A Spot of Easter Violence, Anyone?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frigg_als_Ostara.jpg

Easter customs of old were many and varied but who would have expected so many of them to be nothing short of violent? Some believe Easter is named after the pagan spring festival celebrating Ēostre or Ostara; historically known as the spring equinox, this might explain why the date of Easter is calculated by the cycles of the moon. It falls on the Sunday following the full moon after the first day of spring — nothing Christian about that calculation! One would have thought the dates of Christ’s death and resurrection would have been more definitely commemorated but, no, we stick to celebrating the coming of spring. Compared to this oddity, some of the bizarre customs associated with Easter stop seeming so bizarre. The violence involved in some of them, though, is a little harder to explain…

British Legends: The Tragic Romance of Tristan and Isolde

Draper’s Tristan & Isolde https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DrapersTristanIsolde.jpg#/media/File:DrapersTristanIsolde.jpg

The tale of Tristan and Isolde became a popular Arthurian tale during the 12th century, though it is believed to go back much further, having connections to Celtic legends.

The Indigenous Burial Ground: Urban Legends and Popular Culture

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In North America, legends of haunted places often claim they have been built on an “Indian burial ground.” Indigenous burial ground urban legends are so widely shared they’ve become a part of popular culture. Writers used them repeatedly as a literary device in horror until they became a comedic cliché and eventually a meme.

Riddles, Heroes, and Folktales Come True: Folklore in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

Painting of Lúthien Tinuviel reproduced with permission by Alan Lee

Folklore is central in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: not only “external” folklore, the folklore of the “real” world, but also “internal” folklore.

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