history Archives - Page 20 of 24

Banshees

March 17, 2020 boneandsickle banshee, Celts, curses, EPISODE, fairies, folklore, ghosts, history, Ireland, mummies, pagan, paganism

Banshees are spirits of Irish folklore, who warn of impending deaths. Originally considered fairies, their Irish name, bean sídhe, means “woman of the[…]

Beasts of the Bestiaries

January 31, 2020 boneandsickle antiquity, bestiaries, birds, books, Catholicism, cryptozoology, dragons, EPISODE, folklore, history, hybrids, legends, manuscripts, Middle Ages, monsters, mythology, renaissance, superstition, urban legends

The bestiaries of the Middle Ages and Renaissance were books describing animals (some recognizable and others fantastic) in terms borrowed[…]

Walled Up Alive

January 17, 2020 boneandsickle ballads, black magic, cannibalism, Catholicism, Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar Allen Poe, EPISODE, execution, folk music, folk tales, folklore, foundation sacrifice, Gothic, gothic literature, history, horror, human sacfrifice, immurement, legends, literature, magic, Middle Ages, movies, murder, murder ballads, nuns, Rome, saints, superstition

Walling up a living victim, or immurement, has been used both as a punishment and for darker, magical purposes. In[…]