Bone and Sickle

#16 The Haunted Season

December 10, 2018 boneandsickle Bone & Sickle, Christmas, EPISODE, folklore, Furious Army, Germanic, Germany, ghosts, history, Krampus, legends, Odin, pagan, paganism, superstition, Wild Hunt

Historically, Christmastime in Central Europe was a season haunted by otherworldly spirits, werewolves, ghostly huntsmen, and wandering hordes of lost[…]

#15 Saint, Devil, Sugar-Bread, & Whip: KRAMPUS AND NICHOLAS

November 28, 2018 boneandsickle Austria, Christmas, EPISODE, folk theater, folklore, Germanic, Germany, history, holidays, Nicholas Plays, pagan, paganism, Perchten, saints, St. Nicholas

The Krampus and St. Nicholas represent a folkloric duality embodying a mode of childrearing the Germans call “sugar-bread and whip”[…]

#14 Singing Bones & Scrumptious Children

November 12, 2018 boneandsickle Brothers Grimm, crime, death, EPISODE, fairy tales, folk music, folklore, literature, murder, murder ballads, Sweeney Todd, The Juniper Tree, The Singing Bone, Twa Sisters

This episode looks at some particularly gruesome fairy tales and folk ballads telling of murderers convicted of their crime through[…]