Thank you so much to all of the fantastic #FolkloreThursday hosts for a brilliant day yesterday, and to @helenerwin.bsky.social and @willowwinsham.bsky.social for the amazing live event too! 💜

'... I call to the dwellers along the shore With a voice of gramarye evermore. And if one for love of me Gives to my call an ear, I will woo him and hold him dear, And teach him the way of the sea...' ~From 'The Sea Spirit' by L.M. Montgomery 🎨 Howard Pyle #BookologyThursday #FolkloreThursday

#FolkloreThursday Lüschersee is a small Swiss Alpine lake which is said to be bottomless. In its depths lives the Butatsch Cun Ilgs, a monster described as looking like an enormous cow's stomach covered with hundreds of hypnotic eyes, which can also shoot fire. abookofcreatures.com/2015/09/23/b...

Thank you so much to everyone who came along to the #FolkloreThursday x @theforemotherscafe.bsky.social x @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social LIVE online event today! And huge thank you to @helenerwin.bsky.social for such a fascinating deep-dive into historical accounts of Näcken!

An enchantress awaits on the coastline of Java. She may appear as a mermaid, or she may appear as a beautiful Goddess, but regardless of her form, she harbors a grudge against men, and has been known to lure the unsuspecting to a watery grave… #FolkloreThursday mythcrafts.com/2017/05/03/t...

Every year the stones given by StFillan to the Old Mill at Killin are washed in the falls on the river Dochart and rebedded in river wrack, shaped like body parts they are said to have the power to heal, you can find out more on my website www.botanicafabula.co.uk/heritage-arc... #folklorethursday

Every year, the spirit of a lake near Dornberg demanded a sacrifice on St. John's Day. #folklorethursday https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_St._John%27s_Day_Sacrifice

""Undine Discovering Herself To The Knight Huldbrand." - By F. Wyburd." The Illustrated London News 15.10.1859. #FolkloreThursday #Undine #Art #1850s

Hello #FolkloreThursday and thank you to @botanicafabula.bsky.social for hosting the last hour of watery folklore- this is @mythcrafts.bsky.social here for the next hour fishing for your tasty folklore tidbits! Img: Siren statuette from The Met

Scottish water-sprite Shellycoat is covered in shells that clatter as it moves. Often more mischievous than deadly, it once fooled two travellers into thinking it was drowning; as they followed the river to help, they heard the Shellycoat laugh and burst into applause...! #FolkloreThursday 🎨Alan Lee

Kappa are reptilian yokai from Japanese folklore that dwell in rivers and lakes. While they can sometimes be friendly (especially if given an offering of cucumber, their favorite food), there are also tales of them drowning and even eating humans who enter their aquatic homes. #FolkloreThursday

Scary indeed. And somewhat similar to how Näcken turns into a horse that takes riders and then never stops running.

The Scottish kelpie appears as a beautiful horse near rivers, luring riders before plunging into dark water. Trust is always tested near the shore. #FolkloreThursday Art: Catherine Herold

For Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire #FolkloreThursday -ers! I'm thrilled to be giving my talk ‘Unfamiliar Familiars – The Unusual Companions of the Witch’ at the UK Ghost Story Festival in Derby next Friday. It would be great to see some "familiar" faces! www.derbyquad.co.uk/events/unfam...

One for the #FolkloreThursday crowd!

The Irish alp-luachra - Joint Eater - preys on weary travellers sleeping beside streams or rivers. This newt-like fairy spirit slips down the throat and settles in the stomach, eating any food that enters while the unsuspecting host slowly wastes away. #FolkloreThursday (Image: John Horner)

Sirens did not start out as sexy fish ladies. #FolkloreThursday mythcrafts.com/2018/11/13/w...

What a great start! @willowwinsham.bsky.social handing over to @botanicafabula.bsky.social now for more fabulous folklore of water Spirits and Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers, and Seas! #FolkloreThursday 🎨The Spirit of the Water Lily by John La Farge

Looking forward to welcoming @helenerwin.bsky.social and @willowwinsham.bsky.social to @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social today for our LIVE #FolkloreThursday water folklore event — now SOLD OUT! If you missed out this time, do join us for forest folklore in April! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guardians-...

In Orcadian lore, we find Nuckalavee. It may look like a horseman rising from the sea but look closer and see a skinless horse-like beast, dripping flesh, fins on its legs, and a human torso fused to its back. Its poisonous breath spreading disease... #FolkloreThursday 🎨James Torrance

Good morning #FolkloreThursday! @willowwinsham.bsky.social here for the next hour of folklore of Water Spirits and Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers, and Seas! 🎨The Spirit of the Pool, George William Russell

The ceffyl dŵr is a Welsh fairy horse that inhabits mountain pools and waterfalls. In south Wales, it is often benevolent. However, in north Wales, this horse likes to get someone to ride it, fly into the air, and then become mist, so that the rider falls to their death. #FolkloreThursday

A star looked down upon the earth and longed to gladden human hearts. Seeing a lake that mirrored the night sky, it slipped from the heavens into the dark water. By dawn it had become a radiant white water lily, its golden heart shining— a silent beacon of hope. #FolkloreThursday

“To Bacharach am Rheine lives a sorceress She was so beautiful and fine And tore a lot of hearts” (Brentano) Malicious Rhine maiden Lorelei is a Kunstmärchen invention from the Romantic period around 1800. 🎨 Moritz Ulffers (1866) #folklorethursday #bookologythursday

How serendipitous that #FolkloreThursday is highlighting Water Sprits! Today’s mer-pic is Muirgen the Mermaid Saint of Lough Neath, Northern Ireland (aka LíBan) and her otter. Illustration by Anna Hopkinson for Legends from Lindisfarne. Details of my Merfolk and LGBTQIA+ Rep online talk below:

Read about Muirgen the Mermaid Saint in Legends from Lindisfarne #FolkloreThursday www.elizabethhopkinson.uk/legends-from...

