Fancy a folkloric read? Check out #FolkloreThursday’s books!
Fancy a folkloric read? Check out FolkloreThursday’s books!
Gloson: The Swedish Ghost Pig That Will Cleave You in Half
You turn around, and all of a sudden, you see that something is approaching, moving towards you. You notice a pair of glowing red eyes and discern the silhouette of a creature in the distance, the size of a large dog, or maybe it is a boar? You panic when you realize that the shape is rushing towards you at full speed. When it comes close it becomes clear that it is indeed a big pig, but one with burning eyes, white skin and a sharp back, formed like a sawblade. It runs straight at you and quickly comes between your legs, with the result that it will cleave you in two halves.
The Cailleach: Irish Myth, Legend and the Divine Feminine
The Cailleach, which translates as ‘old woman’, ‘hag’, and ‘veiled one’, exists in both Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and is an expression of the hag or crone archetype found throughout world cultures.
Dark and Intriguing: The Challenges of Ashmolean’s Spellbound Exhibition
The exhibition “Spellbound: Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft” at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford examines the history of magic over eight centuries, and shows how our ancestors used magical thinking to cope with the unpredictable world around them. Nick Swarbrick reviews the exhibition and the subjects which it explores.
From Generation to Generation: An Exploration of Myth and Landscape in the Work of Alan Garner
The emotional and spiritual dimension of being in place, in the work of Alan Garner, powerfully reminds us of our connection to the land and stories.
Matlock the Hare: The ‘Real’ Workings of a Majickal Hare
Hares and folklore… hmmm… how many words, I wonder (or ‘griffles’, even?), have been written about this one bounding, leaping, boxing wonder? A million?