Grotesques, Green Men and Glorious Angels
The Church of St Mary and St David in Kilpeck in Herefordshire has been a centre for Christian worship since the 12th century, and today is a place of pilgrimage.
The Calderstones: Invoking the Spirits of Place
South Liverpool, where I was born and live still, is a place full of green-spaces. Its abundance of woodlands, parks, cemeteries, playing fields and golf courses are linked by an intricate network of narrow, bramble-lined public footpaths and overgrown roadside verges. The more romantically inclined might be tempted to call them faerie paths, or corpse […]
Folklore of Archaeology: Of Giants, Fairies, Megaliths and Menhirs
While much fairy folklore associated with prehistoric sites centres around barrows and brochs, many megaliths are linked to fairies, goblins and their counterparts, in both legend and etymology.
Supernatural Safeguarding: Hidden Objects in the Post-Medieval Home
What do a child’s shoe, a cod-liver oil bottle, and a desiccated cat have in common? They’re all objects that have been discovered in unusual locations within buildings. In fact, a vast variety of objects have been found (from pantaloons to chickens), often dating to the 18th and 19th centuries, under floorboards, hearthstones, and thresholds; […]
From the Gorgon to the Gift Shop: A Brief Archaeology of the Evil Eye
The matiasma is an apotropaic amulet designed to ward off the evil eye in Greek folklore.