# folklorethursday otd folklore gothicfairies mythologymonday gothicfaeries caturday shakespeare fairytaletuesday fairy mushrooms

The Wild Hunt of Odin, a celestial hunting party, is thought to precede the death of any who witness it. This depiction from Norse mythology might have influenced other such depictions, including the Wild Hunt led by Hecate, goddess of the moon.

39 103
2021-02-18

POET'S NARCISSUS: A cautionary tale of self-love, the beautiful Narcissus fell in love with his reflection. He died heartbroken transforming into a narcissus. This name now refers to multiple flowers but poet's narcissus is said to be the original.

18 53
2021-02-11

"He approached, and perceived the Gothic remains of an abbey: it stood on a kind of rude lawn, overshadowed by high and spreading trees, which seemed coeval with the building, and diffused a romantic gloom around."

—Ann Radcliffe, died in 1823

57 198
2021-02-08

For 30 days, water it with cow's milk in which 3 bats have been drowned. When the 31st day arrives, take out the root at night and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena; wrap it up in a piece of a dead man's winding-sheet and carry it with you everywhere

6 40
2021-02-03

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore!”

3 16
2021-01-29

FAE FASHION Queen Mab is usually pictured in white as if dressed for the bridal, inspired by Shelley's Queen Mab poem, 1813 & Drayton's Nimphidia, 1627 🎨Maybank, 1906, Smedberg, 1907; Henry Meynell Rheam, 1908

61 237
2021-01-28

It was thought that witches would make a poisonous potion out of Atropa belladonna, opium poppy, monkshood, & hemlock to help them fly. Others believed this 'ointment' was used to produce an oneirogen, or dream-like state of delirium.

8 34
2021-01-27

SWAN PRINCESS & BIRD MAIDEN from Russian artist Sergey Sergeyevich Solomko (1867-1928). His fairy tale painting is of Mary the Swan Princess; he merges the blue bird, a symbol of happiness with the swan princess to create his Bluebird Maiden

59 208
2021-01-18

TITANIA iconic images of Vivien Leigh as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Old Vic Theatre, 1937 directed by Tyrone Guthrie & set to Mendelssohn. I don't think there will ever be a more wonderful evocation of or She was born to play the fae!

103 456
2021-01-10

SNOWDROPS (Galanthus Nivalus): The earliest floral harbinger of Spring, often found clustered in churchyards. Victorian folklore states that it is bad luck to bring them indoors, foreshadowing death. Yet they are also symbols of hope.
(Illus: Cecily Mary Barker)

11 56
2021-01-10

LEPUS CORNUTUS The 'horned hair' was first described in Conrad Gessner's Historiae Animalium, Zurich, 1551-87. This led to the animal being included in many other important works of natural history. The Jackalope and Wolpertinger are other examples

34 102
2020-06-02

HAWTHORNE: Though the blossoming Hawthorne may attract you in May, beware! Thomas the Rhymer, a 13th C. bard is said to have carried to Faerieland by the Faerie Queen whilst sitting under a blossoming Hawthorne bush.

26 77
2020-05-28

BIRCH According to if the spirit of the birch touches your forehead, it will leave a white mark on you, and you'll be mad. If it touches your heart, you'll die.

🎨 Brian Froud/Alan Lee

19 57
2020-05-21

SNOWDROP The Victorians considered it an omen of death and bad luck if brought inside the home. HC Andersen's 'Snowdrop' is an allegory of the poet - the flower has to fight against the snow to come out, just as the poet must face the coldness of society.

7 37
2020-05-17

CAT-BOGEY-BEAST From English Fairy Tales, 1918, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
Fancy my seeing the Bogey-Beast all to myself; and making myself so free with it, too! said the old woman

28 101
2020-05-16

TITANIA iconic images of Vivien Leigh as Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Old Vic Theatre, 1937. The production, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, was set to Mendelssohn's incidental music

118 352
2020-05-05

FAIRIES AMONG MUSHROOMS A fairy maiden sleeps on a mushroom, while another watches over her. In front Pixies protect the mushroom from a snail. 🎨Thomas Heatherley 1860; fairy inkcap

36 150
2020-05-02

'Les Fleurs du mal' ('The Flowers of Evil') is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857, it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements. The poems deal with themes relating to decadence and eroticism https://t.co/Gi3Dqa08Gq

22 67
2020-05-01

Is continued in May?

(🖼️ Maxmilián Pirner, "Fairy Funeral", 1888)

2 18
2020-05-01

In 'The Pink' by Grimm Brothers, a girl must murder a young prince. She kills a hind instead and takes its tongue and heart to her master. The prince wants to go back to his family with the girl, but she fears the journey, so he turns her into a carnation.

10 32
2020-04-30