Eggplant.place

60d

Greetings, Myth Lovers! Join us on Monday for the theme: DESSERTS AND SWEET TREATS. Which myths feature sweets? Write out your story and use the hashtag #MythologyMonday for boosts. See you soon! 🍬

🎨 Hasbro

#folklore #mythology

@TarkabarkaHolgy @juergen_hubert @wihtlore @FairytalesFood @bevanthomas @FinnFolklorist @Godyssey @GaymerGeek @starrytimepod @ljwrites @AnnaJunePage @JessMahler @FolkloreFun @PatFurstenberg @david_castleton @riffraff @lankohr

A crop of the cover of "Candy Land", an ebook by Christy Webster for the company Hasbro. The cover is in a naive art style, showing a colourful road leading up to a castle with frosting for rooftops. A pink character with arms like a candy cane is gesturing at the colourful road. A female character dressed in blue and holding a staff stands some distance behind them by the road. Further down still is a character with a moustache and frosting for a crown, dressed in a style reminiscent of 17th century aristocracy. A tree bearing purple fruit holds up a hand in greeting.

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1y

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds, & the Paranormal
Scotland’s Darkest Folklore

Currently available on BBC Sounds: exploring tales of selkies, kelpies, & the ancient figure of the Cailleach. Maddy & Anthony's guest today is Donald Smith, founding director of the Scottish Storytelling Centre, & a storyteller who has written & lectured widely on the folklore of Scotland.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0l2hncz

#Scottish #literature #folklore #supernatural #myth #paranormal #storytelling #Scotland

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205d

Live Literature: Folklore of Kintyre
26 Feb, online – free

Join author & storyteller Dougie Strang for an evening of folklore from Kintyre & wider Argyll. From Campbeltown Museum, this online event highlights aspects of heritage that cannot be easily represented through physical objects alone.

This event is open to anyone interested in the folklore, history, & culture of Argyll & Kintyre, including Gaelic.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/live-literature-folklore-of-kintyre-tickets-1982672868923

#Scottish #literature #folklore #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #Argyll

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1y

What Is Serendipity?

We often credit unexpected events to serendipity. But who amongst us knows The Three Princes of Serendip, the tale from which the word derives?

By: Emily Zarevich

https://daily.jstor.org/what-is-serendipity/

The Three Princes of Serendip:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Princes_of_Serendip

#Books #etymology #folklore

Frontispiece of Christopher Armenian's work, Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrinaggio_di_tre_giovani_figliuoli_del_re_di_Serendippo#/media/File:Frontespizio_-_Peregrinaggio_di_tre_giovani_figliuoli_del_re_di_Serendippo.jpeg

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1y

Fairy tale food

Challenge, transformation, risk: the role of food in fairy tales

Poisoned apples, magic porridge pots, peas you can feel through 20 mattresses, and of course that fantastic gingerbread house - food plays a significant role in literature, and fairy tales are no exception.

by Beth Daley

https://www.europeana.eu/en/stories/fairy-tale-food?mtm_campaign=EuropeanaNewsletterReg-July2025

Fairy tales at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/131

#books #folklore #fairytales

The European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in a painting by Carl Larsson in 1881.

At the center stands Little Red Riding Hood, portrayed as a young girl in a vivid crimson cloak that immediately draws the viewer’s eye. She holds a basket—suggesting her errand to visit her grandmother—and gazes forward with an expression of gentle curiosity or naive apprehension.

Opposite her, emerging from the edge of a wooded background, is the wolf—sleek and watchful, with gleaming eyes and a low, cautious stance.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carl_Larsson_-_Little_Red_Riding_Hood_1881.jpg

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1y

Belle Stewart (1906–1997) – singer, storyteller, tradition-bearer – was born #OTD, 18 July, in a bow tent on the banks of the Tay at Caputh, near Blairgowrie. She ranks alongside Jeannie Robertson in the roll of the finest Scots ballad-singers.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0sMwlevTMU

#Scottish #literature #travellers #folklore #folksong

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1y

The Secret Commonwealth
30 June, online – ticketed

Dr Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart looks at The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies, compiled in the 17th century by minister, Gaelic scholar & folklorist Robert Kirk (1644–1692 – unless he’s still alive…)

