Speaking to the Dead: Necromancy in Magic and Folklore
So, what is necromancy and what does it have to do with folklore? Come with me, and let’s enter the peculiar world of death divination…
Skeleton Folklore: “I Can Feel it in My Bones”
Icy Sedgwick explores the folklore, beliefs, and superstitions associated with the human skeleton in traditional and contemporary cultures across the world.
The Origins of ‘Touch Wood’: Tree Spirits, The True Cross, or Tag?
The superstition of ‘touch wood’, or ‘knock on wood’ is still common today, but what was its original source? Madeleine D’Este explores some possibilities.
Cuckoo Day and Animal Sacrifice: Folklore of the Creatures of Spring
Spring is the herald of new life, and throughout the animal world, spring is a time to forecast the weather – and more – for the summer to come.
From Medicine to Murder: How the Apothecary Garden Found Its Dark Side
There’s something about the concept of a poison garden that either titillates or terrifies, depending on your preferences.
The UK’s most famous Poison Garden is at the Alnwick Garden. Its influence is so far-reaching that if you Google “poison garden”, it dominates the first several pages of results. So much so that I assumed the poison garden was an established concept in horticultural history. Not so, it turns out.
Yet it does descend from a historical gardening ideal – the physic garden.
You and I are going on a voyage of discovery in these gardens. Just be careful not to touch anything…