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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

That's the end of another epic #FolkloreThursday 🐉 Today's equinox-worthy theme was "Autumn Folklore” 🍂 This is @shanonsinn.bsky.social signing off! Wishing you the best of luck with your Halloween preparations 🎃 1906 Ivar Arosenius

An illustration of a scarecrow flying like a kite above a field of wheat. Four impish beings with red faces and bat wings – representing the four winds – are blowing on him from the different directions.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

In Irish folklore, there was a man in the wind - fear nagaoithe (the wind-man). In late autumn he destroyed stacks of corn and hay which the farmers hadn't put into the barn. He could also use his bellows to bring the storms... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Arthur Rackham

Autumn leaves are orange, a crowd of faces with hair flying is blowing the trees and the leaves.

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Folk Horror Revival 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @folkhorrorrevival.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#FolkloreThursday The Polevik is a Slavic spirit of grain fields, described as a dwarf dressed in white with dark earthy skin & grass for hair. If they chance upon someone drunk or asleep in the fields they strangle them to death, and are most active at noon and dusk. 🎨 @andy-paciorek.bsky.social

Line drawing of a corn field with a bearded face woven amongst the stalks.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

In Ireland, the last harvest sheaf could be used to find the drowned. A candle was set by the sheaf which was then placed in the water where the person had fallen in. It was allowed to drift until it came to a rest and that was where the body would be found... #FolkloreThursday 📷Sir Benjamin Stone

A life-size figure of a person made with a white dress and a sheaf of corn for a head, set amid the leaves.

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Shanon Sinn @shanonsinn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

In Western culture, the Grim Reaper is the personification of death. Wielding a scythe, he or she has been associated with Autumn as a harvester of souls since the Black Death of the 14th Century. The Grim Reaper's name emerged in the 1800s. #FolkloreThursday 1911 Petit Journal, 1915 M. Fingesten

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Hello there #FolkloreThursday 🐉 That was Crystal @crystalponti.bsky.social hosting before the break! I'm @shanonsinn.bsky.social your guide for the next one hour ✨ Celebrating teh change of seasons, today's theme is "Autumn Folklore” 🍄 🍂 🐿️ Late 19th century Carl Offterdinger

Illustration of Puss in Boots waking up from a nap. He is surrounded by onlooking rabbits and an Autumn scene is behind him with long wheat blowing in the wind and a scarecrow wearing his hat. A red-breasted bird is perched in the scarecrow’s arm and is looking at the red feather in the hat.

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Crystal Ponti @crystalponti.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Michaelmas daisies earned their name because they bloom around the feast of St. Michael on September 29. Their late purple flowers became a traditional sign of the changing season. Before calendars were everywhere, the landscape itself announced autumn's progress. #FolkloreThursday Image: Unknown

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Non resident woodcock usually arrived in Ireland on the first full moon in November and it was believed they had spent their summers on the moon... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Karl Friedrich Schinkel

Beneath a vast blue sky studded with symmetrical stars, a woman with a crown stands atop a crescent moon on its back. stormy black and red cloud

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Garden magic suggests carrying an acorn in your pocket for protection against storms, evil intent and losing your way... #FolkloreThursday

A poster which reads Autumn in Welwyn and shows a large red squirrel and a small brown mouse sharing an acorn feast. Smaller print beneath the image reads Houses to let.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

The seven whistlers manifest on stormy nights as a shrieking, whistling noise across the English skies. It is said they are seven of the devil’s demons loose from the Wild Hunt, in search of lost souls. A portent of doom for any who hear them... 🎨Valentin Ruths #FolkloreThursday

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Folklore Twitcher @folkloretwitcher.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Meon Hill in Warks, UK, is locally k/as the "Devil's Bag of Nuts". Legend has it that the hill was created when the Devil was gathering nuts. He had a great bagful when he met the Virgin Mary. He took fright, fled, dropping the bag, spilling the contents which shaped the Hill 1/2 #FolkloreThursday

Meon Hill in Warwickshire, UK - also k/as the Devil's Bag o' Nuts

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Thanks @folkloretodmorden.bsky.social and hello #FolkloreThursday! @willowwinsham.bsky.social here for the next hour of autumn and fall themed folklore! (Image: Stanze, via Wikimedia commons.)

