-07-02

In Scotland Nicnevin is said to be a Queen of the Faeries. According to Walter Scott she's believed 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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2021-07-02

The Graeae - the grey ones - were the daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. They shared one eye and one tooth between them. Their names were Deino (dread), Enyo (waster of cities) and Pemphredo (alarm). Perseus stole the eye to find the 3 objects to kill Medusa.

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2021-07-02

The deadly Fool’s Parsley ☠️ (Aethusa) contains poisonous alkaloids and is responsible for much of the death-related folklore surrounding its look-alike the common Cow Parsley.

Plate by Grandville (1803-1847) 💛

3 28
2021-06-25

Poppy seeds are associated with sleep & dreams due to their soporific properties, but also w/ death. However, in fairy tales, the task of separating poppy seeds from the dirt carries the teaching that death is essential as a transformative process toward rebirth.

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2021-06-25