Icy Sedgwick's Blog, page 14

The Folklore of Nettles: Edible Stings, Returning Curses, and Warding off Evil

Most people at some point will have experienced the pain of a nettle sting. I once managed to fall hands-first from a fence into a whole patch of nettles. So it’s hardly surprising that people consider them unwanted or unloved plants. The stinging nettle, or common nettle (Urtica dioica) is Europe’s most common nettle. Other […]

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Celandine Folklore: A Remedy To Keep Away Witches?

Plants often become unwanted plants when they’re especially prolific. Celandine is one such plant, quickly spreading to fill an area with its glossy green leaves and dizzyingly bright yellow flowers. But celandine is also a confusing plant, since the two varieties with the same name are unrelated. The greater celandine Chelidonium majus is a member […]

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Dandelions in Folklore: Making Wishes and Wetting the Bed

Dandelions are cheerful little splashes of colour in lawns and borders. They flower longer than any other plant, providing food for early pollinators. Sadly, not everyone loves them as much as I do. They’re often considered weeds, and are somewhat unwanted plants. But remember. Weeds are just flowers that grow where we don’t necessarily want […]

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Let Them Eat Cake: Cakes to Bring Love and Ward Off Witches

According to the Venerable Bede, what we call February was called Sol-Monath by the ancient Britons. This translates to ‘Month of Cakes’ and the people gave cakes to the gods as offerings (Gazur 2022). I don’t know about you, but that’s a practice I could get behind. It’s worth bearing in mind that what we […]

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Why does a London pub hang hot cross buns in the bar?

Go to Devons Road in London in Bromley-by-Bow and you’ll find a pub with a net of hot cross buns hanging above the bar. I know, it’s pretty weird – even for a pub. But a legend has grown up around The Widow’s Son. Every year, a sailor arrives on Good Friday and places a […]

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[Guest Post] The Psychology and Mechanics Of Horror World-Building

Writing horror is one of the most cathartic things you can attempt. As a Gothic horror writer myself, I’m naturally biased in advising people to have a go! (And I have a class to help you write your own haunted house story if you’re interested) But we don’t always necessarily think of world-building when it […]

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Fruit Folklore: Healing Remedies, Nursery Rhymes, and Love Predictions!

Fruit is an important part of our world, whether it’s through our diet, or the many proverbs attached to it. A variation on “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” is “Eat an apple going to bed, make the doctor beg his bread” (Binney 2018: 46). And look how many sayings involve rotten apples. […]

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Bread Folklore: Medicine, Divination Tool, and Love Magnet!

You wouldn’t think something as humble as bread would have so much folklore attached to it. Yet many of us encounter bread folklore when we’re young. I’m sure we’ve all heard the old wives’ tale that eating your bread crusts would make your hair curly. My primary school had a particularly draconic dinner lady whose […]

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Outerwear and Underwear: Folklore, Superstitions, and Lucky Pants

Clothing, by and large, provides a form of extra protection for the body. Outerwear can give us extra warmth, or prevent clothes underneath from being soaked through in wet weather. Underwear can also provide an extra layer, helping to trap warm air between layers. It also stops your other clothes from rubbing or irritating the […]

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The Folklore of Hats, Gloves and Belts: Wear Your Own Luck

One of the ways through which we can see the changes of fashion is our approach to accessories. Yep, we still wear gloves and hats in winter, but they’re of a very different style to earlier periods. Few people still wear hats as a habitual part of an outfit, and when was the last time […]

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