A close-up view of several shiny, smooth, dark reddish-brown conkers.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Autumn in Ireland, when swallows migrated, folk believed they were actually hibernating at the bottom of the ponds... #FolkloreThursday 🎨John Henry Lorimer

In a Victorian nursery with bars on the window three young girls and their mother gather by a window to look out at the rooftops and see the swallows migrating. one of the girls is sitting on the window bench and weeping. Another is pointing at the birds.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Join us on 24th September for our autumn and fall-themed #FolkloreThursday! Our hosts will share posts made to the hashtag at the following times BST: 9am-2pm 3.30pm-4.30pm 6pm-7pm 🍂🍎🎃 (🎨John William Godward, Autumn.)

A woman in a flowing red dress with a green sash reaches for grapes hanging from a vine, with a bowl of grapes at her feet. John William Godward, Autumn.

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Nina Antonia @ninaantonia13.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

#SpookySunday A bit of an eco-eerie theme in this illustration from 'Life' magazine (1908) the phantoms of lovers who carved their initials on the old tree in silent but emotive protest of it being felled. 👻

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Houdini said if it is real after all, I'll come back to you. And so Bess kept a candle burning by his picture. Each Halloween she took that candle to a seance, for 10 years. But nothing. And so finally up on a Hollywood roof, she blew out the candle "This is the end, Harry, goodnight.” #SpookySunday

Bess and Harry Houdini. He wears a dark suit and bow tie. She wears a black hat and black velvet dress. They stand so closely together. Both have a slight smile.

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hookland.bsky.social @hookland.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

We drive between high walls of tangle and sun-bullied flowers. Drive narrow roads wearing green grass mohicans. The pursuit of a pub on the edge of the moor means a navigation through a territory Hoarse Hags, phantoms with no fear of sunlight or Mark III Ford Cortinas. – #MattAdams

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Rivka @theasraidance.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

'Pixies dancing in a Ring by the Firelight' by William Bell Scott The setting for this painting was described by the artist as ‘a Haunted House on Midsummer’s Eve.’ #PhantomsFriday

In a room lit only by firelight, a ring of tiny pixies dance in its warm glow casting shadows on the floor. Oil painting, dated 1885.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

That's the end of a special #FolkloreThursday 🧞 Today's theme was "Favourite Folklore” for our 11-year anniversary! This is @shanonsinn.bsky.social l signing off. Until next time ✨ 1493 Nuremberg Woodcut

Two women are on shore, and they appear to be doing witchcraft. A captain is in a ship and his crew look to be humans with various animal heads.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Banshees used waxwings as torches to guide them through their haunting nights... #FolkloreThursday 🖌️Banshee Appears - unattributed

Two startled men in top hats stand aghast as a waving distraught female figure arises out of the misty fields.

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sm23 @sm23.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

This bit of favorite folklore feels like it's been a constant in my life. #FolkloreThursday

Illustration of a black cat silhouette with white text emblazoned across it reading "You will always be lucky if you know how to make friends with strange cats."

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Shanon Sinn @shanonsinn.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

If a young man sees a red envelope on the ground in Taiwan he shouldn't pick it up. It could be dowry to marry someone’s deceased daughter! The subsequent ceremony prevents an unmarried woman from haunting her relatives and gives her status in the afterlife 💀 #FolkloreThursday 1952 Richard Roussos

A priest is marrying a man to a skeletal ghost bride in a graveyard. He is wearing a tuxedo, and she is in a wedding dress. Other skeleton ghosts are standing around watching the wedding take place.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I love the dark & scary lore! #FolkloreThursday In Scotland & NI yellowhammers were alleged to drink a drop of devil's blood every day in May... 📷Simun Ascic

A bright yellow little bird sits on a post and sings.

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Coffin Boffin @coffinboffin.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

VAMPIRE GRAVES show signs of disturbance that suggests a #Vampire is lying within. According to folklore, Vampire hunters must look for deep holes around the headstones, sunken graves, crooked crosses & leaning tombstones St Martin's Churchyard, Cwmyoy; St Albans Abbey, UK. #FolkloreThursday

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WillowWinsham @willowwinsham.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

A #FolkloreThursday visit to the dentist seems like the perfect time to share the terrifying concept of 'tooth worms'. Believed to be responsible for toothache and decay, dating back to Babylonian times. These 18th century carvings are the thing of nightmares. 😱😱

Two ivory teeth with engravings of a worm or snake like crwature, faces and skulls and two figures beating the centre of the tooth.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I was so happy when #FolkloreThursday asked me to write about Midsummer folklore back in 2020! Thank you FT, I felt as though I had stepped through the mirror... folklorethursday.com/folklife/dar...

