This short off-format episode is intended as a sort of fireside reading to be enjoyed by our overfull American listeners as they struggle to digest their Thanksgiving dinners. It’s from the late 1st-century novel, Satyricon by Petronius and describes what is quite likely Western literature’s most decadent description of a feast.
Our survey of villainous Victorian women examines six individuals associated with some of the most ghastly crimes of the era, many directed against children (and for this reason possibly a bit of a rough listen for some.) Five of these criminals inspired murder ballads, or more specifically “execution ballads,” single-sheet broadsheets sold at the time of …
While pretty much any of the 65+ hours of Bone and Sickle programming could be appropriate for listening on this day, I thought I’d re-share past Halloween-specific episodes today should you’d like to stroll down Memory Lane. 2019 VINTAGE HALLOWEEN 2019 ALL OF THEM WITCHES 2020 SPOOK SHOWS 2021 HORROR HOSTS, PART ONE 2021 HORROR …
A short video based on our episode “Who Put the Hell in Helloween?” The audio is a remix of elements you hear in the show soundscape (along with bits of the 1922 film, Häxan, which many of you may recognize.) ON HALLOWEEN I’ll post the extended 10-minute remix to be blasted on loop from on …
During the Satanic Panic, the notion of Halloween as a Satanic High Holy Day came to prominence, but the elements necessary to this mythology were set in place much earlier. This episode focuses particularly on the early years of Wicca, some missteps in disassociating the movement from Satanism, and early evangelical personalities spinning “ex-Satanist” yarns …
A short and somewhat extra episode for the Halloween season, a presentation of the 1910 horror story by Ambrose Bierce, “A Vine on a House.” Also, some show updates. We’ll have a full episode, “Who Put the Hell in Helloween?” closer to the end of the month.
Spirits of the corn (grain) fields from the United Kingdom to Russia have been imagined as embodiments of the harvest and guardians of the fields, sometimes evolving into fantastically cruel fear-figures in the process. We begin with a look at the Scottish and English ballad “John Barleycorn,” first appearing as a broadside in 1568. The …
The Master of the Wolves is a supernatural figure central to Transylvania’s (modern Romania’s) voluminous body of wolf lore, a mythology that extends more broadly into Balkan regions once occupied, like Romania, by the ancient Dacians. We begin with a snippet from a contemporary recording of the 1857 poem “St. Andrew’s Night,” by the Romanian poet …
As a “summer intermezzo” Bone and Sickle is offering three episodes this August in our “Marvelous and Rare: Antiquarian Circle” format. These are shorter episodes normally enjoyed once a month by our $4+ supporters on Patreon (www.patreon.com/boneandsickle). There’s a reference in this particular episode to “world events” and the contemplation of heavenly phenomena as a …
As a “summer intermezzo” Bone and Sickle is offering three episodes this August in our “Marvelous and Rare: Antiquarian Circle” format. These are shorter episodes normally enjoyed once a month by our $4+ supporters on Patreon (www.patreon.com/boneandsickle). We look forward to returning in September with our regular shows.