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Scary Swedish bedtime stories for awful children
The creators of the game Year Walk have prepared a special treat for us: a free e-book of Swedish scary stories to tell in the dark. Described as "newly written ancient folk tales," these dark fables...
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East of the Sun and West of the Moon – Norwegian folklore intricately...
See sample pages from this book at Wink. If Walt Disney gave us the definitive picture of German fairy tales such as Cinderella and Snow White, first published in 1812 by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Kay...
View ArticleFolktexts: How to fill your head with free folklore
In third grade I stole a book from the school library: The Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend. I could barely read it, but the images on its cover and what little...
View ArticleFolklore generator
Andy Purviance's Purviance.com/myths generates (and beautifully presents) snippets of folklore: perfect for forming story ideas or oblique strategies. Some I got: Pursuit of game leads to upper world...
View ArticleMystery of The Giant's Causeway in Ireland has been unlocked
Time for a bit of folklore. Benandonner was a giant from Scotland. He was something of a tool and constantly threatened to lay a beating on Ireland. Fionn mac Cumhaill was a giant too. He resided in...
View ArticleBone & Sickle, a new macabre podcast by Al Ridenour
Krampus LA co-founder (and occasional BB guest blogger) Al Ridenour is taking a stab at podcasting with Bone & Sickle, a show that "celebrates the intertwining of horror and folklore." He writes:...
View ArticleAncient civilizations' fascination with AI, robots, and synthetic life
Stanford folklorist and science historian Adrienne Mayor has a fascinating-sounding new book out, titled "Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology." It's a survey of how...
View ArticleA darker, grimmer Snow White
More than a century before the Disneyfication of Snow White, German folklorists the Brothers Grimm collected the fairy tale in their anthology Nursery and Household Tales. But their version, and...
View ArticleSanta Claus is a psychedelic mushroom
One fantastic and wonderful origin theory of Santa Claus involves psychedelic mushrooms and shamanic rituals of the indigenous Sámi people who live in northern Finland. Paul Devereux wrote about this...
View ArticleElf-shooting is a disease from which cows suffer.
From a 1938 school book transcribed by the Dúchas Project, the digital archives of the National Folklore Project at UC Dublin: Elf-shooting is a disease from which cows suffer. They are supposed to...
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That time Davy Crockett met Bigfoot
Legendary American explorer, soldier, and folk hero Davy Crockett (1786-1836) may be known as the "King of the Wild Frontier," but we all know that title actually belongs to Bigfoot. I hadn't realized...
View ArticlePetition to replace every Confederate statue in West Virginia with Mothman
Hot the heels of the GWAR statue petition to replace Robert E. Lee in Richmond (now closing in on 55K signatures) comes a petition to replace all of the Confederate statue in West Virginia with statues...
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The origins of Baba Yaga
This video on Monstrum looks at the origins of Baba Yaga, an epically feared and revered figure in Russian and Slavic folklore.Image: YouTube
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Lore generator
Michael Reeve created a handsome folklore generator, in the form of brief footnote-like references. It's inspired by The Loremen Podcast, which covers forgotten folklore and obscure local curiosities....
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A brief history of gargoyles
I've really been enjoying some of the videos on Monstrum ever since I posted the episode on Baba Yaga.In this installment, they look at how gargoyles evolved from an architectural element to decorate...
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Murder ballads were the original true-crime media
Over at JSTOR Daily, Jody Amable digs through the scholarly literature on murder ballads and discovers they were an early form of true-crime media: Songwriters would rip lurid stories from the...
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The origins of the word "monster"
I've really been enjoying the Monstrum series on YouTube, produced by PBS. They recently announced a spin-off show (of sorts), called Otherwords, exploring weird-word etymologies. For the first...
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My Life on the Road: The Jinn
This is the trailer for an upcoming horror movie called The Djinn. Watching it reminded me of a story. Just before COVID-19 really came into its own in the winter of 2020, I spent a month on a working...
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Kickstart this cool new comic of North American folktales by Indigenous artists
Iron Circus Comics is a great independent press that's been kicking around since 2007. Founded by artist/writer C. Spike Trotman — creator of comics like Templar, Arizona and Smut Peddler — the...
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Krampus, the origins of a Yuletide monster
On this episode of Monstrum, they look at the origins of everybody's favorite Christmas devil, Krampus. Image: Screengrab
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Viral ode to the Bayraktar drone being used by the Ukrainian army
On March 1st, the UGF (Ukrainian Ground Forces) shared a song on social media. The song is an ode to the Bayraktar TB2, the Turkish-made medium-altitude drone that the Ukrainians have been using to...
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PBS takes a look at Siren Head, an eldritch folk monster for the internet age
In this episode of PBS' Monstrum, they take a look at Siren Head, a modern monster created by artist Trevor Henderson which has become mimetic across the internet. The creature was originally inspired...
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Palace beekeeper's most solemn task: telling the bees about Queen Elizabeth...
After the Queen died, John Chapple, the official Palace beekeeper, was charged with the task of "telling the bees." He literally went from hive to hive telling tens of thousands of the Queen's bees...
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The fascinating history and traditions of the Jack-o-Lantern
The origins of the carved pumpkin on Halloween are not neat and tidy, but rather, a whole set of practices, from craved and illuminated vegetables as ancient human head totems, to Irish folk...
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Take a creepy cross country roadtrip with The United States of Cryptids
I love folklore, so naturally, I also love cryptids, since they're basically the scary story versions of modern folklore. Which is precisely what I enjoyed about The United States of Cryptids, a new...
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Turning a life-size animatronic wizard into Krampus
On Wicked Makers, Jaimie and Jay turn a 6' animatronic wizard into Krampus, just in time to snatch up and switch naughty little children for Christmas! Be good, kids — don't smoke, stay in school!
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The Troll Hole Museum
Remember playing with troll dolls as a kid? I always loved their ugly-cute faces and bright, wild hair. If you're a fan, too, then you should know about the Troll Hole. The Troll Hole is a massive...
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The cryptid complications of Wikipedia's editing policies
This is (apparently) a great war simmering between Wikipedia editors and cryptid hunters. Cryptid enthusiasts, such as those who haunt r/Cryptozoology, accuse the open-source information website of...
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Mexican president posts photo proving existence of mysterious Mayan elf
Among some Maya peoples, there is folklore about the alux, a miniature mystical sprite who lives in forests, caves, and fields. Now, Mexican President President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has posted a...
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Unofficial mascot not welcome at Japan's annual Iron Penis Festival
Kanamara Matsuri, commonly referred to as the "Iron Penis Festival," is an annual event held in Kawasaki, Japan, typically on the first Sunday of April. The legend behind Kanamara Matsuri tells the...
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