folk tales Archives - Page 4 of 9

Dark Fairy Tales I: The Girl with No Hands

July 1, 2022 boneandsickle children's literature, EPISODE, fairies, fairy tales, folk tales, folklore, gore, Grimm, history, horror, literature, The Girl with No Hands

“The Girl with No Hands” is the name of a a folk-tale motif shared by a number of gruesome fairy[…]

Hellfire Clubs, Part One

March 30, 2022 boneandsickle Britain, criminals, Dublin, England, EPISODE, folk tales, folklore, Hell, Hellfire Club, history, Ireland, legends, London, seduction, sex

The Hellfire Clubs of 18th-century Great Britain were gatherings of upper-class libertines dedicated to hedonism, blasphemous jests and taboo activities[…]

Bird-Women of Greece and Russia

September 18, 2021 boneandsickle Aeolus, Alkonost, antiquity, bestiaries, Bird-Women, classical music, folk tales, folklore, Gamayun, Greece, Greek myth, harpies, legends, mermaids, monsters, opera, pagan, paganism, Russian, seduction, sirens, Sirin

Bird-women hybrids of Greek legend and Russian folklore are uniquely ambivalent, sometimes bringing death and destruction and at others, prophetic wisdom[…]