folklorethursday.com

Dark Side of the Sun: A Brief Guide to Midsummer Lore in Britain & Ireland – #FolkloreThursday

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Hello there #FolkloreThursday 🐉 A huge thanks to @crystalponti.bsky.social for resharing your posts before the break! I'm @shanonsinn.bsky.social your last host today -- for the next one hour. Today's theme is "Favourite Folklore” 🤩 1912 Warwick Goble

Illustration of two people sleeping in a bed. The scene looks to be Middle Eastern European. A giant monster snake is hovering over the people. A young man is standing beside the bed with a sword in his hand. It is unclear if he is a thief or a guard or if he knows the snake is above him.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

I'm @crystalponti.bsky.social l and it's been a pleasure hosting today's #FolkloreThursday. Thank you all for sharing your favourite folklore. But we're not done celebrating yet! Join @shanonsinn.bsky.social for our final birthday celebration hour at 6:30 BST. Until next time! 🎉 Art: Arthur Rackham

Whimsical illustration of several fairies gathered beneath a tall, berry-laden plant in a meadow of white daisies. Three fairies in flowing lavender gowns recline and dance among the flowers while a small winged figure reaches toward them. Another fairy with long dark hair and a pale dress kneels in the foreground, watching the scene. Delicate stems and clusters of orange-red berries rise above the group, creating an ethereal, dreamlike atmosphere characteristic of early twentieth-century fairy art.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

In Danish folk belief, the moon was a cheese churned from curds that dropped out of the Milky Way... #FolkloreThursday I have always loved folklore of the Moon!

A large yellow smiling moon looks at a boy in red striped pyjamas, wearing a baker's hat and holding a plateful of yellow cheese.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

In Irish folklore, blackbirds held the souls of those in purgatory until judgement day. When the birds' voices were shrill, it was those souls, burning and parched, calling for rain. Rain always came... 🎨Böcklin #FolkloreThursday One of my favourite pieces of folklore!

A hairy-legged satyr lies beneath a bush whistling, on the branch above, a blackbird echoes his whistling.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

#FolkloreThursday is 11 years old on 18th June! Celebrate with us by sharing your favourite folklore to the hashtag between 9am-4.30pm and 6.30-7.30pm BST and join us for the final @culturalfutureshub.bsky.social 5.30-6.30pm BST. Tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-cultur... (Image:James Petts)

Image showing a birthday cake on a glass plate with lots of lit thin white candles. The sides of the cake are sloped and covered with flowers with a yellow centre and white petals.

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Spooky Sunday @spookysunday.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Some Chinese folklore for #PhantomsFriday

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

That's the end of another epic #FolkloreThursday 🐉 Today's theme was "Folklore of the Animal Kingdom!” This is @shanonsinn.bsky.social signing off - your last host today. Thank you for sharing your lore about animals! It was a wild ride hehe ✨ 19th CE Wett-Turnen

An illustration of several frogs by the water with a much larger dwarf in a red hat smiling at them. He is lying down in a barrel watching them. They appear to be playing. It is a autumn-like scene with lots of mushrooms around them. But these are brightly coloured as if they were flowers and it was spring.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

If a cat jumped over a corpse in its coffin, it was said the soul of the dead belonged to the devil or that they would return as one of the walking undead... #FolkloreThursday

A disintegrating photograph in which a woman has her face obscured by the holes in the photo but a white fluffy cat is in perfect focus on her lap.

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Shanon Sinn @shanonsinn.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

There have been countless stories of sea serpents in the waters around Vancouver Island, since time immemorial. In the last century, nonIndigenous communities have given some of them names. Victoria’s Cadborosaurus or "Caddy" being the best known 🐉 E.D. Moyer and Thos H Guptil #FolkloreThursday

Two illustrations of sea serpents. One shows two people in a boat with a large serpent above them out of the water.

The second shows a sea serpent looking towards Vancouver Island. The caption says it is near Port Angeles.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Forget St. Pat, the 17th March belongs to St Gertrude of Nivelles - patron saint of cats, invoked by the souls of purgatory and those troubled by mice... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Carolee Clark

A saint with a bright golden halo wearing a nun's habit sits in a verdant garden, she is softly cuddling a tortoiseshell cat.

