Black Death Archives - Bone and Sickle

The Lover’s Head

February 12, 2021 boneandsickle Arthurian, ballads, Black Death, books, children's literature, crime, death, Decameron, decapitation, EPISODE, execution, fairies, fairy tales, folk music, folk tales, folklore, ghost stories, ghosts, gore, history, horror, legends, literature, madness, Middle Ages, murder, murder ballads, punishments, renaissance, Romanticism, seduction, skulls

The motif of lovers retaining the head of a decapitated partner is surprisingly widespread. In this — our romantic Valentine’s[…]

Read more

A Journal of the Plague Year

April 17, 2020 boneandsickle ballads, Black Death, Britain, England, EPISODE, Great Plague of London, history, medicine, prophecy, visions

The Great Plague of London of 1665 to 1666 is vividly portrayed in Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year,[…]

Read more

The Plague Doctor Unmasked

April 1, 2020 boneandsickle Black Death, Carnival, death, EPISODE, folklore, history, horror, Italy, medicine, opera, plague, Venice

The figure of the masked plague doctor is an object of intense fascination but also the subject of much misinformation.[…]

Read more