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/secret-commonwealth-of-elves-fairies-domhnall-stiubhart-zoom-tickets-694148796737

#Scottish #literature #folklore #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

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1y

Anima Celtica: Ella Carmichael as scholar, activist & muse in the Scottish Celtic Revival

Ella Carmichael (1870–1928) was born #OTD, 9 Aug. Abigail Burnyeat talks about Ella Carmichael & her role in the Scottish Celtic revival. The first female student of Celtic at Edinburgh University, Ella Carmichael was also founder of the Celtic Union & the journal The Celtic Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoVzPDYfsoQ

#Scottish #literature #Gaelic #Gaidhlig #folklore #CelticStudies #CelticRevival

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199d

Islands Matter Public Seminar: Faroese & Shetlandic Folklore
26 February, free online

Prof Jóan Pauli Joensen (University of the Faroe Islands) on “Water Beings in the Faroese Folklore – Tradition & Change” & Prof Andrew Jennings (UHI Institute for Northern Studies) on “From Fetlar to Foula – The Norse Roots of Shetland Folklore”

https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/research-enterprise/cultural/institute-for-northern-studies/events/islands-matter-public-seminar---faroese--shetlandic-folklore.html

#Scottish #Scotland #Shetlandic #Faroese #Shetland #Faroes #folklore #Norse

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1y

That August night
the Perseid shower rained
on moor and lily-loch, on a frightened world –
on us, in a roofless shieling

with all our tat…

—Kathleen Jamie, “One of Us”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/selected-poems/9781509882953

#Scottish #literature #folklore #poem #poetry #Perseids

One of Us
by Kathleen Jamie

We are come in a stone boat,
a miracle ship that steers itself
round skerries where guillemots
and shags stand still as graves.
Our sealskin cloaks are clasped
by a fist-sized penannular brooch,
our slippers are feathery
gugas’ necks: so delicate
we carried them over the wracky shore,
past several rusted tractors. Truth:
this was a poor place, a
ragged land all worn to holes. No one,
nothing, but a distant
Telecom van, a bungalow
tied with fishing floats
for want of flowers.
That August night
the Perseid shower rained
on moor and lily-loch, on a frightened world –
on us, in a roofless shieling

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with all our tat: the
golden horn of righteousness,
the justice harp; what folks expect.
We took swans’ shape
to cross the Minch, one last fling
with silly magic – at our first
mainland steps a dormobile
slewed into a passing place; cameras flashed.
So we stayed high, surprised
a forester making aeolian flutes
from plastic tubes,
he shared his pay. ‘Avoid
the A9. For God’s sake,
get some proper clothes.” We ditched
the cloaks, bought yellow
Pringle sweaters in Spean Bridge,
and house by safe house
arrived in Edinburgh. So far so
tedious: we all hold
minor government jobs, lay plans, and bide our time.

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195d

A banshee is a fairy or phantom from Irish folklore who bonds with a specific family. She heralds the deaths of the family's members by sobbing, wailing, and shrieking. The banshee appears as a long-haired woman with a ghastly complexion and eyes red from weeping.
🎨 Thomas Crofton Croker

#PhantomFriday #Mythology #Folklore #Irish #Gaelic #Celtic #Monster #Phantom #Ghost #Fairy

A banshee weeps outside an old Irish castle. Illustration by Thomas Crofton Croker.

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188d

Nuair a bha Gàidhlig aig na h-Eoin – When the Birds Spoke Gaelic
28 March, Isle of Lewis. £12

Port na h-Eala & Skylark’s Ascension are two of the many songs, stories & tunes in the Gaelic tradition featuring or inspired by birds. Join Màiri MacMillan, Alana MacInnes, Gillebrìde MacMillan, Padruig Moireasdan & Coll MacDonald for an evening of songs, stories, folklore & music inspired by birdlife

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/mairimacmillan/2103909

#Scottish #literature #song #music #folklore #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #birds

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184d

Folklore Material in Ruaraidh Erskine’s Gaelic Magazines
13 March, free online

Dr Petra Poncarová discusses materials on Scottish & other Celtic folklore published in Ruaraidh Erskine of Mar’s Gaelic magazines from 1900 to the 1930s

https://llc.ed.ac.uk/celtic-scottish-studies/css-seminar-series-260313

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaeilc #folklore #CelticStudies #20thcentury

