Father to a murdered wife, husband to a murdered son

I remember thinking Moore was being a bit harsh on a fairly bog-standard (if popular) bit of children's fiction. what hubris had I, to question the Magus thus.

Where's this interview, Lawrence?

"The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosophers as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful". -- Edward Gibbon

Sweet is the swamp with its secrets,
Until we meet a snake;
'Tis then we sigh for houses,
And our departure take

At that enthralling gallop
That only childhood knows.
A snake is summer's treason,
And guile is where it goes.

by Emily Dickinson

#OkefenokeeSwamp #FolkWitch

caressed by the eternal tree

A piece of English folk magic from J. Meade Falkner's classic children's novel "Moonfleet" (1898).

Had the opportunity to see one of the earliest editions of the Malleus Maleficarum (‘hammer of witches’). This copy is from 1494 (original 1486) & the annotations probably 16th century. Held in University of Leeds special collections archives at the moment!

Sometimes wonderful synchronicities emerge.

In 1785 a farmer near Silchester in England found a ring.

Inscribed on it was the name of the Roman goddess, 'Venus'

A newer inscription read, in Latin 'SENICIANE VIVAS IIN DE'. (Sic)

'Senicianus live in God'. (1/🧵)

It was dated to the 4th century.

Even Warhammer isn't as Warhammer as the skull of Mary Magdalene in the basilica of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume

Summoning

A digital illustration with watercolor texture depicting a vampire reaching out from the shadows toward a vision of herself as a child playing with a doll in the sunlight. Smoke rises from the vampire's fingers that are exposed to the light.

she had become a ghost of herself

Depiction of a man attacked by a huge female sea monsters with wings and horns (graveur)

In Norse mythology, margyger are sea monsters with fish tails and human bodies, but unlike mermaids they've hideous face features, horse-like ears, fangs and claws.

Margyger pull boats down into the depths of the ocean during big storms.

#dailyspooklore #folklore

Illustration by Tom Cuzor

Got a bad cough? Snail water or soup was a common cure. In 1678 physician Gideon Harvey criticised the "London snail water" currently on sale. His was better:

"the cool, clammy, and glutinous substance" cooled consumptive fevers and acted as an expectorant.

Yummy.

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893). "November", 1879. Oil on canvas.

Lots of love for the Grimshaw scene I posted yesterday, so here’s another. I love the way he captures the moonlight in this one.

November ~ John Atkinson Grimshaw (1878)

#inspiringart #oilpainting #Artwork #19thcenturyart

Kosuke Ajiro (Japanese, 1980) - Untitled (2020s)

A Viking Age runestone in deep snow at night. It has a rune band in a figure 8 pattern, a cross and a four-legged beast.

Look at this pretty thing in the Uppsala snow. U 489, "Gullaug(?) had the bridge made for the spirit of Gillaug, her daughter, and whom Ulfr owned (i.e. was married to). Œpir carved."

Women erecting runestones isn't unheard of, but it's extra interesting that it's a woman in memory of her daughter.

Just waved goodbye to the Vicar after some lovely quaint tea and scones. Probably get on my fixed gear cycle, the one with the wicker basket on the front, and take ride down to the Peace Gardens to delicately mist the leaves of the flowers with distilled water from my satchel. ☀️👒

The cover of ‘Pipes of Pan’ (1916) by Canadian poet Bliss Carman. Pan arrives to the sound of ‘mysterious melodies / Such as those which filled the earth / When the elder gods had birth.’

Please note I've now deprecated the "nepo baby" label on this labeller - as @parents.blue - a dedicated labeller for this - is now up and running - all nepo baby labels should have been transferred over, so go subscribe there too

Starling and strawberries print by Fay's studio

"Wild horses couldn't drag me away" – well mainly they wouldn't drag you away, would they? That's draft horses, draft horses are the ones who'd drag you away. Wild horses already ARE away, anyway, and don't care in the least where you go

Kelly Louise Judd, Rose Hand

He's going to try, but his hands are pretty shaky since he went on the wagon.

merricat was really cooking when she called her cousin a ghost & a demon

‘Come, Great Pan, and bless us all;
Bless the corn and honey-bee.
Bless the vine and bless the kine,
Bless the vales of Arcady:
Bless the nymphs that laugh and flee,
God of all fertility.’
— Dion Fortune, ‘The Goat-Foot God’ (1936)

🎨Gustave Moreau, 1894

Onomatopoeia is what Mario says when he wees on a rug.

broke
woke
bespoke: fuck everything 🤡

‘Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan!
Piercing sweet by the river!
Blinding sweet, O great god Pan!
The sun on the hill forgot to die,
And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly
Came back to dream on the river.’
— Elizabeth Barrett Browning, ‘A Musical Instrument’

🎨Arnold Böcklin

Look, all I'm saying is that the writers of Shrek needed a narrative shorthand to convey to the audience that their version of Robin Hood was not like former iterations and (more importantly) not to be trusted.

All they did was make him French and we all completely accepted it.