Bone and Sickle

Tag: folk custom

The Hellish Harlequin: Phantom Hordes to Father Christmas

Carnival, charivari, Christmas, demons, Devil, dwarf, England, EPISODE, Father Christmas, folk customs, folk theater, folklore, France, Furious Army, ghost stories, ghosts, giants, Harlequin, Hellequin, Herla, history, holidays, Italy, legends, Middle Ages, mumming, pantomime, theater, Twelve Days of Christmas, Wild Hunt

Harlequin is an enigmatic figure with roots in dark folklore of France, specifically that of the Wild Hunt (Chasse Sauvage)[…]

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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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