Bone and Sickle

Category: magic

Gallows Lore

ballads, black magic, Charles Dickens, crime, criminals, cunning folk, death, England, EPISODE, execution, folk customs, folk medicine, folk music, folk tales, folklore, gallows, hand of glory, hangmen, history, Ireland, Jack Ketch, legends, literature, magic, puppets, science fiction, Scotland, superstition, William Calcraft

We examine the lore of the gallows, focusing on the British Isles, encountering hangmen as figures straddling history and myth,[…]

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Bottled Spirits: Imps, Devils, Ghosts

Aeolus, antiquity, bottled spirits, EPISODE, exorcism, folk customs, folk tales, folklore, gothic literature, Greek myth, Grimm, Hebrew mythology, history, Homer, Ireland, literature, magic, manuscripts, Middle Ages, mythology, Oddysey, Romanticism, Satan, Scotland, witch bottles, witchcraft, witches

Western tales of bottled spirits, imps, devils, and even ghosts are largely borrowed from the Islamic and Jewish legends of jinn[…]

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