"Kensington Gore" theatrical blood began to be manufactured in the 1960s by pharmacist John Tinegate. Since his death, the name "Kensington Gore", a pun on the London street, has become a term for any fake blood used on the stage or in films. It was famously used in The Shining... #MorbidMarch

Scottish legend tells of the Blood Dogs which haunted battlegrounds to drink the blood of the fallen. They would manifest from morning mist, digging deep into the earth to find the blood and feast. Their breath could scorch but their paws left no prints... #MorbidMarch 🖌️Paget

The #wormmoon shines tonight and all kinds of ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties walk - and us, of course, up in the borderlands between Scotland and England, where we meet some of them in our 3rd #darkspringtide tale - read it below! 🎨 Franklin Booth

🍀🌕🍀Pointing at the moon was thought to be disrespectful and would bring misfortune. In the north-midland counties of England it was said that doing so nine times would prevent you from entering Heaven. #OwlishMonday #MythologyMonday #FairyTaleTuesday #FullMoon #WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday

In Irish folklore, a strange dog digging up your garden means illness or death is on its way... #MorbidMarch 🎨Donald Mcpartland

#OwlishMonday 'Early Plum Blossoms' by Nishimura Goun (1936), painted on silk

Not only did the bridal veil originate to protect the bride from evil spirits, it has also been suggested the veil protected the congregation from the liminal power of the bride herself... #MorbidMarch 🎨 Albert Guillaume

The coffin of a suspected vampire would have been filled with garlic or poppy seeds. Garlic would keep it bound in the grave. The seeds provided food but the vampire could only eat one seed at a time and eat them all before it could leave the grave again... #MorbidMarch 🎨Wiertz

In memory of dear Frodo, one of literature's most heroic and noble cats - Asmodeus #BookWormSat

I have gone out, a possessed witch, haunting the black air, braver at night; dreaming evil, I have done my hitch over the plain houses, light by light: lonely thing, twelve-fingered, out of mind. A woman like that is not a woman, quite. I have been her kind. AnneSexton #BookWormSat

In the old, scratched, cheap wood of the typing stand there is a landscape, veined, which only a child can see or the child’s older self, a poet, a woman dreaming when she should be typing the last report of the day. from Dreamwood - Adrienne Rich #BookWormSat 🎨Edward Hopper

“I have drowned my candle’s light; The night drifts in through the open pane, Softly enfolds me, lets me be Her friend, her kin.” (Hermann Hesse) 🎨 Ludwig von Zumbusch #bookwormsat #goldenageofillustration

Worms turn. Stars go in. Even the moon is losing face. Poplars stilt for dawn And we begin The long fall from grace. I tuck you in. from Night Feed by Eavan Boland #BookWormSat

Little henhouse boy, Sharp-faced as new moons Remembered, your photo still Glimpsed like a rodent On the floor of my mind from Bye-Child by Seamus Heaney inspired by the true and tragic story of a child confined to a hen-house since birth. #BookWormSat

Unreal city, Under the brown fog of a winter dawn, A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many, I had not thought death had undone so many. The Wasteland - T.S. Eliot #BookWormSat

‘This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door,’~ Auden, Night Mail. This #BookWormSat coincides with Auden’s birthday so we will mark the day with C20th poetry. Join us!

That's the end of an epic #FolkloreThursday 🦈 Today's theme was "Water Spirits & Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers and Seas” This is @shanonsinn.bsky.social signing off - your very last host today! Wishing you a happy Lunar New Year 🌙 1908 Arthur Rackham

In France and Germany, St Elmo's Fire was explained as being the lost soul of a drowned sailor warning of sea storms. In Brittany, it was known as the wandering candle. In Greece, it was seen as a bad omen come to destroy the ship... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Book Illustration c. 1860

Jenny Greenteeth is a supernatural being or ghost from rural NW England. She haunts ponds and other bodies of water—sometimes even the sea—pulling children under the water to their death. Tales of her nefarious deeds can be traced from 1850-2019 #folklorethursday 1978 Brian Froud & 2019 Simon Young

Old Boneless is a coastal fairy made of clinging fog and mist haunting the seashores of Down and Antrim, obscuring the rocks from unwary mariners. Over the centuries, it has drifted towards the towns where it sustains itself on the smoke from chimneys... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Sedlacek

Greetings #FolkloreThursday 🐉 That was Crystal at @crystalponti.bsky.social sharing your posts before the break! I'm @shanonsinn.bsky.social your final host today (for the next hour). Today's theme is Water Spirits & Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers and Seas 🧜‍♀️ 1928 Ivan Billibin

"The town dogs are howling, The Goddess is at the crossroads... Keep us safe, Thestylis: Strike the bell! Turn, magic wheel, And force my lover home" Prof. Ronald Hutton's lecture on the goddess Hecate. His recitation of incantations from ancient poetry is mesmerising #WitchSky #SkyStorians #Poetry

#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...