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184d

In Scottish folklore, selkies are intelligent seals who often become fascinated by human life. They can remove their seal skins to temporarily become beautiful men and women, and will have romances with the local humans. However, eventually all selkies return to the ocean.
🎨 Nataša Ilinčić

#FairyTaleTuesday #Mythology #Folklore #Scotland #Celtic #Monster #Wereseal #Fairy #Faerie #Seal

A selkie removes her seal skin on a beach. Illustration by Nataša Ilinčić.

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172d

You’d know her house by the drawn blinds –
by the cormorants pitched on the boundary wall,
the black crosses of their wings hung out to dry…

—Robin Robertson, “At Roane Head”
in the London Review of Books, 14 August 2008

Today, 22 March, is International Seal Day 🦭

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v30/n16/robin-robertson/at-roane-head

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #folklore #seal #seals #selkie #InternationalSealDay

At Roane Head
Robin Robertson

for John Burnside

You’d know her house by the drawn blinds –
by the cormorants pitched on the boundary wall,
the black crosses of their wings hung out to dry.
You’d tell it by the quicken and the pine that hid it
from the sea and from the brief light of the sun,
and by Aonghas the collie, lying at the door
where he died: a rack of bones like a sprung trap.

A fork of barnacle geese came over, with that slow
squeak of rusty saws. The bitter sea’s complaining pull
and roll; a whicker of pigeons, lifting in the wood.

She’d had four sons, I knew that well enough,
and each one wrong. All born blind, they say,
slack-jawed and simple, web-footed,
rickety as sticks. Beautiful faces, I’m told,
though blank as air.
Someone saw them once, outside, hirpling
down to the shore, chittering like rats,
and said they were fine swimmers,
but I would have guessed at that.

Her husband left her: said
they couldn’t be his, they were more
fish than human;
he said they were beglamoured,
and searched their skin for the showing marks.

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For years she tended each difficult flame:
their tight, flickering bodies.
Each night she closed
the scales of their eyes to smoor the fire.

Until he came again,
that last time,
thick with drink, saying
he’d had enough of this,
all this witchery,
and made them stand
in a row by their beds,
twitching. Their hands
flapped; herring-eyes
rolled in their heads.
He went along the line
relaxing them
one after another
with a small knife.

They say she goes out every night to lay
blankets on the graves to keep them warm.
It would put the heart across you, all that grief.

There was an otter worrying in the leaves, a heron
loping slow over the water when I came
at scraich of day, back to her door.

She’d hung four stones in a necklace, wore
four rings on the hand that led me past the room
with four small candles burning
which she called ‘the room of rain’.
Milky smoke poured up from the grate
like a waterfall in reverse
and she said my name,
and it was the only thing
and the last thing that she said.

She gave me a skylark’s egg in a bed of frost;
gave me twists of my four sons’ hair; gave me
her husband’s head in a wooden box.
Then she gave me the sealskin, and I put it on.

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172d

“I am a man upon the land,
I am a selkie in the sea,
And when I’m far and far frae land
My hame is in the Sule Skerry”

—The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry (traditional)

22 March is #InternationalSealDay 🦭

🎨: Vernon Hill, “The Great Sealchie of Sule Skerrie”, in Ballads Weird & Wonderful (1912)

#Scottish #literature #folksong #folklore #selkie #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #seal #seals

The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry
Traditional

An earthly nourris sits and sings
And aye she sings, “Ba lilly wean,
Little ken I my bairnie’s faither
Far less the land that he bides in.”

And up come he to her bed fit,
And a grumlie guest I’m sure was he,
Saying, “Here am I, thy bairnie’s faither
Although I may not comely be.

“I am a man upon the land,
I am a selkie in the sea,
And when I’m far and far frae land
My hame is in the Sule Skerry.”

Then he has taen a purse of gold
And he has set it on her knee,
Saying, “Gie to me, my ain wee son,
And you accept your nourris fee.

