Fabulous Folklore with Icy

If we head to the Siebengeberge uplands in Germany, we'll find a hill named the Drachenfels near Königswinter. It stands at 321 m and the name translates as Dragon's Rock, named after a dragon that allegedly lived on its slopes. Given we're in the Folklore of Mountains and Hills Month, let's investigate two legends associated with the dragon of the Drachenfels in this week's episode of Fabulous Fo...

We're off to the gorgeous surroundings of the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) this week for the Folklore of Mountains and Hills.  According to Marie Trevelyan, so it's unclear how common this belief was, dragons and flying serpents could be found among the Bannau Brycheiniog. But legends of fairies are more common in these parts, so let's dig into them in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklo...

There's something both primal and ancient about mountains. Beautiful and remote, they can provide a harsh and unforgiving environment for those who venture into their territory. Sometimes linked with sleeping giants, mountains are also a reminder of the Earth's formation, with rock contorted into fantastic shapes by immense geological pressures. The Cheviot Hills run from Northumberland and across...

Happy Hallowe'en! For a special 'festive' bonus, I recorded this episode at Newcastle Castle. I'm chatting with my fellow Geordie ghosthunter, Rob Kirkup, the mastermind behind the How Haunted podcast. We chat about how we got into ghost hunting, the weirdest things that have ever happened on an investigation, and our love for Newcastle's 12th-century Keep... Find How Haunted on your podcast playe...

To close this month-long series on Fabulous Folklore about magical practice and witchcraft in the 21st century, I'm chatting to Mhara Starling, a Welsh witch. We discuss the difference between the Welsh and English witch trials, the magic present in the Welsh culture, the difficulty encountered by trying to create a "Celtic pantheon" of deities, and the beauty of Nos Calan Gaeaf! Find Mhara on Ins...

This month, I've got the joy of introducing you to Amy Jeffs, the Somerset-based art historian and printmaker beyond the books Storyland and Wild. She's got expertise in medieval art and literature, and we chat about some of the myths in Britain's ancient past, whether such myths were seen as fact or fiction in earlier centuries, and the value of art to storytelling! We did have a couple of issues...

As part of a month-long series on Fabulous Folklore about magical practice and witchcraft in the 21st century, I'm chatting to Amaya Rourke, an Ireland-based animist folk witch, diviner, and spirit worker. We discuss folkloric witchcraft and how it relates to historical practices, the knowledge encoded in folklore and legends, the difference between witches and magicians, and the beauty of the nat...

As part of a month-long series on Fabulous Folklore about magical practice and witchcraft in the 21st century, I'm chatting to Emma Kathryn, a Nottinghamshire-based practitioner of non-Wiccan Traditional British Witchcraft, Obeah and Vodou. We discuss the importance of the land to witchcraft and magical practices, why magical practices don't need to cost a lot of money, how witchcraft can be used...

I'm kicking off a month-long series on Fabulous Folklore by talking to magical practitioners and witches in the 21st century. This week, I chat to Ùna Blyth, the Shetland-based folk magic practitioner and tarot reader. We talk about what witchcraft and magically actually are, how the Shetland Islands offer different opportunities for folk magic, whether tarot is essential to witchcraft, and the mi...

Haunted libraries became famous with Ghostbusters. Our heroes investigate disturbances at the New York Public Library and encounter a ghost that tells them to shush. Surprisingly, this doesn't seem to be so far off the mark if we look at tales of haunted libraries. What stories of ghosts are there from these book-loving spaces of calm? Let's go ghost-hunting at the Lit & Phil in Newcastle, thr...

While schools and universities boast urban legends alongside ghosts, prisons tend to be more like hospitals. You find tales of hauntings, but little in the way of folklore. It's probably due to the concentration of human life in one place - and the brutality that runs alongside it. Haunted prisons somehow don't seem so surprising. Due to matters of space, our main focus is on just three prisons: J...

This month, I've got the absolute pleasure of bringing back not one but two previous guests, since they've only gone and written a book together! Yes, I mean Mark Norman and Dr Delyth Badder, co-authors of The Folklore of Wales: Ghosts . So in this chat, we'll be talking about misconceptions about Welsh folklore, types of Welsh ghost, and what it's like co-writing a book! Enjoy... Pre-order The Fo...

If you go looking for ghost stories, you very quickly stumble across haunted hospitals. In fact, it was finding so many tales about Cardiff Royal Infirmary that prompted this post in the first place. And not all of the stories are necessarily sad. The resident ghost at St Nicholas Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne is known as 'Matron', but she's also said to be friendly. But we're going to go beyond...

In a lot of ways, it's hardly surprising there is a lot of university folklore. People are away from home, often for the first time, in a strange environment with a lot of new places. They're also often in old buildings where who only knows what has happened in the past. So it's easy for unusual stories to emerge. Let's look at some university folklore, including myths about failing your exams in...

Think back to the schools you've attended. Did they have a Grey Lady in a disused corridor? A hell hound in a supply cupboard? A secret tunnel to a neighbouring building? The ghost of a former pupil, forever roaming the halls? Many schools end up with urban legends and folklore attached to them. Yet these stories can be circulated both by students and by staff. They can be cautionary tales, or sim...

Belfast is the capital of Northern Ireland, and its site has been occupied since the Bronze Age. It's been a major port since the 19th century, and the Harland & Wolff shipyard built RMS Titanic here. It's a city of much history, so it comes as no surprise that there are plenty of ghost stories linked with Belfast. Haunted prisons, railway stations, private homes, even roads - Belfast has the...

Cardiff, capital of Wales, has a history that dates back some 6000 years. Naturally, it's amassed a lot of legends in all that time. They include secret tunnels, the Beast of Leckwith, strange figures in Bute Park, phantom coaches, and a Royal Infirmary so haunted it needed an exorcism. Let's explore some of Cardiff's ghost stories and other tales in this week's instalment of Fabulous Folklore! Fi...

In this 14th episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I chat with Dr Shepherd Siegel about the trickster archetype. Dr Siegel is the author of Tricking Power Into Performing Acts of Love: How Tricksters Through History Have Changed the World, an examination of the ways in which the trickster archetype appears across mythology and popular culture. In this interview, we chat about what tricksters are...

Arthur's Seat is the ancient, extinct volcano that lies just a mile to the east of Edinburgh Castle. Myths cling to its peak like mist in the autumn, but one particular mystery is far from ancient. In 1836, some boys hunting rabbits on the hill found a strange hoard of miniature coffins hidden in a small cave. Each held a rudimentary figure, clad in fabric, its eyes open as it stared across the ag...

The Charterhouse area of London has played host to a monastery, a School, and university buildings...as well as the Charterhouse Plague Pit.  Yet the plague pit gave rise to schoolyard rumours in the nearby school, with the dead seemingly still screaming in their grave. Ghost sightings of monks give the tranquil square a slightly different kind of appeal. So what is the Charterhouse Plague Pit and...

Minerva was the Roman goddess associated with all things intelligence, crafts-related, and military strategy. How did she combine so many disciplines? And how did people worship her? Let's look at some of her myths and how people worshipped her in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/minerva-goddess-of-intellect/ Man...

In this 13th episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I chat with Daniel Clarke, a Cape Town-based artist, illustrator and animator who has worked with BBC and Disney, among others. He is the co-author of Kariba, a graphic novel with his brother James Clarke, which explores the Zimbabwean myth of Nyaminyami, the great river god of the Zambezi River. In this interview, we chat about the building of m...

For some among you, Vulcan conjures mental images of Star Trek, with the name being that of the planet Spock calls home. For others, you'll know Vulcan as the Roman god of fire, volcanoes, and blacksmiths.  That's the incarnation of Vulcan we'll be looking at in this article. He's the equivalent of the Greek Hephaestus. His worship dates at least to the 8th century BCE, as far as records go, when...

Depending on who you ask, Juno is either a NASA space probe studying Jupiter, or she's the Roman queen of the gods, wife of Jupiter, god of thunder. As the Roman counterpart of Hera, the wife of Zeus in Greek mythology, she's often characterised as a jealous, bitter, and vindictive wife, often punishing the nymphs or goddesses with whom Jupiter had various dalliances. That said, she does have some...

Roman mythology offers plenty of gods associated with the natural world - just look at Neptune and his dominion over the sea, or Luna's role as goddess of the moon. Yet it also offers a god of nature itself in the form of Silvanus. But he was also so much more than a nature god. Let's find out who Silvanus was and why he was so popular in this week’s episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images a...