'Faeries are not fantasy, but a connection to reality. Faeries are irrational, poetic, absurd, and very, very wise. Faeries say there is nonsense in dogma, and sense in nonsense [...] Faeries are resistant to all definitions'
~ Brian Froud

#faeries #folklore #illustration

In medieval Dutch, French, German fables, Reynard is a red fox, a trickster. His adventures involve deceiving other animals for his own advantage, his main enemy and victim across the cycle is his uncle, a wolf named Isengrim

#folklore #fables #foxoftheday
image: Stephen G. Rae

#OrchidDay in Greek mythology, Orchis was the son of a satyr and a nymph and was turned into an Orchid after his death, as punishment

one of the earliest depiction of an Orchid was in Chinese art c. 700 BCE, and described as a cure for numerous ailments

#mythology #orchids

In Cumbrian dialect, 'bummel' is bee

in Druidry, there is the secret knowledge of the bee:

that in dreams or while in trance, a person’s soul leaves their body in the form of a bee

#bees #dreams #wisdom #druids
📷 Pieter Haringsma

In Cumbrian dialect, 'corby' is carrion crow

Crow is a keeper of secrets, a bird of magic, able to shape-shift into human or animal form

#folklore #crows #magic #cumbria

1745. In a tavern at the now 'Angel Yard' in Kendal, the apparition of an angel brandishing a sword appeared and saved a child from Bonnie Prince Charlie's marauding Jacobite army

#FairytaleTuesday #Cumbria
art: Guido Reni

Then Turambar summoned all of his will and courage and came beneath the Dragon 🐉.
Then he drew Gurthang, and with all the might of his arm, and of his hate, he thrust it into the soft belly of the Worm, even up to the hilts.
-The Silmarillion
Art by Raul Vitale

The magical moths of Clara McAllister

'Merrily, merrily shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough…'

#TreeFlowers found for this week’s #WildflowerHour challenge; crab apple, oak, wayfaring tree, hawthorn, holly, sycamore, and wild cherry. #nature

'Oak, Man' by Stephen G. Rae

twig, leaf, acorn;
chlorophyll flows
root, branch

twig, leaf, acorn;
hardened skin
cracked, misshapen

twig, leaf, acorn;
cellulose heart
oak, man

#poetry #mythology
#illustrations : Stephen G. Rae

#ThoughtForTheDay

Every creature in Druidry offers gifts of inner knowledge and healing. But it's a very particular kind of healing; what might be best described as 'medicine' by the indigenous peoples of the Americas

#animals #knowledge #druidry
art: Susan Seddon Boulet

The Girt Dog of Ennerdale. In 1811 a mystery predator killed over 300 ewes and lambs across Cumberland, draining it's prey of their blood. Later suggested to have been a Tasmanian Tiger that had escaped from a travelling zoo

#mythologymonday #Cumbria

Given the hail and driving wind, for today I thought of :

in Cumbrian dialect, 'stormie' is mistle thrush

unlike most other birds who seek shelter from stormy weather, the mistle thrush will sing or call heartily, before and through it

#birds #folklore #language #cumbria

Anemone nemorosa; the common name is 'wood anemone'

in Cumbrian dialect, it's 'billy-buttons'

never pick an anemone flower as it will bring you bad luck

#folklore #wildflowers #cumbria

Today is #DolphinDay

In mythology, dolphins brought the souls of the dead to the Islands of the Blessed, and were associated with the goddess Atargatis of the underwater world. Myths relate dolphins to mystical processes of life, death and rebirth🐬

#dolphins #mythology

In Cumbrian dialect, 'bullister' is the blackthorn

Beware of 'faerie justice' - never cut down a blackthorn tree, or faeries will burn down your house!

#FolkloreSunday #Cumbria
#illustration : Arthur Rackham

'Long Meg and her Daughters' stone circle; in folklore, Meg was a witch turned to stone by a local wizard

Folklorist Donald Mackenzie proposes Meg was a Formorian like the Cailleach, the 'divine hag' associated with winter

#FolkloreSunday #Cumbria
art: Eran Fowler

dew-drops caught
in the spider's web :
a string of diamonds

dew-drops caught
in the spider's web :
a string of tears

bardofcumberland.com/poetry/
#haiku #poetrycommunity #film

Land of Lore Films is the telling of folklore and ghost stories through the medium of short film

folklore on film Land of Lore Films
youtube.com/@LandofLore

#BardCumberland #ghoststories
#folklore #shortfilm #indiefilm

Boggart, the goblin-like creature inhabiting woodland, marshland or residing under bridges

Redcap, the murderous goblin residing in castles, that soaks his cap in his victim's blood

bardofcumberland.com
#folklore #supernatural #cumbria
#illustrations by Stephen G. Rae