Icy Sedgwick's Blog, page 31

Persephone: Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Dead

Spring has well and truly sprung, with plants popping up here in the British Isles and lambs gambolling around in the fields. If you’re a follower of Greek myth, then you know we have Persephone to thank for this renewal of spring! But how much do we really know about this dual deity, both goddess […]

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Jack-in-the-Green and the Green Man: One and the Same?

If you head to Hastings in Kent for the May Day celebrations, you may see a strange figure at the parade. Morris dancers ply their trade alongside a person wearing a huge decoration of leaves and branches. This person is known as the Jack-in-the-Green. But who or what is this unusual figure? Does he represent […]

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What Do Eggs, Bunnies, and Bonnets have to do with Easter?

Say ‘Easter’ to most people, and they’ll think of eggs or rabbits. They may even think of Jesus, hot cross buns, or ancient pagan deities. The whole celebration has become something of a mishmash of all these things. There are sombre overtones for the religious, and fun treats for the secular. In a lot of […]

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Fortune-Telling Made Easy: 4 Strange Forms of Divination

In dark and uncertain times such as these, it’s easy to wish you could see into the future. You might easily turn to fortune-telling practices to try and navigate the potentially choppy waters ahead. The idea of divination as a whole lies beyond the scope of this post. It’s not just fortune-telling, it’s more a […]

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Who was Spring-heeled Jack, the Victorian scourge of London?

Spring-heeled Jack sits in the centre of a weird Venn diagram. It features urban legends, ‘penny dreadful’ serial fiction, theatre plays, and modern folklore. The last sightings of him were in the early years of the 20th century. Yet Jack still makes appearances in contemporary popular culture, including: Houdini & Doyle, Spring-heeled Jack by Philip […]

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Inviting Sin-Eaters to a Funeral: Fact or Folklore?

There are few areas of human existence not touched by folklore and superstition. Unsurprisingly, burials and funerals come with a whole raft of beliefs and practices. Some of them persist to this day, while others, like sin-eaters, have largely died out. Despite the practice apparently lasting from the 17th to the early 20th century, there […]

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Moths in Folklore: Bringers of Death and Letters

Moths aren’t exactly popular insects. Within folklore, they’re typically viewed as either messengers from the dead or symbols of death. Some of the symbolism crosses over with that of the butterfly. It’s easy to see why they get muddled up. Both butterflies and moths belong to the Lepidoptera family. T. R. New points out that […]

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Rats in Folklore: Signs of Bad Luck and Harbingers of Doom

Rats get the blame for an awful lot throughout history – usually spreading the plague. Clearly, they don’t spread the plague…but the fleas they carry do. It’s not just the plague they carried. They’d also ruin food supplies. In ancient Egypt, people believed rats represented both destruction and discernment. They’d decimate food stores, but they […]

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Bats in Folklore: Vampires, Familiars and Death Omens

Say the word ‘bats’ to people, and they’ll often think of two things. They’ll either picture a version of Batman (mine’s Michael Keaton, thanks). Or they’ll think of a legion of versions of Dracula, exploding into a cloud of bats, or hovering at the window of an all-too-willing victim. But in truth, bats are incredible […]

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[Guest Post] How To Write A Dark-Fantasy-Inspired D&D Campaign

I freely admit that I know nothing about Dungeons & Dragons. So I especially haven’t got a clue how you’d write a D&D campaign, let alone a dark fantasy inspired adventure! Thankfully, I know someone who does. So it’s my pleasure to hand over my blog to Hollie Jones who’ll teach you how to write […]

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