Tales about changelings - human infants switched for dwarves or other spirits - get very disturbing once you realize they are basically folkloric excuses for #ableism .
"This baby is not right in some manner, and thus I must maltreat it until the spirits bring me my real baby back!" 😬
I was telling a folktale about a prince who likes to wear red leather boots (and in the end he is identified by them, Cinderella style). And the entire time I couldn't help but picture Kinky Boots... 😂 😅
Revisiting Franz Xaver von Schönwerth's Bavarian folktale collection (contemporaneous with the Grimms). It has a number of tales where fairies or elves help girls who have gotten pregnant out of wedlock.
Here’s a classic bit of stoney #folklore in the run up to my Puddingstone Trail talk and walk at the Grime’s Graves festival on 15/16th June. This is the Beauchamp Roding #Puddingstone at St Botolph's church near #Harlow, #Essex. #SteepleSaturday Read on: 1/ 🧵
It was wonderful to finally visit Dairy Pit. It's the subject of a great body of folklore. The water is riddled with spirits, and lost souls still wander nearby. Locals report ominous feelings, and other tales talk of a mermaid who once guarded the depths. I'm currently writing a post about the Dairy Pit- I can't wait to share!
According to #Japanese folklore, the Jubokko¹ is a tree, but also a yōkai, a magical creature.
When cut, a red liquid flows out from the trunk.
Legend says that the tree appears near battlefields, so the roots are sustained by the corpses nearby, and so it is actual blood that rushes below the bark.
Curiously, on Shigeru Mizuki's² "Yōkai Encyclopedia", I found that, along with blood, tiny beings with long, white hair, very similar to elder people, came out from a cut in the tree.
Read the recap of the story in the comment ⬇️
The Dagda encountered the black-winged Mórrigan at the River Unshin (Unius) in #Connacht, who was standing with one foot on each bank and washing the clothes of those about to be killed in the next day’s battle at Mag Tuired. True to form, when the Dagda saw the enormous goddess bending over the stream, he was overcome with desire and engaged her in intercourse. So satisfactory did she find their encounter that she agreed to support his side in the next day’s battle, singing her magical chants from the sidelines as the Tuatha Dé Danann fought their mortal enemies, the monstrous beings called the Fomorians, and finally drove them from #Ireland.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/starwheelastro/status/833432200112648193
#FolkloreThursday for #WorldOceansDay: Sea captains were often born from the mating of the #Scottish Highland #Ceasg. This mermaid—half woman, half salmon—was also known as the maighdean na tuinne or “maiden of the wave.” Like other captured #faeries, she was said to grant wishes to her captor. But like any other seagoing siren, she was also capable of capturing humans, who usually lost their lives upon entering her watery domain.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/originsoflaoich/status/1494301676257357827?t=bMpvVKyS6DzIMqrs5wto1Q&s=09
#WorldOceansDay: #Fintan mac Bochra lived at least 5000 years after the Deluge, escaping it by turning into a salmon. When the water masses had receded, he turned into an eagle, then a hawk, afterwards into all the different animals of #Ireland and finally back to human form.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#Dylan sometimes bears the epithet Ail Ton, “son of wave” or Ail Mor, “son of the sea,” and so he has been interpreted as being #Arianrhod’s child with a sea god or merman. (Arianrhod‘s second child, born on the same occasion, was LLeu Llaw Gyffes.) Certainly the sea was Dylan’s element, for he swam like a fish and took great pleasure in feeling the waves under his body. But he was killed by his uncle, the rapist Gilfaethwy.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore#WorldOceansDay
#FolkloreThursday for #WorldOceansDay: In the #Scottish#Hebrides the #mermaid did not sport a magical cap as in other lands. Instead she had a magical belt that had to be stolen to tame her. Her descendants were said to have the gift (or curse) of foreseeing who would die at sea.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore