The Sjöfru is a kind of Rå, a keeper of a particular kind of land in Swedish folklore, and she presides over waterbodies, usually lakes or small scraps of the sea. Her name is usually translated as “Mistress of the Lake”, “Sea Woman” or “Lake Mare”. Technically, her saltwater counterpart should be called havsrå. We […]
Tylwyth Teg (Middle Welsh for Fair Family) is the collective noun for mythological creatures known as the aes sídhe in Irish folklore. In other words: fairies. We are we featuring faerie folk in a regular contribution on creatures from the underground? Well, because the Tylwyth Teg do live underground. The picture in the header comes […]
Atargatis, also known as Ataratheh and redubbed Derceto by Pliny the Elder, was a chief goddess in northern Syria, with evidence of her cult being discovered at Palmyria. She was a fertility goddess but also presided over her city at Aleppo, called Hierapolis by the Greek, where she was the baalat (the “mistress”) and presided […]
A Cantabric legend tells the story of a local girl and her dangerous liaison with the rocky cliffs around Castro Urdiales. Hers is a tale of freedom lost and regained, and her fate is said to be connected to a cursed (or blessed) mother-of-pearl mirror. She’s this week’s feature on my Patreon.
A thermal lake with waters that are rendered warm after staying entrapped for 25 years in crystal, a young Count suffering from chronic pain, a fateful encounter on Saint John’s Eve. Join me on my Patreon for some Italian merfolk this Monday.
The Gwragedd Annwn, Wives of the Lower Lands, are Welsh water creatures connected with the myth of how the black cow came to be. They’re today’s feature on my Patreon.
On day 2 of Giambattista Basile‘s 1634 Tale of Tales, also known as The Pentameron, the sixth tale features a story that’s close to “Allerleirauh” by the Grimm Brothers and features some typical tropes in folklore, including shapeshifting through a magical object. Henriette-Julie de Murat, a XVII Century aristocratic French writer, uses this same device […]
Happy Valentine’s Day! Do you remember when we started, before going down the rabbit hole of the Heike Monogatari? I was taking a look at the Japanese Ghost Tales by Lafcadio Hearn, so today let’s take a look at the second tale of the collection, which is perfect because it’s also tragic and romantic. It’s […]
People over at Twitter called for Folklore of our local places, so I thought I’d unearth some of my favourite Italian folk tales. 1. We invented Cinderella I’m sure all of you are familiar with Cinderella and similar tales, but few know that the oldest tale of that sort comes from Italy and particularly it’s […]
I recently became the patron of an amazing bard I met on Instagram, Dawn Nelson a.k.a. DD storyteller, whose main gig is – in her own words – «connecting people with nature, history and the landscape that surrounds them, through storytelling». She’s amazing. The website is here, though she mostly communicates through her Patreon. She […]