legends Archives - Page 9 of 22

Ghost Trains & Railway Terrors

October 14, 2021 boneandsickle American lore, ballads, Britain, death, EPISODE, folk music, folklore, ghost stories, ghosts, history, legends, literature, urban legends

Ghost trains and real-life railway terrors intermingle in this episode’s exploration of old train-wreck ballads, nervous and funereally obsessed Victorians, urban[…]

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[…]

The Dybbuk

August 22, 2021 boneandsickle demons, dybbuk, EPISODE, folk tales, folklore, ghost stories, ghosts, Hebrew mythology, history, Israel, Kabbalah, legends, magic, Middle Ages, movies, theater

A dybbuk is a “clinging spirit” of Jewish folklore, a ghost that can possess a human host. Stories of dybbuks[…]