Sharon Carr, Folklore Twitcher & Story Spinner
@Tales4All
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Seeking #Hiraeth . Canadian. Mother of a resting Cello-wing Daughter. Pt-time MA Folklore student. #KDrama Addict. Learning 中文. Spins woolly yarns & stories .
Joined August 2012
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The good folk of Mordiford in Herefordshire were once terrorised by wyverns but fought back. They thought they'd killed them all until one day, while out foraging, a little girl called Maud stumbled across a baby wyvern and decided to adopt it as a pet ..... 1/4
#FolkyFriday
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From the apple growing county of Worcestershire comes a Georgian dish - Malvern Pudding. This is a caramelised sugar topped apple pudding with a creamy custard filling flavoured with cinnamon. In 2010 was said to be one of the ten most "threatened puddings".
#FolkloreSunday
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8K
In Suffolk, folk believed that keeping sea urchin fossils on the mantlepiece in the home, would always ensure they would never be without bread. In N.E. Suffolk, bakeries kept these fossils by their brick ovens in the belief the bread would always rise
#FolkloreThursday
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In North-East Suffolk, it was believed that the fossilised helmet-shaped sea urchin, Echinocorys, were fairy loaves. Placed by the hearth, people believed they would never be without bread & the fossil's shape guaranteed that loaves would always rise when baked.
#FolkloreThursday
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When the Bronze Age burial of a woman & child was excavated in Dunstable Downs in 1887, hundreds of fossil star-crossed sea urchins were found, surrounding the remains. What did they signify spiritually? To protect the dead as they journeyed to the underworld?
#FolkloreThursday
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"It was a walk of two miles, and the evening was wet, but the days were still long; I visited a shop or two, slipped the letter into the post-office, and came back through heavy rain, with streaming garments, but with a relieved heart."
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
#BookWormSat
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@DanDan1351
The findings from 2010 UKTV Food Channel survey. Featured British Puddings that were no longer popular at the time. Here's a BBC link for the recipe - enjoy!
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In 18th Century Worcestershire, carved turnips were k/as "Hoberdy's Lanterns." Folklorist Jabez Allies recalled seeing these when young, lit & placed in hedges in lonely rural lanes, to frighten people at night. Also k/as "Hob-o'-Lantern" & "Hobbedy's Lantern"
#FolkloreThursday
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#WistmansWoods
,
#Dartmoor
-remains of an ancient forest, this grove of twisted oak trees is said to be home to the Yeth or Wisht Hounds from the Wild Hunt. The woods' name may be " .from the dialect word 'wisht' meaning 'eerie/uncanny',[8] or ‘pixie-led/haunted’"
#FolkloreThursday
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"Miss Butler and Miss Ponsonby now retired from the society of men into the wilds of a certain Welch vale, bear a strange antipathy to the male sex whom they take every opportunity of avoiding."
‘Extraordinary Female affection’
British Evening Post, 1790
#BookWormSat
1/2
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KATHERINE BRIGGS, folklorist & writer, is known for her seminal work on fairies & folklore. Philip Pullman praised her 3-volumed, "Folk Tales of Britain", as the most authoritative collection on British folktales. Past President of the Folklore Society
#FolkloreThursday
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“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
- Ariel, Act 1 Scene 2
✍️ William Shakespeare, The Tempest
#BookWormSat
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In rural Wales, Noson Weu (Knitting Evening) was a tradition where on cold winter evenings, people would gather around the hearth socially, to knit while listening to old tales being told, ballads & no doubt, to share a little bit of gossip too!
#FolkloreThursday
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@PeterStefanovi2
Only this time of the year,
#AndrewMarr
? Pretty noticeable in my patch of the country at any time of the year!!
#homelessness
#poverty
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@TPEassist
@anitasethi
Well done TPE for responding & alerting the police. Your Train Manager & Team are to be commended. Shocking that anyone should be treated like that. Well done again.
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Atalanta was the original Mighty Girl! Abandoned at birth & suckled by a she-bear. Raised by hunters, she was a mighty warrior & hunter. Pledged herself to Goddess Artemis. Defeated the Calydonian Boar. Sailed with Jason & Argonauts. Wrestled & defeated Peleus
#FolkloreThursday
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''A high wind blustered round the house, and roared in the chimney: it sounded wild and stormy, yet it was not cold, and we were all together."
