Welsh folk saying: "Guinevere, daughter of Ogrfan the Giant / Bad when little, worse when great."
Was her father simply a tall man and Guinevere got worse-tempered as she got older, or did King Arthur's wife have giant blood and grew in size when angry?
"Much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust. To and fro in the seven chambers stalked a multitude of dreams."
White (and, to a lesser extent, gold) is the colour of the Otherworld in Welsh mythology. Thus, Welsh fairies are generally pale and wear white clothes inlaid with gold, while various fairy animals (especially hounds and stags) and magical items are white.
🎨 Roger Garland #TempleThursday
In some Welsh legends, the little fairies eat poisonous mushrooms and a "fairy butter" found in the crevices of limestone rocks. Fey illusions make the food's appearance and taste more appetizing. More charmingly, fairy gloves are made from foxglove flowers. #WyrdWednesday
In the Brothers Grimm version of "Snow White," the Evil Queen tries to kill Snow White again at the girl's wedding. So the dwarfs make red-hot iron slippers, the prince forces the Queen to wear them, and she is then made to dance until the shoes burn her to death. #FairyTaleTuesday
In many legends, a person is a werewolf by choice, turning into a wolf by donning a magic wolfskin. In some versions, the werewolf also leaves behind their human clothes when they transform. If these clothes are then destroyed, the werewolf can never regain human form. #FairyTaleTuesday
Sometimes in British legends, Fairyland is underground. However, other times it is in the far west, across the Atlantic Ocean, and so must be sailed to. Fairyland being across the ocean inspired J. R. R. Tolkien to have his elves sail west to return to their homeland.
🎨 Darrell K. Sweet #MythologyMonday
Margaret Jones was an artist most famous for the strange, haunting illustrations she created for various children's books of Welsh myths by Dr. Gwyn Thomas. https://blog.library.wales/margaret-jones/
The phoenix is one of the most iconic symbols of immortality and rebirth - the bird that dies in a burst of fire and then rises from its own ashes. In some versions, the phoenix just spontaneously combusts, but in others it builds and lights its own funeral pyre.
🎨 Friedrich Bertuch #FolkloreSunday
The early sci-fi novel "Flatland" by Edwin Abbott features an inhabitant of a two-dimensional world (Mr. A. Square) who meets a three-dimensional visitor. Later, Mr. Square meets a 1D being, and has the same power over him that the 3D being had over Mr. Square. #BookologyThursday#BookChatWeekly
According to legend, Alexander the Great flew through the sky on a seat tied to two griffins he had tamed. To entice them to keep flying higher, he placed meat on two skewers which he held above their heads. Some say Alexander also rode a unicorn into battle. #WyrdWednesday
In Welsh myth, King Arthur leads an army to Caer Sidi (Castle Revolving), an Otherworldly castle made of glass and constantly rotating. He battles Caer Sidi's fairy guards to steal a magic cauldron and save a prisoner. Only seven of his warriors return alive.
🎨 Simone Bianchi #LegendaryWednesday
The hippogriff first appeared in the 16th-century epic poem "Orlando Furioso" by Ludovico Aristo as a steed for the hero Orlando. It is the child of a griffin and a horse. As griffins eat horses, this makes a hippogriff even more impossible than a griffin is.
🎨 Gustave Doré #WyrdWednesday
The gulon is a legendary monster of the Scandinavian arctic with a dog's size and body, a cat's head and claws, and a fox's tail. The gulon is so gluttonous that once it's full, it will squeeze itself between two trees to vomit up its food, so it can start killing and eating again. #FolkloreSunday
"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that, for destruction, ice
Is also great,
And would suffice."
I am Menw, one of King Arthur's three wizard-warriors. Merlin taught me my Art, and commanded me to obey and protect the king. But which of those commands takes priority? Should I disobey the king when his order would endanger him? When do I follow my own will?
🎨 Aubrey Beardsley #FairyTaleFlash
The 6th-century British saint Cadog supposedly performed a miracle on the collar bone of the dead Pictish king Caw to bring him back to life. Caw claimed to have been suffering the fires of Hell, and so converted to Christianity. He later fathered St. Gildas. #TempleThursday#FolkloreThursday
The Styx is one of the rivers of the Greek Underworld, but many legends say it starts above ground. Herodotus placed the Styx's mouth near the Greek village of Feneos but other people place it on Mount Aroania in Achaea, Greece. Aroania even has a Styx Waterfall.
🎨 Artemis Katsadoura #WyrdWednesday
The "Hellmouth" was an image in medieval art. It depicted Hell's entrance as the mouth of a gigantic dragon or other kind of monster (such as Leviathan or Cerberus) devouring sinners. The Hellmouth often appeared in medieval theatre as a dramatic prop. #WyrdWednesday#31DaysofHaunting
After the Irish hero Oisín feasted in the Otherworld for 3 days, he returned to Ireland to discover that 300 years had passed, and he was considered long dead. Though Oisín began to rapidly age, he was able to tell his story to St. Patrick before he died.
🎨 P. J. Lynch #LegendaryWednesday
When Sir Lancelot rescued Queen Guinevere from the otherwordly land of Gorre (Land of No Return), he faced many trials of the body and soul. Lancelot had to cross a bridge that was a huge razor-sharp sword to prove his courage to go on no matter how much it cut him. #FairyTaleTuesday
The most powerful monster in Welsh legend was Trwyth, an evil man cursed by God to become a gigantic boar. King Arthur's greatest warriors attacked Trwyth to acquire the golden comb, scissors, and razor entwined in his fur, and the boar slaughtered many of them. #FairyTaleTuesday
In "Genesis," when God discovers the Serpent has corrupted Adam and Eve, he curses it to now crawl on its belly forever, and says there will be hatred between it and humanity. However, the Bible doesn't explain how snakes moved before God cursed them to slither.
🎨 Robert Crumb #MythologyMonday
Cadborosaurus is a sea serpent with a horse-like head reported around many parts of Vancouver Island, Canada - most famously Cadboro Bay in Victoria. People have claimed that various carcasses washed ashore are a dead cadborosaurus, but they generally turn out to be whales or sharks. #MythologyMonday
In the Welsh legend called "The Battle of the Trees," fairies war against northern Wales. The fey army includes such monsters as a huge black toad with 100 claws, a gigantic 100-headed monster, and a speckled serpent whose skin is composed of 100 tortured souls.
🎨 Alan Lee #MythologyMonday