#BookWormSat #RemembranceDay Plunge into WWII's pivotal showdown with The Battle of the Atlantic by Jonathan Dimbleby—Churchill's "war of groping & drowning" comes alive through U-boat hunts, code-cracking triumphs, & convoy grit. Essential for honoring Atlantic guardians like my dad. #WW2

On this week's episode of Local Legends Eleanor is joined around the campfire by storyteller priestess Christine Watkins to talk all about her home county of Monmouthshire! 🖤 Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts!

#BookWormSat Remembering my dad, Marshall Hopkins a 19-year-old signalman in the Royal Canadian Navy. For 6 years, he signaled from warships, escorting merchant convoys through U-boat wolfpacks in the Atlantic, vital supplies for Britain. Amid RCN's tragic losses 2K+ gone! #Remebranceday #WW2 #Hero

In Japanese literature, the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forms a quiet, aching genre. Writers like Ōe and Ibuse portray peace as something fragile, stitched together from ash, tenderness, and refusal to forget. #BookWormSat Art: Standish Backus

‘No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;  Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs— The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.’~ Wilfred Owen This #BookWormSat, join us to mark Remembrance Day with war and peace in literature.

Hooray! It's the weekend! And what better thing to do of a cold and gloomy November evening than watch this month's Three Ravens Film Club pick, Dog Soldiers?! 🖤🐺 Email us your thoughts about the film by Monday 24th November then we'll include them in this month's episode!

In rural Europe, household spirits like the domovoi and kobold once expected small offerings of bread, beer, or a drop of blood from a butchered animal. A neglected spirit could wreak havoc in the dark hours. #FolkyFriday

There are many examples of prehistoric barrows and tombs being haunted by men without their heads (see list below). Could they be #ghosts or folk memories of sacrifices linked to some ancient head cult? (It's a doubtful theory but all I could think of for #FolkyFriday !) #PhantomsFriday #FolkHorror

The witch in legend of the Rollright Stones on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border turned herself into an elder tree. Local lore held that if the tree was cut it bled. #FolkyFriday

🩸🐉🩸Dragon Hill, below the Uffington White Horse, is said to be the place where Saint George slew the Dragon - its poisonous blood soaked into the ground, and even now no grass will grow where it fell. #FolkloreThursday #FolkyFriday #FolkloreSunday

Another blood-sucking #yokai for #FolkyFriday.

Penelope is one of the youngest gnomes. She loves flowers and also enjoys dollops of fresh sweet honey with the occasional blackberry. #Gnome #LittleGnome #SweetGnome

#FolkyFriday #November 🐏 In Anglo-Saxon tradition, Blōtmōnaþ, the "Blood Month," was when herds were ritually #sacrifced to feed families, and honor the dead before winter. Scholars note no specific deity is linked to these rites. Spill blood, then feast, survival meets the divine. #BloodMonth 🩸

Excellent sign ✨🕸️

#FolkyFriday 🔥 #WickerMan 👨‍🦲 #sacrifice 🔥 Did Celtic Druids burn criminals in wicker effigies for luck? Julius Caesar’s tales suggest so, but scholars warn it might be propaganda to demonize foes. 😈 Read more by Tastes of History, www.tastesofhistory.co.uk/post/dispell...

#FolkyFriday 🏴🐲🧙‍♂️ #Sacrifice In Welsh lore, young #Merlin faces Vortigern’s tower of doom. Druids demand his blood, but he reveals two dragons fighting below—red for Wales, white for Saxons—saving his life. Read the article here by @ztevetevans.bsky.social ztevetevans.wordpress.com/2017/07/05/t...

Unveil the Shadows: Samhain's Veil E-Book! Dark season calls—dive into Celtic mysteries with Samhain's Veil: Folklore and Poetry of the Dark Season. Ghostly tales, eerie poems, and ancestral omens weave a chilling gothic tapestry. For ages 12+ Embrace the spirits at niftybucklesfolklore.fun!

Spooky Shenanigans Await: with my New Book, The Spooky Day of Skip Macdougall! Halloween fun continues! Join brave Skip in this rhyming e-book poem—winking pumpkins, a cheeky ghost, and backyard chaos await. Learn how to read way of poetry. For ages 4-8. Buy on my site, niftybucklesfolklore.fun!

