boneandsickle – Page 5 – Bone and Sickle

The Colony of Cats

By boneandsickle | April 29, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:22 — 32.5MB)

Fairy tales featuring cats are generally pleasant. After our last show about malformed births, we thought, Andrew Lang’s story, “The Colony of Cats” might be a pleasant tonic, albeit one with a bizarre punishment sequence included. Published in 1909 in Lang’s Crimson Fairy Book, this story (read by Mrs. Karswell) seems to be a version of the tales discussed in our July 2022 show, “Heads in a Fountain, Bones in a Bag.” Lang provides no background on his sources, but it’s presented as an Italian tale.

Strange Births and Monsters

By boneandsickle | April 14, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:39 — 27.1MB)

For centuries, strange births, often sounding like mythological monsters, were regarded as portents of ill omen. We hear a number of these fantastical accounts, including a description of the birth of the”Monster of Ravenna” believed to foreshadow not only the defeat of Louis XII’s forces during the 1512 Battle of Ravenna but also taken later as a sign of God’s wrath and religious turmoil roiling up in the Reformation.

The accounts related are compiled in the 1820 volume, edited by R.S. Kirby, and entitled Kirby’s wonderful and eccentric museum; or, Magazine of remarkable characters. Including all the curiosities of nature and art, from the remotest period to the present time, drawn from every authentic source.

The Man Who Crucified himself

By boneandsickle | March 29, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:40 — 34.0MB)

A self-crucifixion that occurred in 1806 on the island of San Servolo in the Venetian lagoon is the topic of our story this time around. The perpetrator and object of this crucifixion was Mattio Lovat, anglicized in our text as “Matthew Lovat.” The selected narrative comes from an 1826 collection edited by Henry Wilson called Wonderful Characters: Comprising Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Most Remarkable Persons of Every Age and Nation: Collected from the Most Authentic Sources.

An illustration of the event from Wonderful Characters…

An Irish Ghost Story

By boneandsickle | March 16, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:28 — 31.4MB)

An Irish ghost story seems a good way to add a bit of Halloween spice to your St. Patrick’s Day. Our selection, which will be read by Mrs. Karswell, comes from the 1825 publication Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. It’s the first of three volumes of stories told by the Irish antiquarian Thomas Crofton Croker, one of the earliest collector of the island’s folk tales.

Croker's book — Croker’s Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.

Epitaphs

By boneandsickle | February 24, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:23 — 29.1MB)

Epitaphs can sum up the life of the individual buried beneath or can comment on the human condition generally. From the melancholy to the absurd to the catastrophically caustic, we survey in this episode a spectrum of final thoughts and grim punchlines culled from a favorite 19th-century volume.

A Remarkable Circumstance

By boneandsickle | February 9, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:55 — 28.5MB)

A potpourri of peculiar tales culled from a favorite 19th-century volume. This episode features some outstanding British eccentrics, an extraordinary case of delusional morbidity, lethal religious fanaticism, graveyard shenanigans, and more. Plus, more black-humored poetry from Harry Graham in “Karswell’s Corner”

The Stone Eater and other Curious Cases

By boneandsickle | January 23, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:18 — 26.7MB)

Enjoy with us a collection of short curious tales culled from a favorite Victorian volume — the Stone Eater of London, a mariner’s report of fire from the sky, the rise and fall of a French giant, 18th century blasphemies involving a donkey, and more. Plus, more sardonic verse from Harry Graham in “Karswell’s Corner”

P.T. Barnum’s Magnificent Museum Fire

By boneandsickle | January 10, 2023

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:20 — 31.3MB)

The fire that destroyed P.T. Barnum’s American Museum on July 13, 1865 was a luxuriantly surreal and tragic event, one described beautifully in a contemporary New York Times piece, which we share in this episode verbatim. Doomed whales in enormous tanks, fleeing snakes, sideshow celebrities, and melting wax mannequins are all part of this fantastic tale.

The episode also includes details on Bone and Sickle’s new format for 2023 (more and shorter shows) a morbid bit of poetry from Mrs. Karswell as well as a snippet of a 1920s recording of German soprano Frieda Hempel recreating a performance by Jenny Lind, “The Swedish Nightingale,” promoted by Barnum on immensely successful international tours.

Animals in fire — Contemporary accounts imagined Barnum’s menagerie rampaging through the flames

A Christmas Ghost Story

By boneandsickle | December 23, 2022

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:00 — 30.9MB)

The Christmas Eve ghost story is a fine old tradition associated with Victorian and Edwardian England, one now making a comeback on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 2018, Bone and Sickle has enthusiastically embraced the custom.

Our offering for 2022, is “Smee” written by A.M. Burrage in 1931 and read for us by Mrs. Karswell.

Previous Christmas ghost stories are linked here in our website show notes (2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021).

Classic “Notburga” T Shirt now available

By boneandsickle | December 12, 2022

Just in time for your holiday shopping (and in celebration of our 100th episode) we’ve made the old St. Notburga shirt available in the US and overseas. Design is based on the relics of the Austrian saint Notburga known for a miracle involving a miraculously hovering sickle.

You can purchase the either of our two shirt designs on short sleeve or long sleeve T shirts and hoodies, as well as the Bone and Sickle mug from our Shopify store here.