In Transylvanian lore, vampires fear flame more than silver or garlic. Not because it destroys the body, but because fire is sacred breath, borrowed from the sun. Burn what comes from darkness to return it to light. #WyrdWednesday

The ghosts of the old Noricans used to light signal fires to warn their living descendants of approaching enemies. #wyrdwednesday #austria #folktale #folklore #ghost #ghoststory https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Ghosts_of_the_Old_Noricans

#WyrdWednesday #BookChatWeekly "The soul will breathe hell-fire, and smoke and coal will seem to hang upon its burning lips, yea the face, eyes and ears will seem to be chimneys and vents for the flame ..." John Bunyan 🎨Caorthannach - Fire-spitting Celtic entity & mother of demons.

In Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the Gods and gave it to humans for warmth and technology- he was severely punished for it! @wyrdWednesday #wyrdwednesday thinkingmystic.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

#WyrdWednesday Telamon & Heracles journey across the Phlegraean Fields where [according to Greek writer Pindar] the hill "vomits fire" - most likely the area of volcanic activity around Naples - where they encounter and defeat the giant Alcyoneus. 🎨Pietro Fabris & Sir William Hamilton

Fire was once a language. Romans tossed salt and grain into flames to read the crackle. Greeks whispered into embers to send messages to Hermes. In every culture, someone listened to the fire speak back. #WyrdWednesday Art: A. Gee

Firebirds for this week's #WyrdWednesday! In Slavic folklore, the mythological Firebird is a magical, glowing bird from a faraway land. It's not to be confused with the Phoenix, which is reborn from the ashes that immolates it. Firebirds can feature in stories of quests, the hero 1st finds a feather

Strange, fiery apparitions can be seen in certain parts of the German countryside at night. #wyrdwednesday #germany #folktale #folklore https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Fiery_Men_of_Uckerath

A very specific form of divination is watching the configuration of moths around fire #WyrdWednesday 🖼️ Dancing in the Flames by Gyoshū Hayami

Some say ghosts can only cross running water or burning flame. On stormless nights, sailors would strike sparks over dark waves so the dead could never follow aboard. #WyrdWednesday Art: Barry Spence

"The Dreadful Story about Harriet and the Matches." By Heinrich Hoffmann from The English Struwwelpeter 1845. #WyrdWednesday #Fire #1840s

Italian alchemist, cosmologist, philosopher & monk Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy in 1600. Declaring he "neither needed nor wished to recant", he was gagged to prevent him speaking out at his death. His work has influenced writers, artists & freethinkers since #WyrdWednesday

We are very close to being fully funded for this project!! There is one week left for The Witch's Child Kickstarter! Please consider pledging or sharing this link with all of your witchy friends. Thank you so much!🕷️🐍🐺 www.kickstarter.com/projects/sig...

In Valencia, Spain, Las Fallas festival marks the arrival of spring in March. Each neighbourhood create a grotesque sculpture, a Ninot, representing bad things or people from the past year. The Ninots then get burnt, fire as a symbol of purification and renewal. #BurnBabyBurn #WyrdWednesday

"What I Saw In The Fire. - Drawn By A. Crowquill." The Illustrated London News 21.12.1861. #WyrdWednesday #Fire #1860s

Mari (Mother) is the Mother Goddess of the Basque Mythology. She controls Nature forces, winds and storms. She lives in the mountains, her most famous dwelling is the Cave of ANBOTO MOUNTAIN. She wears red that looks like "fire" or appears as a thunderbolt #mythology #folklore #wyrdwednesday

#WyrdWednesday The wicked Lady Howard is cursed to ride nightly over Dartmoor from Okehampton Castle to Launceston Castle in a black coach driven by headless coachman & preceded by a fire-breathing black hound. When the coach stops at a house it's a sign that someone living there will soon die.

The Devil is always eager to see cities burn. #wyrdwednesday #germany #folktale #folklore #devil https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Blaze

Thanks to @cwreeve.bsky.social for the last round! @prairiebones.bsky.social would love to see your posts about 🔥FIRE🔥

Burning Green Man. #WyrdWednesday Burn Baby Burn

There's a Miwok legend about Tol-le-loo the White-Footed Mouse stealing fire from the valley tribes on behalf of the mountain tribes. Wit-tah-bah the Robin spread his body over the fire to protect it from Tol-le-loo, which is why robins have red breasts today. #WyrdWednesday

According to Mazatec legend, fire fell to earth from a star, and an old woman kept the fire for herself. An opossum stole it and shared with the rest of humankind. He did this by sticking his tail into the fire, which is why opossum tails are hairless today. #WyrdWednesday

A Tlingit legend tells of a flesh-eating giant defeated by a brave warrior, who then chops and burns the body on a pyre. The ashes turn into a cloud of mosquitos, and the man hears the giant's voice declaring, "I'll eat your people until the end of time!" #WyrdWednesday

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favour fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. Robert Frost #WyrdWednesday Burn Baby Burn

The Phoenix Angus McBride #WyrdWednesday

A wee tale of mischievous piskies #folklore #kernow #wyrdwednesday literallystories2014.com/2024/04/09/t...

