Trolls, Hulders and Nisses: The Preternatural Creatures of Norwegian Folklore

Despite a great many people knowing that Norway is awash with folklore, many would be hard-pressed to name a Norwegian folk narrative beyond the folk tales “The Three Billy-goats Gruff” and perhaps “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.”

Italian Folklore: The Devil’s Column, at the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio

The Devil’s Column (Colonna del Diavolo), in Milan is the focus of one of Milan’s oldest and most beloved legends …

Piskies, Knockers and Tommyknockers – Cornwall’s Misunderstood Folklore

The Folklore of Cornwall: The Oral Tradition of a Celtic Nation addresses everything from piskies – south west Britain’s fairies – to mermaids, harvest festivals, a corpse visiting his betrothed, and the giants long noted for making the Cornish peninsula their home. And amid all this are the spirits of the mines – knockers together with the tommyknockers, their New World descendants.

Snow Queens and Winter Witches from Around the World

Through myth, fairy tale and legend, powerful women are depicted as dark, cruel and calculating, and they are often naturally associated with winter – a season where all warmth withdraws, and the land is covered with snow and ice, and life is no more than a battle of survival against the elements.

Shapeshifters from the Celtic World

There are many different kinds of shapeshifting and here we look at different examples from Ireland, Wales and Scotland that provide differing glimpses of shapeshifters in action in the myth, folklore, and tradition of these three Celtic nations.

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