✍️Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights (1847)
#BookWormSat
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@Channel4News
Politicians could learn more from these two gentlemen who fought on opposite sides during WW2 but now are now reconciled. In fact, a lot more individuals could learn from them. Heartening & uplifting.
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Coventry God Cakes are triangular-shaped puff pastries filled with mince meat. These were baked at New Year's as traditionally these were given to the godparents who would gift them to their godchildren with a blessing for the year that followed.
#FolkloreSunday
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St Felix of Nola is the patron saint of spiders. Persecuted for his faith, the saint ducked into a building to escape soldiers searching for him. Miraculously, a spider spun a web over the doorway, fooling the soldiers into thinking the building was derelict
#FolkloreThursday
.
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Welsh lovespoons are full of carved symbols of fidelity, marriage, faith, security love & good fortune-all necessary ingredients needed for a happy marriage: A lock or keyhole meant security; a horseshoe or diamond, good fortune; entwined hearts, love, etc
#FolkloreThursday
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In Ireland, speedwell would be fastened to a traveller's cloak or coat as a talisman against mishaps and accidents. To those travelling, people would say "Speed-you-well" to wish them a safe journey.
📷The Spruce-Evgeniya Vlasova
#FolkloreSunday
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Wistman's Wood, an ancient small oakwood in Dartmoor. Here lurks the Yeth or Wisht Hounds who are "jet black, breathing flames and followed by a tall, swart figure who carried a hunting pole...." & may have inspired Conan Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskerville."
#FolkloreThursday
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"When a man fyndeth a spyder upon his gowne it is a synge to be that daye ryght happye." (1507)
#FolkloreThursday
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Tinkinswood Burial Chamber in South Wales is a dolmen, a single-chamber megalithic tomb topped with a capstone. Beware though If you spend the night there before May Day, St John's Day (23 June), or Midwinter Day, you will either die, go mad, or become a poet
#FolkloreThursday
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Gravediggers could be very superstitious when working in churchyards and cemeteries. After digging the grave, they would leave their shovels in the shape of a cross, resting on top of the newly opened grave.
#FolkloreThursday
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“I know ladies by the score
Whose hair foretells the storm;
Long before it begins to pour
Their curls take a drooping form.”
#FolkloreThursday
#weatherlore
#weathersayings
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Growing Parsley from seed takes time & needs some help from other sources:
"When parsley is sown it goes nine times to the Devil before it comes up. Only the wicked can make parsley grow."(Derbyshire, 1895)
Take then note if Parsley's blooming in your garden!
#FolkloreThursday
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In Suffolk, fossilised echinoids k/as ‘fairy loaves’ were kept by the hearth and polished with black lead in the belief that the householder would never be short of bread but in neighbouring Norfolk, it was thought unlucky to bring a 'fairy loaf' indoors.
#LegendaryWednesday
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In 18th Century Worcestershire, boys would create ‘Hoberdy’s Lanterns,’ from turnips, hollowing them & carving grotesque faces on them. Folklorist, Jabez Allies recalled that boys would "place it (lit) upon a hedge to frighten unwary travellers in the night."
#FolkloreThursday
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The Japanese believed if a woman died from the cold, she became a yukionna-a snow spirit; a yokai. Has blue lips, long black hair & pale skin. May appear as someone lost in a snow storm, helpless. If someone comes to her aid, she'll kill them with her icy breath
#FolkloreThursday
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"Great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence."
🎄📚A Christmas Carol 👻
👻✍️Charles Dickens (1843)🎄
#BookWormSat
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In Wales on New Year's Day, it was traditional to collect the calennig (New Year's gift.) Children would go from door to door, carrying a skewered apple pierced with cloves or nuts and topped with a sprig of rosemary, thyme or another evergreen herb 1/2
#FolkloreSunday
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A warning to bear in mind this May Day's Eve - spending the night in Tinkinswood Burial Chamber in the Vale of Glamorgan, S Wales, may render you madness, death or turn you into a bard .....
#FolkloreSunday
#MayDaysEve
📷S Carr
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"Comets were supposed to appear before the birth or death of a King, a Prince, or a very exalted person. The birth of Owain Glyndawr was said to be heralded by a comet and curious meteors, with falling stars."