"You know that I would be a liar If I was to say to you Girl, we couldn't get much higher... The time to hesitate is through No time to wallow in the mire Try now, we can only lose And our love become a funeral pyre... Come on, baby, light my fire Try to set the night on fire" #WyrdWednesday

We think fire destroys. Folklore knows better. Fire remembers. It purifies, protects, reveals. Light a candle in a dark window and watch, even shadows pay attention. #WyrdWednesday Art: Joseph Tomanek

Iron for the birthday; bronze carried long; Wood from the burning; stone out of song; Fire in the candle ring; water from the thaw; Six signs the circle and the grail gone before. Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising #WyrdWednesday Burn Baby Burn

The first firebombing of German cities occurred centuries before World War II. #wyrdwednesday #germany #folktale #folklore #bird https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Birds_Set_Houses_On_Fire

Have you heard of the "lantern men" of Wicken Fen? Rather than luring victims like a will-o'-the-wisp, these burning entities were said to hunt marsh-goers down - especially if they whistled or were carrying a light. A quick witted victim could escape by dropping their lantern! #WyrdWednesday

The chimera is a fire-breathing creature made of goat, dragon & lion parts. In some versions it is sibling to the sphinx, & in others it is mother. Bellerophon captured Pegasus to help him defeat the chimera. redbubble.com/people/forgo... #WyrdWednesday #art #giftideas #mythology #folklore

Walpurgis Night in Germany burns winter away. Bonfires roar on hilltops, and witches are said to ride the smoke skyward. People clang pans, ring bells, and laugh at shadows. It's a night where flame keeps fear from taking shape. #WyrdWednesday

The Funeral of a Viking. This is Frank Bernard Dicksee’s classic 1893 painting of a dead viking burning on a boat being pushed to sea. It’s now displayed at the Manchester Art Gallery. #wyrdwednesday 1/2

Folklorist Vance Randolph noted that Ozark storytellers treated the Howler’s fiery eyes as a sign, a spark from the underworld or the forge of creation itself. Either way, fire meant power, and only the foolish ignored its warning. #WyrdWednesday #Folklore #Cryptid

1/2 According to Flemish folktales, Die Gnydige was a witch who could shapeshift into a cat. The villagers grew tired of her gatherings to which hundreds of cats came, and burned down her den. The felines walked unharmed through the flames and chased the men away. #WyrdWednesday

Leading a sinful life will end in fire. #wyrdwednesday #germany #folktale #folklore #devil https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/The_Fire-Spraying_Cherries

"Taking the fear out", an old Cypriot ritual: * A pan face-down over a fire. * Think of what you fear, the ritualist's hand on your head. * Two caged birds close by. * Water poured onto the pan so it hisses. * Leap over that and the fire. * The birds will absorb your fear. #WyrdWednesday

1/2 Prometheus created man out of clay, but when he wanted to give them fire, the gods objected. He gave it to them anyway. 🎨Arthur Rackham www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/3476... #WyrdWednesday #gifts #art #vintage #illustration #homedecor #giftideas #mythology #folklore #fairytale

In Slavic #mythology a Raróg is a #fire demon sometimes depicted as a fiery falcon. According to Czech #folklore it hatches from an egg incubated on a stove for 9 days & nights, then appears either as a fiery falcon or a fire breathing dragon. 🥚 🔥 🐉 #WyrdWednesday

A Cherokee legend tells of Grandmother Spider, who stole fire from the sun. She hid it in a clay pot and took it to her people so they could see in the darkness. redbubble.com/people/forgo... #WyrdWednesday #mythology #folklore #art #decor #fairytale #giftideas #homedecor

The Orphic Hymns (2nd-3rd century CE) to the pagan gods seem to have been composed for ritual, each prefaced by the phrase ‘Fumigation from various odors’ (trans. Thomas Taylor). Hymn 10 invokes Pan as ‘substance of the whole, etherial, marine, earthly, general soul, / Immortal fire.’ #WyrdWednesday

Perang Obor ("torch war"), an annual post-harvest fire battle in Tegalsambi village, Central Java, is a part of purification and blessing ritual. Its folkloric origin story was a fight between villagers over sick cattle, resulting in a cleansing flame that healed the cattle. 1/2 #WyrdWednesday

If you see a strange fire burning in the countryside, you might just make your fortune - if you are act quickly! #wyrdwednesday #germany #folktale #folklore #treasure https://wiki.sunkencastles.com/wiki/Of_the_Burning_Money_in_Grassau

#WyrdWednesday Burn, Baby, Burn G.Fawkes was baptised in York in a church next to the Minster, which has been struck by lightning more than once & was set fire to by Jonathan Martin. For ages I thought he was the same person as his younger brother, John Martin, painter of the fiery Sodom & Gomorrah

#WyrdWednesday Fire Demon by Frank Frazetta. Used as cover art for the 1977 anthology Swords Against Darkness with stories by Robert E. Howard/Andrew J. Offutt, Poul Anderson, George W. Proctor, Bruce Jones, Manly Wade Wellman, Richard L. Tierney, Raul Garcia Capella, David Drake, Ramsey Campbell.

In the second attempt at Creation, Izanami succeeded in her mission by having ten thousand children, who are the land and kami that inhabits Japan. One of the last born was Kagutsuchi, the god of fire: he destroyed his mother, and created death. #WyrdWednesday 🖼: H. Mansouri

“Fire must be put out & created afresh or it, too, grows old & full of trouble & sin” In Neil Gunn’s 1941 novel THE SILVER DARLINGS, set in the early #C19th, a cholera outbreak prompts villagers to kindle a need-fire – where all fires are extinguished & re-lit from a new flame 💙📚 #WyrdWednesday

The Vestal Virgins maintained the sacred fire of Vesta, goddess of hearth and home, for the goddess was quite at home at Rome and a sacred order of women was made to maintain the fire for official sacrifices and rituals; Christians extinguished it in 394. #WyrdWednesday

The akugyo (悪魚) has the head and arms of a woman and breathes fire, a malevolent Japanese mermaid who ensnares the ships of sailors in rocks and then breaks the ship, devouring them. Japanese lords have tried to take her down, and failed. #WyrdWednesday 🖼: Sabnock_