Folk Tales and Fairy Tales: Seven Miles of Steel Thistles
One of the things I wanted to do was to confront popular misconceptions about fairy tales, such as ‘fairy tales are all about princes rescuing princesses.’
The Fairy Midwife and the Magic Ointment
An old woman in the cottage gave the midwife a box of ointment and asked her to anoint the baby all over, but to not get any of the ointment in her own eyes.
Top 5 American Folktales
Here, in no particular order, are the top 5 American Folktales.
The Boggart: A Study in Shadows
I became fascinated by boggarts about a decade ago. If I turned to the fairy and folklore dictionaries, I learnt that a boggart was a type of house goblin or perhaps, at a stretch, a poltergeist.
Angels and Devils: The Legend of the Holy Mountain
The Skirrid Fawr Hill near Abergavenny in Wales is no ordinary hill, but a place of myth, legend, strong religious connection, and black deeds.