King Arthur, the Mabinogion and Wales’ Legendary Landscapes
The National Library of Wales discuss their exhibition ‘Arthur and Welsh Mythology’, and how Welsh folklore is engrained in its legendary landscape.
Of Kobolds and Heinzelmen: Forgotten Creatures Brought Back to Life
German artist Florian Schäfer is creating life-like art dolls & figurines of strange but mostly unknown creatures to fight against their cultural oblivion.
Old Tails in New Bottles: Folklore’s Influence on Pulp Fiction Werewolves
Werewolves are considered to be a traditional monster in the twenty-first-century popular culture.
Bringing Venetian Folklore to the Big Screen: The Plague Doctor
Though we’ve not lost any of our academic appreciation for the hearthside story or campsite tall tale, it cannot be denied that we as a species have moved into the art of mass producing our spoken heritage. The film maker may not ever replace the greatest of our local tavern heralds, but like any story […]
The Grotter & the Strange History of Shell Grottos
Shell grottos have a certain murky ambiguity to their history and folklore. This for me made them all the more enticing to use as the basis for a ghost story in my tale, ‘The Grotter’ in Nyctophobias. Especially with my roots as a Whitstable native in Kent, where grottos are still primarily lit once a year as part of the Oyster Festival celebrations. These grottos are usually stacked in a ‘beehive’ style pyramid, held together with wet sand and illuminated by a short candle.