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WillowWinsham @willowwinsham.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

The monster cat, Cath Palug, has been associated with King Arthur since the 11th century. Some even say that the legendary king met his end after a fierce fight with the creature. #FolkloreThursday 🎨Joanna Lisoweic, from Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines by Willow Winsham

King Arthur wearing helmet and armour and a red cape, holding a sword aloft as he confronts a large fierce black cat - Cath Palug - emerging from a cave. The cat's claws are caught in Arthur's shield.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

In Swedish folklore, a fungus known as witch's butter was made from the vomit of a witch's cat...! #FolkloreThursday 📷Daniel Greenwood

a vividly yellow jelly like fungus growing on a green mossy barked tree.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Hello #FolkloreThursday 🐉 That was @willowwinsham.bsky.social reposting your lore before the break! I'm @shanonsinn.bsky.social our last host today -- for the next one hour 🙈 🙉 🙊 Today's theme is "Folklore of the Animal Kingdom” 1912 Arthur Rackham

Illustration of a toad giving a lecture to a crowd of animals including a fox, a rooster, two mice, a goose, and a rabbit. Many are wearing clothing. The toad is standing on top of a table and is holding up a small corked vial of something.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Welcome back to today's animal kingdom themed #FolkloreThursday! @willowwinsham.bsky.social here for the next hour of of fabulous folklore! 🎨Joanna Lisoweic, from Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines by Willow Winsham

Illustration from Curious Cats and Fantastical Felines by Willow Winsham. A witch-figure stands stirring a cauldron with a stick in one hand and a black cat under the other arm. To the left, another cat is landing front paws first after a leap, with back legs and tail still in the air. There is a tree to either side and a yellow full moon in the sky.

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Jussi @finnfolklorist.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Wyraj – according to Slavic beliefs a fabulous land where birds fly away for winter and from which spring comes, and also (in folklore) from which storks arrive carrying children. Departing to Wyraj and the birds returning from it in spring were identified #FolkloreThursday 🧵

Fantasy scene with a rainbow bridge, magical castles, a boat with a cloaked figure, flying creatures, and lush landscapes under a mystical sky.

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Melissa Love @gnome-and-tonic.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Aconitum spp. (Wolfsbane, Monkshood, Aconite) is said to be born from the toxic drooling of Cerberus, the guard dog of the Underworld in Hellenism. #FolkloreThursday

A botanical drawing of aconite including its deeply loved leaves, seed pods, and dark purple hooded flowers.

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Hagazussa in Glasgow @hagazussainglasgow.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

In Ukrainian folk belief orange cats bring good luck and abundance to the household (my family had a parade of beloved oranges over the years). Though orange cats are famously good natured and loving, the poor soul in this painting has reached the end of his tether #ArtHistory #Art #FolkloreThursday

A painting of two children teasing a white and orange tabby cat with crayfish. The cat is extremely annoyed and his ears are pinned back.

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Dirk Puehl @wunderkammertales.eurosky.social · 28/05/2026

“In former times people said if a crow hovered or circled above a person’s head, it was a sign of decapitation.” (Elias Owen “Welsh Folk-Lore”, 1887) 🎨 Catherine Hyde #folklorethursday

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Folk Horror Revival 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @folkhorrorrevival.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

#FolkloreThursday In Scotland stonechats were believed to be in league with the Devil, carrying a drop of his blood and in constant conversation with him with their calls. If you destroyed their nest you would die of a disease and if you stole their eggs the Devil would break your back in revenge.

Painting by Henrik Grønvold from Arthur G Butler's "Birds of Great Britain and Ireland" (1908). It depicts the male (left) and female (right) stonechat, a small bird with reddish breast, streaky brown back with white patches and in the male a black head and the female with a paper brown head.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Time flies when you're sharing great folklore! @willowwinsham.bsky.social signing off now, but #FolkloreThursday will return at 6.30pm BST with @shanonsinn.bsky.social for more folklore of the animal kingdom! 🎨Trisha M Shears

Photo of a grey goat with a black face and two curled horns on its head.

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FolkloreThursday @folklorethursday.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Join us Thur 28th May for the next hosted #FolkloreThursday! The theme is folklore of the animal kingdom and our hosts will share your posts to the hashtag at the following times BST: 9am-1pm 3.30pm-4.30pm 6.30pm-7.30pm 🎨Paul de Vos, Noah's Ark.

Artwork Paul de Vos, Noah's Ark. Showing animals grouped in pairs; horses, parrots in a tree, cows, chickens, foxes and dogs, with blue sky and hills in the background.

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Olivia @oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

"I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge". CS Lewis describing CO. Down and the Mournes, the inspiration for Narnia. #BookWormSat 📷Nigel Killeen

the mountain tops dusted lightly with snow, the sun sets pink above them.

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