folk music Archives - Bone and Sickle

Rhymes for Those Who Can Neither Read Nor Run

January 31, 2026 boneandsickle ballads, books, Britain, children's literature, England, EPISODE, folk music, folklore, frogs, ghost stories, gothic literature, history, literature

Gammer Gurton’s Garland, published in 1784, is one of the earliest collections of English nursery rhymes, and contains verses both[…]

Ghost Trains & Railway Terrors

October 14, 2021 boneandsickle American lore, ballads, Britain, death, EPISODE, folk music, folklore, ghost stories, ghosts, history, legends, literature, urban legends

Ghost trains and real-life railway terrors intermingle in this episode’s exploration of old train-wreck ballads, nervous and funereally obsessed Victorians, urban[…]

The Lover’s Head

February 12, 2021 boneandsickle Arthurian, ballads, Black Death, books, children's literature, crime, death, Decameron, decapitation, EPISODE, execution, fairies, fairy tales, folk music, folk tales, folklore, ghost stories, ghosts, gore, history, horror, legends, literature, madness, Middle Ages, murder, murder ballads, punishments, renaissance, Romanticism, seduction, skulls

The motif of lovers retaining the head of a decapitated partner is surprisingly widespread. In this — our romantic Valentine’s[…]