Bone and Sickle

Category: Scotland

Toad Magic

antiquity, Astor Place Riot, black magic, broadsheets, Canidia, criminals, cults, cunning folk, Devil, EPISODE, familiars, folk customs, folk medicine, folklore, frogs, history, James I, Macbeth, medicine, Middle Ages, mythology, necromancy, poison, Scotland, Shakespeare, superstition, toads, witchcraft, witches, zombies, Zugarramurdi

Toads have long been associated with magic, as witches’ familiars and as a source both of poison as folk healing.[…]

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Drowned in Blood: Butcher Lore

Anglo-Saxons, birds, Britain, butchers, cannibalism, Catholicism, Christie Cleek, Christmas, criminals, England, EPISODE, folk music, folk tales, folklore, France, Germanic, gore, history, human sacrifice, legends, Middle Ages, mumming, Norse religion, pagan, paganism, Sawney Bean, Scotland, St Martin's Day, St. Nicholas, superstition

Our seasonal look at butcher lore begins with the slaughter of an immense ram as related in the centuries-old English[…]

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