Out now, in print and ebook: Folklore of the Lake District by Stephen G. Rae come on a magical journey in folklore through the Lake District and its surrounding counties bardofcumberland.com/folklore/ #folklorethursday #booksky

Please share, please support if you can.

#FolkloreThursday #Reed November’s Reed Moon (Ngetal) dips into Donn’s underworld at Tech Duinn, winds whisper for the dead. Also known as Broom or Fern,original plants of the ancient Celts. @shanonsinn.bsky.social article explores the Reed. livinglibraryblog.com/ngetal-reed-...

Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain 🎃🐈‍⬛ The veil is thin tonight. Be safe! 🖤 #PhantomsFriday

It's Halloween, Flanders' witches are joyously cackling while dancing to strange, wild music in the woods. Our project has just reached 80% funding! Thank you so much! 🖤🌙🖤 kck.st/492NqKt

'When I was dead, my spirit turned To seek the much-frequented house: I passed the door, and saw my friends Feasting beneath green orange boughs' -Christina Rossetti Tomorrow #BookWormSat will explore death and the dead in literature. Do join us! 🖤 Reposts will be slower than usual.

#FolkyFriday #BookWormSat and friends! 🎃🧡🍂 Wishing You All a Happy #Halloween and blessed #Samhain TODAY is the BIG LAUNCH of my NEW Site and my two NEW Books: SAMHAIN'S VEIL, AND For Children A Fun Poem ──THE SPOOKY DAY OF SKIP MACDOUGALL 👻🐩👦 Check them out here... niftybucklesfolklore.fun

#MythologyMonday ✨🖤 'Māori Tā Moko', New Zealand’s sacred #tattoo art! 🇳🇿🖋️ Etched on face or body, each unique design weaves identity, status, & ancestry, rooted in creation myths. 🌿🌏 Tied to Rūaumoko, the god of earthquakes 🌋, tā moko marks transformation and spiritual legacy. #MaoriTaMoko

#MythologyMonday ✨🖤 Let’s unravel the enigmatic #tattoos of the #Picts the legendary "Painted People" of ancient Scotland! 🏴‍☠️🖌️ In folklore, their intricate body art—etched with iron needles or dyed with woad—was more than mere decoration; it was a sacred pact with Celtic gods.

#NationalBlackCatDay 🖤🐾🐈‍⬛ In Irish folklore, black cats are believed to be guardians of the faery realm, with some legends saying that gazing into their eyes can reveal the secrets of the otherworld. ✨🧚‍♀ 🎨 Ryan Conners of KilkennyCat Art.

#BookwormSat In Eastern European folktales (like Romanian pricolici myths), #werewolves are the ultimate wedding crashers! 🌌 They steal the bride mid-vows and vanish into the forest leaving grooms in despair. Their shape-shifting comes from dark pacts: cursed wolfskin belts, amulets, or spells.

#BookwormSat Witches, rabbits, and brooms in folklore 🌕🧹 Witches riding brooms symbolize mystical power and travel between worlds. #Rabbits, linked to fertility, moon phases, and rebirth, also hold magical significance.

#BookwormSat 1728: The "Casket Girls" arrived in New Orleans, young French women with cassette-shaped trunks ⚰️. Lore twists darkly—some say they were #vampires, sealed in sunlight-proof coffins 🧛‍♀️⚰️, fueling bloodlust tales in the French Quarter 🩸. #CasketGirls #NOLA

#BookwormSat In folklore, #Blackcats were both feared and revered—seen as protectors against evil or as witches’ familiars, capable of crossing boundaries between worlds 🔮Their mysterious presence continues to stir tales of magic, and the unseen forces that dance through the night. #Caturday

#BookwormSat During the ancient Celtic festival of #Samhain (over 2,000 years ago), the veil between worlds grew thin, and spirits roamed freely. People wore #MASKS and costumes made from animal skins and heads, disguising themselves as beasts 🐺👻 to fool malevolent spirits and protect themselves.

#BookwormSat Janet Douglas, The Grey Lady of Glamis Castle 🏰✨ Burned for witchcraft in 1537, Janet Douglas, Lady Glamis, is said to haunt the castle’s chapel, forever kneeling in prayer . Wronged by King James V’s revenge, her ghostly figure also lingers in the Clock Tower.

