Trump urges people in Hungary to “get out and vote” for Kremlin-backed kleptocrat Viktor Orbán. It’s Trump, Putin, and Orbán vs. the free world. TRUMP IS AN AMERICAN TRAITOR, WHO NEEDS TO BE REMOVED!

A worldwide bestseller for over thirty years, Watership Down is one of the most beloved novels of all time. Set in England's Downs, a once idyllic rural landscape, this stirring tale follows a band of very special creatures on their flight from the intrusion of man and #BookWormSat 🧵

The Wind in the Willows is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It tells the story of Mole, Ratty and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets into trouble. #BookWormSat

Trufflehunter was an old talking badger who lived during the time of the War of Deliverance, and who later served Caspian X during his time as king of Narnia. He was also the first talking beast of Narnia that Caspian had ever met. #BookWormSat

Known as ‘the Pearl of Silesia,’ the Książ Castle in Poland covers a striking range of styles such as Gothic, Baroque, and Rococo, and these look all the better when framed against a background of deep, dark woodland. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Houska Castle is a thirteenth century castle in the middle of a large unpopulated area in Czechia. According to local legend dating back to 87811, the castle was built over a bottomless pit known as the Gates to Hell. It was reputed to be so deep that #PhantomsFriday

Orava Castle in Slovakia, renowned as the filming location for the 1922 vampire film Nosferatu, is widely considered haunted. It is famously associated with the legend of the "Lady in White," a ghost said to haunt the halls. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Oranges and lemons, Say the bells of St. Clement's. You owe me five farthings, Say the bells of St. Martin's. When will you pay me? Say the bells at Old Bailey. When I grow rich, Say the bells at Shoreditch. #WyrdWednesday 🧵

What has 13 hearts but no other organs? #WyrdWednesday

Belfagor arcidiavolo ("Belfagor the archdaemon") is a novella by Niccolò Machiavelli, written between 1518 and 1527, and first published with his collected works in 1549. The story derives from Medieval Slavic folklore (and gave birth to a German and North-European #BookWormSat 🧵

Ghost hunters from all over the world make a pilgrimage to the cemetery of the nameless in Wien, Austria. Until about the middle of the last century, the Danube river used to wash up the bodies of people who had drowned or been murdered and #PhantomsFriday 🧵

The history of the Pidhirtsi Castlein in Ukraine has many mysterious pages. There are many incredible rumours about one of the owners of the castle, a politician Seweryn Rzewuski, because of his rather peculiar hobby. They say that in his secret alchemical laboratory, #PhantomsFriday 🧵

The Tihany Abbey stands proudly on the shores of Lake Balaton. The ancient Benedictine monastery is a popular tourist destination, where monks live and work to this day. By day, it is an imposing and beautiful historic site, #PhantomsFriday 🧵

URNS and odours bring away! Vapours, sighs, darken the day! Our dole more deadly looks than dying; Balms and gums and heavy cheers, Sacred vials fill'd with tears, And clamours through the wild air flying! #bookWormSat 🧵

Blow, blow, thou winter wind Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen, Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. Heigh-ho! sing, heigh-ho! unto the green holly: Most freindship if feigning, most loving mere folly: #BookWormSat 🧵

#PhantomsFriday Now this is a strange one. The title of this eerie 1887 chromolithograph by 'Lindsay' is allegedly 'The Cabin of Accession' but I wonder if it should be 'Accension'? It was produced in Ohio but other than that.........

Hoia Baciu Forest in Romania is one of the most haunted places in the world. Hundreds of people who visited have said they left with burns, rashes, nausea, physical damage and many other horrific symptoms. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Perched on a hill in the “City of a Thousand Windows,” Berat Castle In Albania. Dating back centuries, this fortress has seen bloodshed and betrayal, and locals whisper of a ghostly “White Lady”—believed to be Lady Maria, #PhantomsFriday 🧵

The famous victory of the Greeks over the Persians at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC didn’t just haunt the losers, but apparently the victors too. According to one ancient chronicler, the site of the battle, at Marathon in southern Greece, was haunted for many years #PhantomsFriday 🧵

One of the plants that appears most frequently in potion ingredients and spells is vervain - a seemingly innocuous herb with a long history of magical use. Sometimes known as the “Enchanter’s Herb”, Vervain was treated as a sacred plant by almost #WyrdWednesday 🧵

Blackthorn, a thorny shrub in the rose family, has an especially sinister reputation in European folklore. Native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, it has long been associated with darkness and death, in part due to the appearance of its twisted, spiky branches, #WyrdWednesday 🧵

It’s no wonder plants that help you see and experience interesting and terrifying things have long been associated with magic. Henbane, also known as “the witch’s drug,” is one of several plants in the Solanaceae (nightshade) #WyrdWednesday 🧵

Legend has it that in ancient Italy on the day of the spring equinox women went to the Gardens of Adonis and planted seeds to symbolise new growth and rebirth. This custom still lives on in the southern Italian island of Sicily. #FolkloreThursday 🧵

