When you think of mythology in Victorian art, you probably think of the nude water nymphs of John William Waterhouse. As we saw last week, his work draws heavily from myth and legend for its subject matter. Yet he was nowhere near being the only artist inspired by classical stories. Evelyn De Morgan was another […]
Blending Folklore and Art in the work of John William Waterhouse
Whenever you go looking for artworks to illustrate articles about folklore and mythology, one name keeps popping up. That’s Victorian artist, John William Waterhouse. He used many myths and legends to inspire his work, including the literary varieties available via the Romantic poets. In this article, let’s explore the link between folklore and art within […]
Telling Magpie Rhymes: Predicting the Future with Magpies
Magpies are an incredibly common sight around Britain. They’re also well-represented in British bird lore. They appear as both omens of death and a fixture in a popular form of divination, the magpie rhymes. According to Lynx at Druidry.org, there are 20 species of magpie and treepie. The common magpie is exactly that in the […]
British Big Cats: Ice Age Survivors or Escaped Illicit Pets?
After the wolf became extinct in Britain, the badger became “Britain’s largest native carnivore” (Goss 1992: 184). Yet that hasn’t stopped people from claiming the existence of mysterious British big cats in the countryside. They’re also referred to as alien big cats. Jacqueline Simpson and Steve Roud note the existence of 304 press items from […]
The Folklore of Time: Clocks, Calendars, and Church Bells
Time is one of those things that we never seem to have enough of. When we’re enjoying ourselves, it zips by too quickly. Yet when you’re stuck in a boring situation, it seems to slow down to a crawl. But how does time relate to folklore? A Patreon supporter requested a blog post on humanity’s […]
The Folklore of Unusual Place Names: From Pity Me to Wetwang
Place names are important and tell us a lot of valuable information. Yet many names come to us with centuries of use attached. They become distorted over time as people misspell or mishear them. In some cases, folklore becomes attached to explain their origins. As an example, you can find No Place near Stanley. Some […]
