Icy Sedgwick's Blog, page 15

The Folklore of Clothes: Defying Fairies, Finding Love, and Bringing Luck

Clothing is an intrinsic part of being human, letting us express who we are, what groups we belong to, what jobs we do, and so on. Clothes let us live in specific environments, providing warmth or cooling, depending on where we are. Apart from a few exceptions, it’s also part of our everyday routine. It’s […]

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The Folklore of Footwear: Shoes, Boots & Stockings

Footwear appears in a range of folklore and makes a memorable appearance is a series of fairy tales. Just look at the Seven League Boots or Cinderella’s glass slipper. But it turns out that it’s more than just a plot device when it comes to folklore. A whole range of superstitions and practices see footwear […]

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Royal Witches: 15th Century Women Fall Foul of Political Shenanigans

When you think of witchcraft in earlier centuries, you probably think of stereotypically wizened women, huddled around cauldrons or casting curses. You probably wouldn’t immediately think of royal witches. Yet within the space of a single century, there were four women in England’s royal family that fell prey to witchcraft accusations. Whether they actually practiced […]

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Shapeshifting Witches: From Witch to Hare and Back Again

Perhaps one of the most iconic scenes in Disney’s 1963 classic The Sword & the Stone is the magical duel. Merlin and Madam Mim start having a magical duel, with each changing form to try to best the other. Mim cheats, and Merlin finally defeats her, though this sequence is more inspired by the novel […]

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Shapeshifting Creatures of Folklore: Fairies, Selkies and Ghosts

Shapeshifting is an ancient ability that appears in cultures around the world across the ages. It appears in an array of ‘types’ of shapeshifting. Some creatures can simply shift their form due to a natural ability. Gods often change their form (hello, Zeus), but they can also change the form of others. Look at the […]

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The Folklore of Furniture: Beds, Tables and Chairs

Furniture tells us a lot about a period, people, or place. It’s solid, so it can often be the only tangible artefact left. It often bears the impression of human activity through use, and they tell stories. For example, you can see the botanical cabinet belonging to Mary Eleanor Bowes at Bowes Museum in Barnard […]

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The Christmas Rose: The Myth and Magic of the Black Hellebore

While holly, ivy and mistletoe might be the most obvious Yuletide plants, there is one more that bears a festive name – the Christmas Rose. Only it’s not a rose at all. It’s a hellebore. A black hellebore, to be precise. Black hellebore is actually named for the colour of its roots, not its petals […]

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Conifers and Christmas: The Folklore of Pine, Spruce and Fir Trees

Put ‘christmas trees’ into Google and it returns about 1,350,000,000 results. They’re an intrinsic part of the festivities, yet you actually have three main types of conifers to choose from: pine (Pinus), fir (Abies), and spruce (Picea). Oslo has sent a Norway spruce to London every Christmas since 1947, displayed in Trafalgar Square (Woolf 2020: […]

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The Folklore of Ivy: Christmas, Divinations, and Magic

A range of plants enjoy connections with Christmas, not least due to their status as evergreens. At a time of year when many plants have shed their leaves, these plants offer a welcome burst of colour. Ivy (Hedera helix) is no exception, and even features in Christmas carols such as ‘The Holly and the Ivy’. […]

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Folklore of British Caves: Treasure, Cannibals, and Brownies

There is something deeply primordial about caves, these strange spaces that allow us to move inside the earth. It’s hardly surprising that they’re often considered the entrance to the underworld, or that they become places to hide things. Caves are understandably replete with stories of treasure, lost graves, and hidden booty. Earlier in the week, […]

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