Folk-Lore & Folk-Stories of Wales, M Trevelyan 1909
#FolkloreThursday
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The Mari Lwyd is a Christmas tradition celebrated in South Wales. Meaning "Grey Mare", this tradition was first recorded in 1800. The Mari Lwyd is a decorated horse's skull attached to a pole over which is draped a white sheet. 1/2
#LegendaryWednesday
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@shitscaredmum
This beautiful poem by Emily Dickinson has always been a source of great comfort to me. I wish you, your sweet dear daughter and the rest of your family much love, take care xxx
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@FiMaryS
@BBCWomansHour
@jeremycorbyn
@Emmabarnett
Should've known the figure but this is not an interview. Mr Corbyn is very much on the side of women. Interviewer is not doing her job.
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Lud's Church in the Peak District is thought to be the setting for the mysterious Green Chapel in the medieval poem, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight. However, a group of Lollards were said to have worshipped here in secret until the Reformation
#FolkloreThursday
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Sir Gawain & the Green Knight- On behalf of King Arthur, this most chivalrous knight of the Round Table, Sir Gawain, accepts the beheading challenge from the Green Knight to meet again in a year and day from their initial encounter on New Year's Day 1/2
#FolkloreThursday
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‘Oh, it's delightful to have ambitions. I'm so glad I have such a lot. And there never seems to be any end to them – that's the best of it. Just as soon as you attain to one ambition you see another one glittering higher up still.'
- Anne -"Anne of Green Gables"
#BookWormSat
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In Japanese folklore, there are a group of spirits (yūrei) who return from purgatory, seeking to revenge a wrong done to them when living. Onryō are female spirits, often returning in their human forms to wreak their vengeance on those who did them wrong
#FolkloreThursday
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Lace-makers would personalise their bobbins by attaching buttons, glass or wooden beads, or other significant trinkets to the ends. The rings of glass beads were k/as "spangles" and there were certain superstitions and beliefs associated with them 1/2
#FolkloreThursday
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Mary Anning is an early palaeontologist, who lived in Dorset, England, in the early 19th Century. Famed for her work on marine fossils from the Jurassic Period, did you know that she survived a lightning strike when she was a baby? How Bold Girl is that?
#FolkloreThursday
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The Welsh Goddess of Spring & Flowers, Olwen, leaves a trail of white hawthorn blossoms as she walks. Her name means "white footprint". It is said that as she walked thru the Universe, her footprints of white blossoms became the Milky Way.
#FolkloreThursday
(Image-Judith Shaw)
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@DrLindseyFitz
@EHChalus
What an achievement, Lindsey, and well done. Backfired on that ex-husband of yours too. Wish you well.
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@JohnStealer
Wow! That's shocking. Bet a lot of customers will take their business elsewhere once this is all over. Wow - what unbelievable exploitation!
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Blackbeard was beheaded after he was killed & his body thrown overboard. It was then hung from a ship's mast and legend has it that Blackbeard's headless corpse swam three times around the ship, wanting it back before sinking beneath the waves.
#FolkloreThursday
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Legend tells of the name "Hurlers" being given to a group of 3 stone circles near Liskeard, Cornwall because of men breaking the Sabbath when they played the ancient Cornish game of hurling on a Sunday and as punishment, were transformed into stones
#FolkloreThursday
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@NakaweProject
My God, what the hell does he think he's doing?! Poor, poor turtle. This guy's a sadist including those filming this poor animal's suffering. Humans eh?! Awful.
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@SundayFolklore
In April 2023, the BBC's Food Programme (
@BBCFoodProg
) dedicated one of their episodes to the Great British Pudding - "A Pudding Celebration".
Here's the programme link:
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The Roman God, Janus, is a contrary entity. He has a divided gaze that can see into the future as well as reflects back to the past. He is the God of beginnings & endings; in conflict - the transition of war into peace. Of Time as the past moves into the future
#FolkloreThursday
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@dani_ellie
@doctor_oxford
Agreed. To be so swiftly evicted from his council property too when he's lived there years, paid his rent & has proof of his tenancy. Not impressed by the
#RoyalMarsden
either. Heartless. Job-worth too. Want to think better of
#NHS
but hearing this makes me feel troubled.
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Cut from the arm of a hanged man, the
#HandofGlory
was regarded as an essential tool for any enterprising burglar. The fingers would be lit like a candle & its magical powers could induce any unwary sleeper into a coma, making break ins an absolute cinch!
