seduction Archives - Bone and Sickle

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[…]

The Dead Lover’s Heart

February 13, 2022 boneandsickle ballads, cannibalism, death, Decameron, EPISODE, folklore, gore, history, holidays, homicide, horror, legends, literature, love, Mary Shelley, murder, murder ballads, Romanticism, seduction, Valentine's Day

Whether freshly removed or strangely preserved after death, the dead lover’s heart occasionally has continued to be embraced as a[…]

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[…]