Bone and Sickle

Category: Middle Ages

The Hellish Harlequin: Phantom Hordes to Father Christmas

Carnival, charivari, Christmas, demons, Devil, dwarf, England, EPISODE, Father Christmas, folk customs, folk theater, folklore, France, Furious Army, ghost stories, ghosts, giants, Harlequin, Hellequin, Herla, history, holidays, Italy, legends, Middle Ages, mumming, pantomime, theater, Twelve Days of Christmas, Wild Hunt

Harlequin is an enigmatic figure with roots in dark folklore of France, specifically that of the Wild Hunt (Chasse Sauvage)[…]

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Bottled Spirits: Imps, Devils, Ghosts

Aeolus, antiquity, bottled spirits, EPISODE, exorcism, folk customs, folk tales, folklore, gothic literature, Greek myth, Grimm, Hebrew mythology, history, Homer, Ireland, literature, magic, manuscripts, Middle Ages, mythology, Oddysey, Romanticism, Satan, Scotland, witch bottles, witchcraft, witches

Western tales of bottled spirits, imps, devils, and even ghosts are largely borrowed from the Islamic and Jewish legends of jinn[…]

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Toad Magic

antiquity, Astor Place Riot, black magic, broadsheets, Canidia, criminals, cults, cunning folk, Devil, EPISODE, familiars, folk customs, folk medicine, folklore, frogs, history, James I, Macbeth, medicine, Middle Ages, mythology, necromancy, poison, Scotland, Shakespeare, superstition, toads, witchcraft, witches, zombies, Zugarramurdi

Toads have long been associated with magic, as witches’ familiars and as a source both of poison as folk healing.[…]

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