#FolkloreThursday
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25
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Roman Goddesses, Abeona & Adiona, both protected children. Abeona would watch over a child taking its first steps & when they first left home. Adiona was the one to turn to if one's child was lost, had run away, etc., ensuring they returned home safely
#FolkloreThursday
🎨Thayer
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@KnightonMuseum
Indeed. There's a good Wassailing tradition in Worcestershire too - here's a verse of Wassailing song from the county:
Wassail, Wassail
Through the town,
Got any apples throw them down.
Up with the stocking, down with the shoe,
Got no apples then money will do.
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When moving house, families were advised to take embers from their old hearth to burn in the one in their new home. This ensured that family ties would be unbroken. In Yorkshire, it was believed that poking the fire in a new home would bring a family good luck
#FolkloreThursday
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In Wales, it was once believed that the souls of the departed would appear at crossroads & next to stiles at midnight on All Hallows Eve-so beware if you are out on Halloween!
-M. Trevelyan, Folk-Lore & Folk-Stories of Wales (1909)
📽️Murnau's 'Faust' (1926)
#FolkloreThursday
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To celebrate the end of Winter, an effigy of the Slavic Goddess, Marzanna, is either torn to bits; burnt &/or drowned in a lake or river. Be careful though if drowning the Goddess, as a person’s hand may wither if the effigy is touched once it’s in the water
#FolkloreThursday
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Black pearls - To the Ancient Chinese, black pearls symbolised mystical wisdom, These were thought to have originated in the brains of dragons who would carry these between their teeth. To harvest these gems, the dragons had to be slain
#FolkloreThursday
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@RosieDuffield1
@ericsegal86
@UKLabour
Wow, Ms Duffield. That's not a worthy response from an MP particularly a Labour MP. We're all entitled to our views whether we agree with each other or not. Eric Segal was not being offensive. As an MP, you hang out with folk you don't agree with politically do you diss them? No.
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Parsley was k/as the Devil's Herb as it was believed that when sown, it would go back to the Devil, nine times, before finally starting to sprout -"Only the wicked can make parsley grow." (Derbyshire, 1895)
#FolkloreThursday
5
13
57
In 1887, when a Bronze Age burial mound was excavated on Dunstable Downs in the Chiltern Hills, the skeletons of a young woman & child were discovered as well as a vast number of fossilised sea urchins surrounding the bodies. Why? As protection in the Afterlife?
#FolkloreThursday
3
15
54
Blackbeard knew how to create an impression. When attacking a ship, he'd place small lighted candles or smoking fuses in his beard, creating a hazy aura, terrifying passengers & crew who'd surrender the ship & contents. In doing this,his fearsome reputation grew
#FolkloreThursday
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House Boggarts are solitary and rarely seen though they can make themselves invisible. They earn their keep by helping the household with tasks like dusting, churning or spinning but they can cause mischief too by souring milk or making things disappear.
#LegendaryWednesday
2
13
53
“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems
#BookWormSat
Wood engraving - Alfred Rethel (1816–1859)
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If a young woman stood in front of a mirror at midnight on All Hallows Eve while eating an apple and combing her hair, she might just see the image of her future husband standing by her left shoulder, looking back at her .... but would there be love in his eyes?
#FolkloreThursday
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@Protect_Wldlife
An empty gesture for what that individual has done to that poor animal. Why bother? That poor animal's in such pain and agony thru no fault of its own. All done in the name of "sport" & "culture". Horrific!
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#MohamedDeb
RIP
Last year this video of Mohamed Deb saving a one month year old girl went viral. Today he was killed for being a lifesaver.
#WhiteHelmets
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The Green Isles (Gwerddonau Llion) were said to be inhabited by faeries & found off the Welsh coast. Reputedly visible from Milford Haven, these enchanted isles could vanish very suddenly from sight. Sailors described them as being "the green meadows of the sea."
#FolkloreThursday
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@SundayFolklore
Hope so too. I love applely dishes and this one already ticks my applely taste boxes 🍎🍏🍮
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"There was an owl liv'd in an oak
The more he heard, the less he spoke
The less he spoke, the more he heard.
O, if men were all like that wise bird."
- English Nursery Rhyme
#BookWormSat
4
9
54
Cats' behaviour can tell you a thing or two about the weather. Washing behind their ears may indicate rain. If playful, blustery rain may follow but watchful out if they stretch their limbs & their paws meet, there'll be a long spell of bad weather for sure
#FolkloreThursday
1
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50
Coral was thought to protect children from being struck by lightning & if placed around a child's neck, would see off any evil influences. A necklace of coral beads as a christening present, became a must-have for any fashionable rich family for their newborn.
