bevanthomas

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to random

Though werewolves are usually ravening monsters in European fairy tales, werebears are more sympathetic. They are often people cursed with bear-form who wander the wilderness sad and alone until someone can break the curse and give them back their humanity.
🎨​ Anton Lomaev
#FairyTaleTuesday #OfDarkandMacabre

bevanthomas, 7 months ago to random

In Bantu folklore, gourds will sometimes grow into huge, ravenous monsters. Such malevolent plants often are created where evil sorcerers or ogres were killed. The Devouring Gourd of Usambara grew to the size of a house, uprooted itself, and ate a whole village.
#MythologyMonday #OfDarkandMacabre

bevanthomas, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to folklore

The pwca is the black-furred Welsh version of the pooka - a forest goblin trickster. Sometimes the pwca uses a magic candle to lead travelers off the path, and other times it turns into a black animal, such a horse, and entices travelers to try to catch it.
🎨​ Tony DiTerlizzi
#FolkloreThursday #folklore #mythology #fairy #Wales #Celtic

bevanthomas, 9 months ago to folklore

In Welsh folklore, the border between worlds is often vague. Arthurian knights don't realize they've ridden into the Otherworld until they encounter progressively stranger things, such as one-legged giants or sheep that change colour when leaping across a river.
#FaustianFriday #FairyFriday #folklore #mythology #Celtic #Wales

bevanthomas, 10 months ago to folklore

The original version of Robin Hood did not give to charity. He was a folk hero not because he helped the poor but just because he harassed the rich -- robbing corrupt bishops and abbots, humiliating sheriffs, and poaching the king's deer on the royal reserves.
#LegendaryWednesday #folklore #legend #RobinHood #England

bevanthomas, 9 months ago to folklore

Sesame Street's Count has precedent in folklore. In various parts of Eastern Europe, vampires are compulsive counters. They're especially drawn to mustard seeds, so if you scatter the seeds while being chased, you can escape while the vampire counts them all.
#FolkloreSunday #folklore #mythology #vampire #monster #SesameStreet

bevanthomas, 9 months ago to literature

The early sci-fi novel "Flatland" by Edwin A. Abbott features an inhabitant of a two-dimensional world (Mr. A. Square) encountering 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.
#FaustianFriday #literature #scifi

bevanthomas, 8 months ago to literature

"I know that I hung on a windy tree
Nine long nights,
Wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
Myself to myself,
On that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run...."

• "The Sayings of the High One" (Icelandic poem)
  🎨W. G. Collingwood
  #BookologyThursday #literature #poetry #folklore #mythology #Norsemythology #Norse #Viking

bevanthomas, 7 months ago to folklore

In ancient Greece, the Gorgoneion was a special amulet or symbol that depicted Medusa's head, and was said to protect people from evil. It appears frequently on classical Greek art, and is a reference to the goddess Athena, who wore Medusa's severed head on her breastplate.
#TempleThursday #folklore #mythology #GreekMythology #Greece #occult

bevanthomas, 3 months ago to random

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

bevanthomas, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

Nisse are Nordic fairies that resemble tiny, often bearded, people. They live on farms, acting as their secret guardians. They are also linked to the Winter Solstice and Christmas. In Scandinavia, a nisse often helps the Yule Goat to deliver Christmas presents.
🎨 Jenny Nyström
#FairyTaleTuesday

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to folklore

As the most iconic Norse god, Thor was depicted as utterly distinct. No picture of him would be confused with someone else. While most Norse gods ride horses, wield swords, and are blond, Thor rides a chariot pulled by goats, wields a hammer, and is red-headed.
🎨 Max Koch
#mythologymonday #31DaysofHaunting #folklore #mythology #Norse #Viking

bevanthomas, 4 months ago to random

Roman seers divined Jupiter's will by studying birds. Some birds gave auspices via their singing (such as ravens, crows, owls, and chickens) while others gave them via their flying (eagles and vultures). Chickens also gave auspices via their eating habits.
#MythologyMonday

bevanthomas, 5 months ago to random

In Welsh legend, the Awen is the divine force that possesses poets and bards to inspire their art, and possesses seers to give them visions of the future. However, if someone who lacks the proper will is possessed, the Awen can drive them insane.
🎨 John Hall
#MythologyMonday

bevanthomas, 5 months ago to random

In Welsh myth, when the boy Gwion stole the elixir of inspiration from the witch Cerridwen, he tried to hide from her by taking numerous forms. When he became a piece of grain, Cerridwen swallowed it as a hen. Later, she gave birth to Gwion in a new body, calling him "Taliesin."
#MythologyMonday

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to literature

"One reading by those calm bank-shaded eyes
To watch her lessening westward quietly.
Then, as she neared the bend, her funnel screamed.
And that long lamentation made him wise
How unto Avalon, in agony,
Kings passed in the dark barge, which Merlin dreamed."

• Wilfred Owen, "Hospital Barge at Cerisy"
  🎨​ Dalziel Brothers
  #BookWormSat #literature #poetry #KingArthur

bevanthomas, 4 months ago to random

While Britain was being conquered by the Anglo-Saxons, the Welsh bard Taliesin prophesied of his people:
"Their God they shall worship,
Their language they shall retain.
Their land they shall lose,
Except wild Wales."
Welsh has remained a living language despite the English.
#MythologyMonday

bevanthomas, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to 13thFloor

The cockatrice is a monster of English legend similar to a basilisk. It is born when a rooster lays an egg which is then incubated by a serpent; it resembles a rooster with a snake tail. The cockatrice kills with its gaze and touch, though the weasel is immune.
🎨 Marcus Gheeraerts

#MythologyMonday #31DaysofHaunting #Superstitiology #mythology #folklore #cockatrice #basilisk #monster

bevanthomas, 4 months ago to random

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

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to folklore

The Egyptian god Set being called the "red-headed god" marked him as an outsider. It linked him to the red desert sands rather than the fertile black soil where most Egyptians lived. It also gave him the hair colour of a foreigner; Set was the god of foreigners.
#mythologymonday #folklore #mythology #Egypt

bevanthomas, 5 months ago to random

Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced Avalon, "Isle of Apples," as the place where King Arthur was taken to be healed after his final battle. No farming is needed on this fairy island, for sweet fruit and other crops naturally grow all over, and it is eternally summer.
#MythologyMonday

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to folklore

King Gylfi of Sweden compassionately awarded an old woman with as much land as four oxen could plow. She was secretly the Norse goddess Gefjon, and her four oxen dragged away enough land to create the island of Zealand. The hole left behind was Sweden's Lake Mälar.
#WyrdWednesday #folklore #mythology #NorseMythology #Norse #Viking

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to random

The Norse god Odin transformed himself into numerous creatures (humans, elves, giants, etc.) to learn their specific secrets. According to the Lokasenna, Odin also transformed himself into a woman to learn the secrets that women tell each other, such as prophecy.
#mythologymonday

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to Fashion

Surrealist, suave, and stylish

Schiaparelli Ready-to-Wear Fall/Winter 2022-2023 on the cover of Heroine Mag. Photographed by Ferry van der Nat.
#fashion #hautecouture #schiaparelli

bevanthomas, 6 months ago to random

A killmoulis is a goblin in Anglo-Scottish folklore who haunts mills. He has a giant nose but no mouth, and so inhales food through his nostrils. Though the killmoulis plays pranks and steals the miller's food, he pays the miller back by working hard in the mill.
🎨​ Brian Froud
#MythologyMonday