“It shall come to pass on a summer’s day
When the sun shines bricht on every stane
That I will tak my ain wee son
And learn him how to swim the faem.

“And you will marry a proud gunner,
And a richt good gunner I’m sure he’ll be,
And wi the first shot that e’er he fires
He’ll kill baith my bonnie son and me.”

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A monochrome illustration, full of soft, subtle shading. A young woman cradles a baby at her breast. She looks over her shoulder towards a strange, splay-legged figure, bearded, with a drooping moustache and small, staring, inhuman eyes. He reaches out his right hand, offering the woman a small sack of coins. A small crucifix hangs on a post behind the two figures.

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168d

Florence Marian McNeill (1885–1973) was born #OTD, 26 March. A notable figure in Scotland’s 20th-century literary renaissance, she wrote on politics, food & folklore – including THE SILVER BOUGH, a 4-volume study of Scottish festivals & folk-belief

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https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/writers-a-to-z/florence-marian-mcneill

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #folklore #foodhistory

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168d

RE: https://mastodon.scot/@scotlit/116295049247030578

There are 2 episodes of the Scottish Food History Podcast on the life and legacy of Florence Marian McNeill. Presented by Dr Lindsay Middleton and Peter Gilchrist, with guests Jeremy Lee and Dr Gina Lyle.

Part 1:

https://rss.com/podcasts/the-scottish-food-history-podcast/1922679/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #folklore #foodhistory #podcast

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138d

#fairy
#folklore
#mythology
#Europe
#Iceland

Original post by: https://x.com/BluebellRaven

>In Icelandic folklore, the Huldufólk (the hidden folk) are supernatural beings nearly identical to humans, living in a parallel world tucked inside Iceland's rocks and cliffs.
>They are generally peaceful but demand deep respect.

>According to legend, they originated from Eve’s unwashed children, whom God made invisible to man.

>Beyond their origins, the Huldufólk are known for their distinct fashion, often wearing fine 19th-century-style clothing.

>Stories frequently involve them rewarding helpful humans or luring them away with magical music. Even today, “elf spotters” are consulted to ensure new roads don't disrupt their ancient, invisible territories.

>Children are strictly warned never to throw stones. Even if the landscape looks empty, a stray rock could inadvertently hit an invisible elf’s home, potentially inviting bad luck or illness as revenge.

>One famous tale tells of a human midwife who helped an elf woman in labor. As a reward, she was given a precious gold-woven cloth, which is said to be preserved today in the National Museum of Iceland.

>“Jumping after Hildur” (1864) by Johann Baptist Zwecker
>“The Seven Wishes” (1909) by John Bauer

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155d

“The ballad’s enduring appeal (and Romantasy’s, too) is that it flips the traditional narrative of heroism on its head”

In the early Scottish ballad “Tam Lin”, the titular man is rescued from the fairies by the bravery of Janet, the heroine

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/romantasy-history-acotar-celtic-folklore

#Scottish #literature #folklore #ballad #romantasy #TamLin #16thcentury

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134d

RE: https://sunny.garden/@hrast/116484002854513415

I am not much of a movie-watcher, so I will have to pass this question on.

What #folklore -themed #movies do you recommend that are fairly faithful to the folklore they are based on?

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132d

“Bealltain (Beltane) is the first day of May. On May Day all the fires of the district were extinguished & ‘tein eigin’, need-fire, produced on the knoll.”

—“Am Beannachadh Bealltain” (“The Beltane Blessing”)
from Carmina Gadelica (Alexander Carmichael, 1900), online via the National Library of Scotland

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https://digital.nls.uk/early-gaelic-book-collections/archive/78420254

#Scottish #Gaelic #Gaidhlig #folklore #CelticStudies #Bealltain #Beltane #MayDay

AM BEANNACHADH BEALLTAIN

Bealltain, Beltane, is the first day of May. On May Day all the fires of the district were extinguished and 'tein eigin,' need-fire, produced on the knoll. This fire was divided in two, and people and cattle rushed through for purification and safeguarding against 'ealtraigh agus dosgaidh/ mischance and murrain, during the year. The people obtained fires for their homes from this need-fire. The practice of producing the need-fire came down in the Highlands and Islands to the first quarter of this century. The writer found traces of it in such distant places as Arran, Uist, and Sutherland. In 1895 a woman in Arran said that in

BEANNAICH, a Thrianailt fhioir nach gann,
Mi fein, mo cheile agus mo chlann,
Mo chlann mhaoth ’s am mathair chaomh ’n an ceann,
Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann,
Air chlar chubhr nan raon, air airidh chaon nam beann.

