Anansi the Spider: Trickster or Teacher?

The folklore stories of Anansi the Spider originate from the Asante people of Ghana and has orally been passed down over generations. The character is also known throughout West Africa and is popular in the Caribbean due to these ancient fables being carried to the region by enslaved Africans via the Atlantic Slave Trade.

The Soul that Swam: Yet More Stories My Parents Tell Me

My parents tell me a few last family legends, and I contemplate on how these stories might change in the telling. “This happened to your lolo [my paternal grandfather] as a young man, before he got married,” Dad said. “It was when he was in Cagayan de Oro.” My grandfather was a priest with the […]

Plagues, Fires and Human Sacrifice: Hidden Meanings of London Nursery Rhymes

Kim McGreal explores the curious and macabre origins of some well-known childhood nursery rhymes.

Ghostland: Arthur Machen, King Arthur and ‘Goblin City’

Caerleon: The location is steeped in history and archaeology with its impressive Roman ruins, and its later associations – it’s the site where Geoffrey of Monmouth’s twelfth-century chronicle of British monarchs, Historia regum Britanniae, places the court of King Arthur, and where, some 350 years on, Thomas Malory staged the legendary figure’s coronation in Le Morte D’Arthur.

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