Folklore and paganism

Is notable for a being a fairly long amulet inscription. It follows a tradition of amulets used against evil and illness, and confirms Thor’s use of his hammer and his relation to thunder and the sea (think, the story involving fishing Jörmungandr) in a direct written, pagan source.

There is still to this day a ritual dedicated to the Punic goddess Tanit that is carried out to invoke rain.

A description of the various types of folk-tales from Iceland. So far I have only read the chapter about elves but that is very good and compiles and compares, chronologically all mentions of elves and vættir through the entire history of Iceland.

Þrymskviða is a story recorded on the poetic edda. It is notable for having survived in folkloric ballads recorded in most of the nordic countries as far back as the middle ages.

A local tour guide told me it is a tradition to break into the Saint Louis No. 1 cemetery in New Orleans at night, scribble (a single) X on her grave and make a wish. If the wish comes true the person will return later with an offering.

A good source of folklore and surviving pagan practices are church documents that describes practices evident in pre-christian Roman and Greek sources, archeological evidence, and early modern folkloric sources.

Short descriptions of various accounts of pagan and folkloric practices involving trees. Contains many references to other practices and sources.

Article detailing an 8th century description of Saxon paganism. Sadly, the full text is lost, but we have the index of the text and that is enough to enlighten us about the existence of many practices described in other sources, and many that existed until recently or even still exist.

If you have even a passing interest in modern folklore and its connection to ancient paganism I implore you to read Teutonic Mythology. It clarifies so many claims about modern culture having a connection to ancient paganism.

Folk tales are often about the needs and desires of ordinary people - and many German folk tales are about attempts to get rich through assorted dubious money-making schemes. I'll share one of my favorite tales on this topic, and I am curious what other such "Get Rich Quick" folk tales you know from around the world!

For millennia, solar eclipses have inspired awe, wonder and fear. After all, it's not often that twilight descends in the middle of the day. And just as we plan for and anticipate their occurrence — like the total solar eclipse that will be visible to millions of North Americans on April 8 — ancient cultures across the world, from the Mayans to the ancient Greeks, developed their own mythologies and traditions around eclipses.

In 1897, one Mr Burgess, the Clerk of Works at Oxford University, donated two shrivelled potatoes to the Pitt Rivers Museum. He usually kept them in his pockets. They were the ultimate “jacket” potatoes.

I'm glad I discovered this Lemmy community!

Christmas time is upon us, and though children loathe getting new clothes for gifts, they best put on that new itchy sweater or slide on those unwanted socks. Or else risk being eaten alive by a giant cat, at least according to Icelandic folklore.

Monsters haunt the physical and imaginative remains of the Middle Ages. They stalk the pages of manuscripts, peer out from cathedrals and castles, and even appear in the most historical of literary genres, medieval chronicles. But monsters weren’t just decorative. Ideas about monstrosity were fundamental to ancient and medieval debates about the nature of humanity, and the rhetoric of monstrosity was widely used to dehumanize certain groups in medieval Europe.

GASSAWAY, W.Va.— Is West Virginia monster lore going corporate? A new commercial app that features the Mountain State's most famous monsters suggests it could become big business. Read more