Gach ni na m’ fhardaich, no to ’na m’ shealbh,
Gach buar is barr, gach tan is tealbh,
Bho Oidhche Shamhna chon Oidhche Bheallt,
Piseach maith, agus beannachd mallt,
Bho mhuir, gu muir, agus bun gach allt,
Bho thonn gu tonn, agus bonn gach steallt.

Tri Pears a gabhail sealbh anns gach ni ’na m’ stor,
An Trianailt dhearbha da m’ dhion le coir;
O m’ anam riaraich am briathra Phoil,
Is dion mo chiallain fo sgiath do ghloir,
Dion mo chiallain fo sgiath do ghloir.

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THE BELTANE BLESSING

the time of her father the people made the need-fire on the knoll, and then rushed home and brought out their 'creatairean,' creatures, and put them round the fire to safeguard them, 'bho ’n bhana bhuitsich mhoir Nic-creafain,' from the arch-witch Crawford.

The ordeal of passing through the fires gave rise to a proverb which I heard used by an old man in Lewis in 1873:—'A Mhoire! mhicean, bu dora dhomhsa sin a dheanamh dhuit na dhol eadar dha theine mhoir Bheaill,' Ah Mary! sonnie, it were worse for me to do that for thee, than to pass between the two great fires of Beall.

BLESS, O Threefold true and bountiful,
Myself, my spouse, and my children,
My tender children and their beloved mother at their head.
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,
On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling.

Everything within my dwelling or in my possession,
All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,
From Hallow Eve to Beltane Eve,
With goodly progress and gentle blessing,
From sea to sea, and every river mouth,
From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.

Be the Three Persons taking possession of all to me belonging,
Be the sure Trinity protecting me in truth;
Oh! satisfy my soul in the words of Paul,
And shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory,
Shield my loved ones beneath the wing of Thy glory.

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131d

Welcome to #LoveMakeShare for May 2026! Tell us about you, and the things you create!
I am a web novelist of #Mythpunk, #UrbanFantasy, #HistoricFantasy, #TimeTravel, #Fantasy, and #Yuri-- fueled by #Folklore, #UrbanLegend, and #Creepypasta. I am working on my fourth light novel series: Bijou the #TimeTravelingGhost.

Bijou the Time-Traveling Ghost

PIXIV Link
AO3 Link

For Love of a Konbini Idol

PIXIV Link
AO3 Link

My Girlfriend Almost Got Me Killed (R18)

AO3 Link

Arisu: The Girl Who Saw Ghosts

PIXIV Link
AO3 Link

I also write Poetry: Waka, Tanka, Renga, and Rengay.
And I am an urban photographer

Edited 131d ago

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128d

Wistman's Woods, on Dartmoor, Devon, are allegedly haunted by hellhounds. 'Wistman' is a dialect word for the Devil, with 'wist' meaning 'eerie' or 'uncanny'. The woods and their legends are said to have inspired the Sherlock Holmes mystery 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'. The woods are one of Britain's few surviving patches of ancient temperate rainforest. #FairytaleTuesday #folklore #gothic #literature #weird #ghosts #paranormal #books #history #mythology

A photo of Wistman's Woods in winter, showing moss-covered rocks and twisting moss-covered tree branches.

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126d

“More decidedly evil is the nosferatu, or vampire, in which every Roumanian peasant believes as firmly as he does in heaven or hell…”

—from THE LAND BEYOND THE FOREST: Facts, Figures, & Fancies from Transylvania, by the 19th-century Scottish author & anthropologist Emily Gerard (1849–1905) – born #OTD, 7 May

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https://crimereads.com/the-scottish-anthropologist-who-inspired-dracula/

#Scottish #literature #Dracula #vampire #Transylvania #folklore #anthropology #19thcentury #Victorian #womenwriters

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