In Brabant a näck would weep like a child to attract help, and then, as the helper drowned, would suck their breath and blood... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Malmström

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

So this week it's a water themed #FolkloreThursday? Well yes, I can definitely add something to that. How about the Angel of the Thames, apparently seen during the Great Fire of London and Blitz, as well as right up to the modern era? A river spirit roused by surrounding disaster perhaps...

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)

In Scotland and Ireland beware strange horses. They may be the each-uisge. If you can saddle it and ride inland, you will have a fine horse, until it gets a whiff of sea-air. Then it gallops seaward, devouring you but leaving your liver to float upon the surface of the water... #FolkloreThursday

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 theme for the hosted #FolkloreThursday 19th Feb is Water Spirits and Shape-Shifters: Creatures of Lakes, Rivers, and Seas! Our hosts will share your posts to the hashtag at these times GMT: 9am-1pm 3.30-4.30pm 6.30-7.30pm Don't forget to join us 1-2pm for: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/water-spir...

"No Ghost At Arlington. Investigation By A Reporter." Bexhill Observer 8.11.1902. I don't know if there is a tradition of high churchyard walls keeping ghosts in? It seems doubtful as this is just an advert for Dr. Williams' pink pills! #PhantomsFriday

🖼 Grizzly Bear, George Catlin, c.1846.

The folk rituals of today and tomorrow in Hookland. #Imbolc #Candlemas

Do join us during the #FolkloreThursday hashtag day break for this FREE ONLINE event this February!

In Scotland today was Uphalieday, the last day of Yule revels! A King or Queen was elected by whoever found a bean hidden in a Twelfth Cake. A coin was then put in any leftover dough and the dough made into scones. Whoever found the coin would have a most lucky year! #Epiphany #Folklore 🎨Maclise

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” (Shelley) 🎨 Wiktor Kriżanowski #wintersky

In Ireland today is Nollaig na mBan: Women's Christmas, Little Christmas. A day when men would take over the "traditional" jobs of women (!) and women could rest! In lore, it was also when well-water would turn to wine although it was unlucky to observe...! #Epiphany #January

Italy has a Christmas Witch. La Befana. She gives gifts to the little ones on the Eve of Epiphany. But what does she do after a job well done, today, on Epiphany? La Befana starts walking again and… - read more in our last #yulefolklore tale below! 🎨 Botticelli (detail)

The rugged majesty of The Mourne Mountains was the inspiration for Narnia. "I have seen landscapes (in the Mourne Mountains) which...made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge." C.S. Lewis #BookWormSat 📷Nigel Killeen

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. A cat, I am sure, could walk on a cloud without coming through. Jules Verne #BookologyThursday 🎨Louis Wain

THE BIRDS OF CHRISTMAS by @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social illus by Mira Miroslavova is a recommended holiday book. Based on a European tale about how the robin got its red breast, the art complements the story, drawing the reader in with its energy. #EduSky 🍎 #KidLit 📚👍 #Libsky @ebyrbooks.bsky.social

That's the end another epic #FolkloreThursday ✨🐿️☃️🥂 Today's theme was "Winter and Festive Folklore” This is @shanonsinn.bsky.social signing off - your last host of 2025! Wishing you a wonderful Winter Solstice and a happy holiday season ❄️🎄🌟 1880 circa English Card

In Ireland on Christmas Eve, doors were left unlocked, the fire banked high, food and drink sitting on the table so that the wandering departed could return and enjoy the festivities before going back whence they came... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Lynn Bywaters

Even scarier than Christmas Callicantzaroi is their companion the violent demon Koutsodaimonas with his oversized head, lolling tongue, hump on his chest and genitals always on display. Keep him away by leaving a sieve and broom by the door and burn incense... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Edelmann

In Irish families it was believed on Twelfth Night, the dead walked, and on every tile of the house a soul sat, waiting for prayers to take it out of purgatory... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Sedlacek

Feliz Navidad #FolkloreThursday ❄️✨🎄❄️ That was Crystal @crystalponti.bsky.social being merry and bright before the break! I'm @shanonsinn.bsky.social your elven host for the next one hour ⭐ Today's theme is "Winter and Festive Folklore” 1900s early German postcard

A fly in the house at Christmas is considered a sign of good luck in British folklore... #FolkloreThursday

At midnight on Christmas Eve all animals are endowed with the gifts of speech and prophecy. Apparently, those born on a Sunday can speak with them... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Brueghal the Elder

In Scottish folklore, those born on Christmas day have the ability to see ghosts... #FolkloreThursday