Austria Archives - Bone and Sickle

Spirits of the Corn

October 2, 2022 boneandsickle Austria, ballads, EPISODE, folk customs, folklore, Germany, Grimm, harvest, history, monsters, Noonday Witch, Rye Aunt, Scarecrows, superstition

Spirits of the corn (grain) fields from the United Kingdom to Russia have been imagined as embodiments of the harvest[…]

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Frau Perchta, the Belly-Slitter

December 9, 2019 boneandsickle Austria, Christmas, EPISODE, folk tales, folklore, Germanic, Germany, Grimm, history, holidays, Krampus, legends, Middle Ages, mumming, mythology, pagan, paganism, Perchta, Twelfth Night, witchcraft, witches

Frau Perchta, sometimes known as “the Belly-Slitter” for the trademark punishment she’s said to inflict on disobedient or lazy children,[…]

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#15 Saint, Devil, Sugar-Bread, & Whip: KRAMPUS AND NICHOLAS

November 28, 2018 boneandsickle Austria, Christmas, EPISODE, folk theater, folklore, Germanic, Germany, history, holidays, Nicholas Plays, pagan, paganism, Perchten, saints, St. Nicholas

The Krampus and St. Nicholas represent a folkloric duality embodying a mode of childrearing the Germans call “sugar-bread and whip”[…]

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