Celebrated around March 21st (first day of spring) or on the 4th Sunday of the Lents before Easter, the custom of burning of Marzanna symbolizes the departure of winter and is rooted in pre-Christian Slavic rites that were performed to summon the spring. 🧵 #FolkloreThursday

Christina the Astonishing (c. 1150 – 24 July 1224), also known as Christina Mirabilis, was a Christian holy woman born in Brustem (near Sint-Truiden), Belgium. Christina is primarily known for her legendary #WyrdWednesday 🧵

Blenda is the heroine of a Swedish legend (Blendasägnen) from Småland. Blenda led the rural women of Värend in an attack on a pillaging Danish army and annihilated the invaders. #WyrdWednesday

Adela Velarde Pérez (8 September 1900 – 4 September 1971) was a Mexican activist who fought in the Mexican Revolution. The daughter of a wealthy inhabitant of Ciudad Juárez, she realised at a young age that her calling was medicine. #WyrdWednesday 🧵

The Castle of Otranto is a novel by Horace Walpole. First published in 1764, it is generally regarded as the first Gothic novel. In the second edition, Walpole applied the word 'Gothic' to the novel in the subtitle – A Gothic Story. Set in a haunted castle, #BookWormSat 🧵

King Stakh's Wild Hunt (Belarusian: Дзікае паляванне караля Стаха) by Uladzimir Karatkievich tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. #BookWormSat 🧵

"Ancient Sorceries" (1908) by Algernon Blackwood follows Arthur Vezin, who impulsively stops at a strange, ancient French hill town, Oiseme. He becomes entranced by the feline-like inhabitants and a mysterious young woman, #BookWormSat 🧵

One of the most famous haunted castles in Bulgaria is Baba Vida Fortress in the town of Vidin, located in the northwestern part of the country. While not a castle in the traditional Western European sense, #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Perched at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, Kalemegdan Fortress stands as one of the Belgrad's most iconic landmarks. Built over centuries by the Celts, Romans, Byzantines, and Ottomans, the fortress is a historical treasure and a source of eerie legends. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

The village of Todorovo in Bosnia is known for a mysterious "house of evil ghosts" where visitors report hearing screams and experiencing malfunctioning devices. Legend has it that the house was built over a graveyard. #PhantomsFriday

The story of Count Ivan Erasmus Tattenbach is one of excessive greed with a terrible ending. It was not enough for the Count to own several estates, the Old Konjice Castle and the Trebnik Manor; he wanted more. In his greed, he rebelled against the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Unlike any other abandoned house, this one in the village of Škrinjari near Bjelovar in central Croatia looks completely ordinary and not haunted at all. It was built relatively recently in 1980, not in some Gothic style, but as an ordinary house like thousands other in Croatia. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Gracanica Monastery a UNESCO World Heritage site, is not only an architectural marvel but also a hotspot for paranormal activity. Founded in the early 14th century this Serbian Orthodox monastery has witnessed centuries of history including wars and plagues. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

Heathcliff is a fictional character in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. Owing to the novel's enduring fame and popularity, he is often regarded as an archetype of the Byronic hero, or the tortured antihero, #BookWormSat 🧵

Gollum is a fictional character in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. He was introduced in the 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, and became important in its sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Gollum was a Stoor Hobbit of the River-folk who lived near the Gladden Fields. 🧵 #BookWormSat

The Mystery of Edwin Drood is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870. His final novel, it was left unfinished when he died. Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, #BookWormSat 🧵

Philinnion was an unwed maiden who died prematurely and returning as a ghost-inhabited corpse consorted with a handsome youth named Makhates, a guest in her parents' home. When her mother discovered the undead girl, #PhantomsFriday 🧵

The abandoned village of Gornji Sestani in Montenegro is truly one of the few exceptionally alluring and very dark places. According to legend, the progenitor of Šestani, Zefa, committed several murders, settled in Sestani with his family. #PhantomsFriday 🧵

In the courtyard of the 15th-century Bender Fortress,in the breakaway region of Transnistria,visitors might notice something strange:a cluster of bullet holes in one section of the wall. They don’t follow a clear trajectory or resemble typical conflict damage—they seem to focus on #PhantomsFriday 🧵

A little bit chilly weather

The Prose Edda, also known as the Younger Edda, Snorri's Edda (Icelandic: Snorra Edda) or, historically, simply as Edda, is an Old Norse textbook written in Iceland during the early 13th century. #BookWormSat 🧵

The Kalevala (IPA: [ˈkɑleʋɑlɑ]) is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Finnish, Karelian and Ingrian folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, #BookWormSat 🧵

The great Persian epic known as the Kushnameh follows the entangled lives of Kush the Tusked––a monstrous antihero with tusks and ears like an elephant, descended from the evil emperor Zahhak––and Abtin, #BookWormSat. 🧵

We could all use a little baby Bao right now. 💙

the White House's official X account gloats over the arrest of Don Lemon with a chains emoji