funerals Archives - Bone and Sickle

A Viking Funeral

August 1, 2023 boneandsickle EPISODE, funerary customs, Germanic, graves, history, human sacrifice, Middle Ages, Norse religion, pagan, paganism, Russian, Seeress, Slavs, Vikings, Völva

Scenes of fiery Viking funerals have been woven into any number of literary and cinematic tales, but sources on the[…]

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The Dead Lover’s Heart

February 13, 2022 boneandsickle ballads, cannibalism, death, Decameron, EPISODE, folklore, gore, history, holidays, homicide, horror, legends, literature, love, Mary Shelley, murder, murder ballads, Romanticism, seduction, Valentine's Day

Whether freshly removed or strangely preserved after death, the dead lover’s heart occasionally has continued to be embraced as a[…]

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Transylvanian Vampires

November 20, 2021 boneandsickle Bram Stoker, death, Dracula, EPISODE, evil eye, folk customs, folk magic, folklore, ghosts, history, horror, legends, literature, moroi, strigoi, Transylvania, undead, vampires, Victorian, witches

Transylvania’s vampire lore inspired the setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, if not the character of the Count, and encompasses not[…]

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