During our photoshoot for my book cover for #TheLureOfWaterAndWood something very fitting, and entirely by accident, happened. Can you spot it? #Näcken #FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social Photo: Ben Erwin. Model info by request.

2/2 Painting, public domain. Artist unknown

I didn't know of this one until I just found it today! Here Näcken is playing a harp while the Sea God Ägir's nine daughters float around him. @folklorethursday.bsky.social #FolkloreThursday Painting: Näcken och Ägirs döttrar, by Nils Nils Blommér 1850. Sveriges Nationalmuseum

Wyrdlings! The platform that was once twitter faces the Wyrd’s final curtain this week and so we give you: “Downfalls, Demises & It's All Over" as this week’s #WyrdWednesday topic. And while the Mothers of Wyrd quit * that * place, we'll still be here on Bluesky & over on Instagram every week!

Looking forward to tomorrow's #FolkloreThursday x @theforemotherscafe.bsky.social x @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social Näcken folklore event tomorrow! Tickets are now sold out, so do join us in April if you missed out this time! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/guardians-...

It is LIVE @helenerwin.bsky.social novelist and founder of The Foremothers Cafe is doing a talk about of her books next week which includes a gallery with historical and modern art about her Swedish mythological characters. Gallery is LIVE now.

The Gallery with Näcken and my work is LIVE! Exciting announcement indeed. Go see it #FolkoreThursday -ers, and see you next week!

My favourite relic, yet to be located … “the skull of St Peter as a child” (from Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland, by James Murray Mackinlay (1910), p. 221) archive.org/details/chur...

Join me and @folklorethursday.bsky.social on Thursday for Water Spirit Hashtag day and bring us your watery thoughts. Then join me @deedeechainey.bsky.social and @willowwinsham.bsky.social at the @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/water-spir...

Come to Glasgow – your alternative City of Love – & visit (what might be) the rest of him/one of them! #SuperstitionSaturday #ValentinesDay www.atlasobscura.com/places/st-va...

Roses are Red: The Sinister Side of #Valentine’s Day Folklore by @icysedgwick.bsky.social folklorethursday.com/folklife/ros...

The Human #Heart in the Middle Ages and the Practice of Ablation – or Treatment of the Dead for #Valentine’s Day by #RandiSamuelson-Brown folklorethursday.com/folklife/tre...

Happy Valentine’s Day! We were lucky enough to visit the (alleged!) skull of St. Valentine in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin while on our honeymoon in Rome a while ago. An eerie and unexpected visit! 😅 #FolkloreThursday #SuperstitionSaturday

Book FREE tickets to LIVE online talk from @helenerwin.bsky.social at @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social on February 19th: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/water-spir...

Exciting announcement, #FolkloreThursday -ers! Our online exhibition is now LIVE! Come along to find out more about Näcken, a sinister Swedish water creature... Visit free online! www.spatial.io/s/DeeDeeChai... Check out the intro video on how to use Spatial.io: youtu.be/oMqB_V9qq3c?...

Just a week left! Join me and my two amazing collaborators @deedeechainey.bsky.social and @willowwinsham.bsky.social

'Sometimes they found forest fairies dancing and singing in the moonlight and joined in their games.' 'Children of the Forest' by Elsa Beskow #WyrdWednesday

Thor's Fight with the Jotuns, by Mårten Eskil Winge (1872) #WyrdWednesday

#WyrdWednesday I can't think of a better contemporary purveyor of weird and dark Scandi stories than Norway's Camilla Bruce. Here she is speaking of Norwegian folklore and witches and ghosts at a UK festival 3 years ago www.thefolklorepodcast.com/bonus-conten...

“Owls are howling, loons are crying. Ghosts haunt the land. Ghosts haunt the sea, moaning and sighing, weeping and keening.” (From “Svartedauden”, Black Death - 🎨&✍🏻 Theodor Kittelsen, 1900) #wyrdwednesday #goldenageofillustration #bookillustration #booksky

1/2 @wyrdwednesday.bsky.social #WyrdWednesday Näcken is mostly known for luring people into the water with his sexy appeal and gorgeous violin music. But earlier in our Swedish history, he looked very different and didn't always play violin. In 1599 Pastor Klint made a report and drew this.

It was once argued that the Swedish skogsrå were spirits of trees themselves that are able to take human form – ‘tree-souls’ – but experts no longer believe this was ever the case, nor were they spirits that lived within a specific tree. #WyrdWednesday #TreasuryOfFolklore #WoodlandsAndForests

Our wynderful Wyrdlings share fantastic content not only #WyrdWednesday! Find them below and give them a follow, because... You need more wyrd in your stream (of the good kind, of course)! bsky.app/profile/wyrd...

Strange Scandi Stories!” This week’s #WyrdWednesday topic. Surely one of the strangest characters in Norse mythology is Ratatoskr, a squirrel who runs up and down Yggdrasil carrying messages between the eagles perched on top and the dragon Níðhöggr beneath one of the roots.