#FolkloreThursday
2
13
53
Fossil sea urchins were often thought to be fairy loaves - baked by the fairies. In Suffolk, fairy loaves (also k/as pharisee loaves) were placed indoors by the hearth and one would never be without fresh bread
#FolkloreThursday
1
12
51
“Pleasure to me is wonder—the unexplored, the unexpected, the thing that is hidden and the changeless thing that lurks behind superficial mutability.”
― H.P. Lovecraft
#BookWormSat
📷DjLuke9, DeviantArt
0
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53
Some mines in Dartmoor arranged for horseshoes to be nailed into the rock in different parts of the mine so as to prevent witches or even Satan himself from entering
#FolkloreThursday
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🐝❄️A Holy Humming of Honey Bees - roused from their winter slumbers, honey bees were thought to celebrate the Nativity by humming the Hundredth Psalm to the Christ Child at midnight on Christmas Eve ❄️🐝
#SuperstitionSat
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Sailors believed that having children on board ship would bring good luck to the voyage ahead as the power of their innocence would protect it.
#FolkloreThursday
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49
If a gansey was still in the process of being knitted for a fisherman who then passed away, it would be unravelled and the wool kept for a year before being used again
#SuperstitionSat
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48
The Legend of Merlin's passion for Nimue, the Lady of the Lake tells of his undoing when he revealed the secrets of his magic to her. Using one of his spells, she imprisoned him within a Hawthorn Tree where he remains, muttering to this day
#FolkloreThursday
🎨E. Burne-Jones
4
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48
Spending a night under the capstone of Tinkinswood Burial Chamber near Cardiff, S Wales, on the eves of May Day, St John's Day (23 June), or Midwinter's Day can either make you go mad; you could die or else become a poet-I know what I would prefer-what's yours?
#FolkloreThursday
2
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“The cuckoo sings from St Tiburtius's Day to St John's Day" (24 June.)
14th April is St Tiburtius' Day. In England, it was believed that on hearing the Cuckoo's first call then Spring was truly on its way. Try making a wish too - good luck!
#folklorethursday
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The Korean Festival of Samjinnal celebrates the arrival of Spring & is held on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month in the year. People prepare Hwajeon, traditional rice cakes made from azaleas flowers & glutinous rice dough, that are consumed during the festival
#FolkloreThursday
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"The road to Manderley lay ahead. There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind of the sea."
#BookWormSat
3
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47
It was thought unlucky if a sailor's wife wound wool by candlelight before her husband's voyage because it was as if she was "winding her husband overboard," that is, he would be fated to die at sea.
🎨Eugene Carriere
#FolkloreThursday
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"According to Victorian folklore, if a "witch" wished to be reincarnated as a spirit animal then a death mask or wax effigy would be placed on the body of his or her chosen creature. Doing this would ensure the witch would become, in this case, a fox!"
#FolkloreSunday
2
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45
If the Moon was seen, surrounded by a single halo of light then it was believed that a storm was pending. A double halo indicated that a period of turbulent weather would follow
#FolkloreThursday
📷iamspakkahearmeroar
0
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"Nobot an olde cave, or a crevisse of an olde cragge"-is Lud's Church in the Peak District the site of the Green Chapel where Sir Gawain meets Sir Bertilak? Or the cave at Wetton Mill? Either way, Gawain felt uneasy there, saying "it is the worst-cursed church"
#FolkloreThursday
3
9
45
Any enterprising burglar wouldn't be without a Hand of Glory in their swag-bag. A hand cut from the arm of a hanged felon could make its owner invisible; able to unlock doors & when lit, would cause people to sleep & not able to wake up-perfect for robbing folk
#FolkloreThursday
1
10
45
Dropping household cutlery could be portentous for the household as unexpected guests might arrive at their door. A dropped knife meant a man while a fork, a woman but a large spoon dropped on the table warned of the imminent arrival of a large group of visitors!
#FolkloreThursday
2
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In the Herefordshire village of Mordiford, there's the legend of Maud & her pet Wyvern. On finding it, she hid it from her parents & nurtured it on milk but the Wyvern soon grew & began killing livestock. Slain by Sir Garstone, Maud grieved for her dead Wyvern.
#FolkloreThursday
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