#BookWormSat Mary Shelley’s Gothic legacy was #Frankenstein (1818). 🧌 Beyond a “monster,” her Creature is a shapeshifter, blurring life and death. A symbol of loneliness, prejudice, and unchecked ambition. Her creature’s reflection: "I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather the fallen angel..." 😔👼

#BookwormSat Halloween Pumpkin Dance 🎃💃🌕 Under the moon's golden gleam so bright, Witches whirl 'round a Jack o' Lantern's light. Brooms in the air, spells in their song, 🧹🎶 Cauldrons a-bubbling all night long. Whimsical witches in a spooky prance, Join in at the Halloween pumpkin dance!"🧙‍♀️💃

#BookwormSat Witch Balls In 18th-centuryEngland & New England tales, these iridescent glass spheres were hung in windows for home protection from Witchcraft, bad fortune and to entice wandering witches, evil spirits or ghosts to enter & become eternally snared inside the #Witchballs 🔮

‘Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there He wasn't there again today I wish, I wish he'd go away. When I came home last night at three The man was waiting there for me But when I looked around the hall I couldn't see him there at all!’ #BookWormSat ~ Mearns

“Where will we go?” said Janet. “We're in the middle of nowhere.” Brad wonders, “Didn't we pass a castle down the road a few miles back? Maybe they have a telephone I could use.” ~ The Official Rocky Horror Picture Show Movie Novel (1980), Jim Sherman. #BookWormSat

‘Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand: I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.’ Witch Burning, Sylvia Plath. Tomorrow, we celebrate all the ghosts, ghouls, monsters, vampires, bats, witches of literature ~ all are welcome for this spectral #BookWormSat 🦇

Philip Pullman’s final Book of Dust is a masterpiece for all eternity Powerful, profound and utterly unforgettable: 📖 “The Rose Field” gives us a stunning trilogy conclusion #BookchatWeekly #BookwormSat

Hi all! Absolutely stretched to our limits so we're going to have to call time on #FolkyFriday for the next couple of weeks. 🖤 We'll launch the ol' girl up again on November 7th though, with the theme of "Blood Month and Folkloric Sacrifices!" Tag related posts #FolkyFriday for shares then!

Happy #NationalHorrorMovieDay! 🍁👻🧟‍♂️🎃🧡 A very Happy Birthday to the legendary Sam Raimi! 🎂 👻 The creator of 'The Evil Dead,' brought horror to life and set the stage for countless chilling classics—perfect for the #HalloweenCountdown! 🎃 #TheEvilDead 🧟‍♂️🩸🪚

#phantomsfriday tomorrow and it would be great if a few more followers of a #FolkloreThursday disposition would care to join in with some ghostlore. In addition, ghostly art, literature, poetry, info on haunted sites (and more) are always welcome. Perhaps take a peek at @phantomsfriday.bsky.social.

Long ago the fairies played too long catching sunbeams. When night fell, they hid them in their flower cradles and slept. By dawn, the beams had spilled out, turning some flowers gold – the buttercup and the marigold – and leaving a golden heart in all the rest. #FolkloreThursday

This #FolkloreThursday let's honor #InternationalSnowLeopardDay, the "Ghost of the Mountains" from Himalayan folklore! These elusive guardians absorb sins from past lives—killing one transfers those sins to you, a sacred deterrent. 🙏 In Tibetan myths, they symbolize strength and prosperity.

#BookwormSat 📚🍂 In Celtic harvest traditions, carved gourds—precursors to pumpkins—shone as protective lanterns during #Samhain, warding off mischievous Fae and spirits as the veil thinned.🕯️ 🎃 These glowing talismans guided the good and kept tricksters at bay. #Autumn 🍂🎃

#BookwormSat 📙 #Caturday 😸 🧣 Autumn Kitty Sneeze A cat family, scarves bright and red, Frolicked where Autumn leaves spread. A blustery breeze Made the kitten sneeze— But they grabbed her scarf, not her head! — Nifty Buckles Folklore 🍁 🎨 by Cindy Schmidt

#BookwormSat 👻🫖🍂 #Autumn Ghosts in my teapot, a spooky sight, Float out with a whispering flight. They drift and they glide, With secrets to hide, Vanishing into Autumn's brisk night. — Nifty Buckles Folklore 🍁 #GhostTea 👻🫖 🎨 Serenitame

#BookwormSat 🎃 “In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.” ― Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow