Fabulous Folklore with Icy

Drake's Island sits in Plymouth Sound, around 500 m from the mainland. The island is just 6.5 acres, and around 250 yards wide at its broadest point. You can reach the island by boat in 10 minutes. Its name refers to Sir Francis Drake, a problematic figure often lauded for his circumnavigation efforts. He also has very little to do with Drake's Island itself. When looking for its ghost stories or legends, we actually have to look to the island's role in English defences from the Tudor period onwards. We're talking secret tunnels, protective military spirits, and the inevitable White Lady. Let's explore some of these stories in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore… Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/drakes-island-folklore/ Book tickets for The Haunted Landscape: Ghosts, Magic and Lore: https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-haunted-landscape-ghosts-magic-and-lore/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Today marks All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day or the Feast of All Hallows. That's why Hallowe'en is called that - it's All Hallow's Eve. The day celebrates saints, but the far more interesting day for folklore is tomorrow - All Souls' Day. All Souls' Day marks remembrance of the dead, whether that's visiting graves, praying for the dearly departed, or practising other family customs.  Given it's a day dedicated to the dead, I thought it would be a great time to hear some more unnerving and uncanny experiences from listeners of Fabulous Folklore… Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/supernatural-experiences-4/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

If I ask you to think of a famous haunted house, will your mind wander to a white Dutch Colonial house, with quarter-round windows lit from within to look like red eyes? Yes? Then the reputation of 112 Ocean Avenue has done its work, aided and abetted by The Amityville Horror. Even if that wasn't the first house you thought of, Amityville's reputation stretches before it, ready to snag your attention at the first opportunity. After all, the design of the house reappears intermittently, as do elements of the haunting. A presence that hates Christian icons? A child's invisible friend that takes a dislike to a parent? Items going missing around the house, reappearing elsewhere, if at all? The fact the haunting apparently contains ghosts, poltergeist activity, demonic shenanigans and possibly even a portal to hell just adds to Amityville's towering reputation. Let's explore this reputation in this week's episode! I also make a mistake at 10mins 15secs by saying the Lutz family left in March 1976. They left in January, but that's the joy of recording live! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/amityville-horror-house/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

The Palazzo Ducale dominates the view as your vaporetto approaches the San Marco stop. The huge building is an example of Venetian Gothic architecture, all pointed arches and quatrefoils. It's hard to believe that two prisons lie within its bulk, with a third inside the pristine white building alongside it. Tourists might be the only people who visit these prisons now, trotting along the corridors as part of organised tours. Yet in bygone centuries, notorious reputations clung to the cells, and people feared being slung into them. The fearsome reputation of this prison may not have outlived the building, but they certainly outlived the Venetian Republic. Let's explore this reputation, some legends associated with the Palace and its prisons, and even learn of a daring escape from one of them - by none other than Casanova - in this week's episode! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/doges-palace-prison/ Hear my interview on How Haunted: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/bonus-episode-ghostlore-with-dr-icy-sedgwick/id1639335870?i=1000730532826 Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

In this episode of Fabulous Folklore Presents, I'm talking to two folklore heavyweights - Owen Davies and Ceri Houlbrook! Owen Davies is Professor of Social History at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Art of Grimoire and Troubled by Faith: Insanity and the Supernatural in the Age of the Asylum (both 2023). He has been described as Britain's foremost academic expert on the history of magic. Ceri Houlbrook is Senior Lecturer in Folklore and History at the University of Hertfordshire. Her books include The Magic of Coin-Trees (2018), Unlocking the Love-Lock (2021) and Ritual 'Litter' Redressed (2022). In addition to her scholarly work, she writes folklore-inspired fiction. We chat about their new book, Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present, about whether folklore should open up to admit openly-invented lore, the importance of the urban environment to folklore which has often been overlooked, and the way social media has shifted 'local' traditions into often international ones. There's even a mention of the folklore of ice cream vans! Buy Folklore: A Journey through the Past and Present: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781526180384 Find Ceri on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/cerihoulbrook.bsky.social Find Owen on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/odavies9.bsky.social Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

If you've ever read any Charles Dickens novels, especially Great Expectations, then you'll have run into Newgate Prison. The hulking, notorious jail loomed large in London's history, before its demolition in 1902. While accurate execution statistics are difficult to find, there's a suggestion that over 1000 people faced capital punishment at the prison between 1790 and 1902. The old execution bell rests in a glass case in nearby St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, rung the night before an execution as a reminder to the condemned. So how did this prison gain such a fearsome reputation? How has it survived well beyond its early 20th-century demolition? Let’s find out in this week's episode! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/newgate-prison/ Buy tickets for Haunted Tyneside at Newcastle Castle on 28 October: https://www.newcastlecastle.co.uk/talks Buy tickets for the Witchcraft Panel at Treadwell's on 29 October: https://www.treadwells-london.com/events-1/witchcraft-panel-interview-soiree Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Bedlam, or Bethlem Royal Hospital to give it its full name, is actually the world's oldest psychiatric institution. It began life in 1247 in the Priory of St Mary of Bethlehem, which stood where we now find Liverpool Street Station.  Yet the hospital has inspired a range of books, films, and TV series, with its infamous reputation lasting well into the 21st century. The hospital has since become a valued institution for psychiatric treatment, yet the ghost of its former incarnations still linger. After all, the word 'bedlam', meaning chaos, came from this very hospital. People shortened 'Hospital of Saint Mary of Bethlehem' to Bethlem, and then Bedlam, in around the 1660s. The word even went on to inspire the word 'Bedlamite', used to describe someone suffering from insanity, from the 1620s. So how did this hospital gain such a fearsome reputation, and how has it survived well beyond the hospital's adoption of new practices? Let's find out in this week's episode! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/bedlam-reputation/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Foxes appear in literature and legend across the world. Look at Brer Fox in the American South. In Rebel Folklore, I discussed the Jiuwei Hu of China, or nine-tailed fox, who drains men of their life force. Korea's kumiho is a similar spirit, while Japan has the supernatural fox spirit, the kitsune. Scholar Al-Biruni, magician Cornelius Agrippa and astrologer William Lilly put the fox under Mercury's rulership. Mercury is the trickster of the Roman gods, and represents communication, cleverness, speed, and resourcefulness - all qualities traditionally associated with the fox. It probably explains why dreaming of foxes meant you should beware of treachery and thieves. I have an exclusive article about foxes for Patrons on the lowest tier, but I've also made it available for sale if you'd like to read some additional fox folklore. As it is, it seems foxes also appear in folk tales and literature so I managed to write a whole new episode that didn't involve the lore from the article! So let's explore the way foxes appear in folk tales and literature! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/foxes-folk-tales/ Foxes and Folklore article: https://www.patreon.com/posts/exclusive-foxes-106946093 Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Natalie Lawrence is an author and illustrator who explores our relationship with the natural world, looking through multiple lenses - from the biological to the mythic and psychoanalytic. She completed a MSc and Ph.D. in History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge, exploring the making and meanings of monstrous creatures in seventeenth century Europe. She published her first book as a teenager, Feathers and Eggshells, inspired by Hampstead Heath and the birds she was entranced by as a child, and published Planta Sapiens with Paco Calvo in 2022. She has also given a TedX talk, appeared on BBC Radio, and worked with installation artists.  In this chat, we talk about humans' fascination for monsters, how the walrus was originally conceived of as being a monster, the Hydra of Hamburg, cryptids as contemporary monsters and the ways in which our understanding of what is real and what exists has changed over the centuries. Buy Enchanted Creatures: Our Monsters and Their Meanings: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781474619035 Find Natalie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalie.j.lawrence/ And her website: https://nataliejlawrence.com/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Hedgehogs are one of the stranger mammals you might encounter. They're nocturnal, they hibernate, they're prone to rolling into a ball when frightened, and they're extremely vulnerable to habitat loss. While some of you will undoubtedly have first thought of Sonic, others might have thought of Mrs Tiggywinkle from the Beatrix Potter books.  Either way, those are quite positive associations. I've been feeding hedgehog visitors to my garden since June 2023, and I find them charming, adorable, and slightly idiosyncratic. Yet in the past, hedgehogs have had a much more sinister reputation that they certainly didn't deserve. People linked them with witches, the devil, and even fruit theft. So let's explore the folklore surrounding hedgehogs!  Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/hedgehogs-folklore/ Sign up for the Bonfire Night talk: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gunpowder-treason-and-plot-the-legends-and-customs-of-bonfire-night-tickets-1687030616989 Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Moles are fascinating creatures. They're phenomenal diggers and while they weigh around 120g, they can shift 540 times their body weight of earth. Given they live entirely underground, they're a rarely seen mammal, and we only know they're there when we see their molehills. Surprisingly, there is more folklore about them than more commonly encountered animals, like badgers.  Used in folk medicine, they're also creatures connected with omens for both death and the weather. Their appearance as folk remedies is somewhat cruel, and reflects earlier times when humans had less regard for animal welfare. So how do moles appear in folklore? Let's find out in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/moles-folklore/ Tickets for the Northern Spiritualism talk: https://bit.ly/spiritualism2025 Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Otters are some of the most charming mammals you might encounter. Sometimes nicknamed the "water sausage" by the internet, otters are playful, intelligent, and capable of using tools. They also appear in popular culture, most notably in Tarka the Otter and The Wind in the Willows. Yet in reality, they're incredibly elusive. They might live in wetlands, along rivers, and at the coast, but seeing one isn't easy! They also enjoy woodland habitats, and even in towns, so they're a very interesting species. In this post, I'll be talking about the European otter. They're listed as near threatened on the global IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They also raise their cubs in holts, or underground burrows, and they mostly eat fish, amphibians, crustaceans, and aquatic birds. I've seen one of the otters that lives at the Gosforth Park Nature Reserve, which was very exciting given how elusive they are! It's a woodland setting surrounding a lake, so I thought otters would make a good first stop on our Woodland Mammals tour. But given how good they are at hiding from humans, is there much folklore about them? Let's find out in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/otters-folklore/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

When we think about folklore, we often think about the characters involved: King Arthur, Queen Mab, Lady Godiva, and more. Yet folklore has an intrinsic link with place, too.  Even the most throwaway comment about a place can reveal stories linked with them. Such stories can reveal how we feel about places, especially when human activity moves away. They’re also stories that get easily lost when people move on, so I asked the wonderful listeners of Fabulous Folklore if they wanted to share any stories they’d been told about places - and they did! I wanted ghosts at a person's school, houses they ran past because someone in the neighbourhood said they were haunted, local legends of grey ladies, creepy back roads people avoided at night because of a local cryptid - that kind of thing!  I didn't want personal experiences this time around, which I've collected before, because I wanted the focus to be on the place, not someone's experience of it. Let's see what people came up with in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the blog post with the images and the references here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/tales-of-space-and-place/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Enjoyed this episode and want to show your appreciation? Buy Icy a coffee to say 'thanks' at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/ Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social Tweet Icy at https://twitter.com/IcySedgwick

English folklore is full of peculiarities. The legends of the so-called screaming skulls are definitely among them. These are skulls kept in mansions and farmhouses, sometimes considered to be guardians of the property. Legends abound of the violent deeds done to the owners of the skulls. But many of these stories come with hauntings attached if the skulls are disturbed. Sometimes the skulls even repeatedly return, no matter how often they're removed or even destroyed.  Given our focus this month on ghosts and poltergeists, let's explore some legends of screaming skulls in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/screaming-skulls/ Tell me the supernatural stories of places that you've heard: https://forms.gle/WzXyGZLoe8iLZh656 Order Ghostlore: https://geni.us/ghostlore Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

I'm talking to Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux from the Three Ravens podcast about the difficulties in defining 'folklore', the importance of storytelling, which of England's 39 historic counties has the best folk tales, why people love ghost stories, and making folklore accessible to wider audiences! Eleanor Conlon and Martin Vaux are the brains behind the Three Ravens podcast, and they are a real life couple, based in Sussex. Eleanor was born in Suffolk and grew up in Sussex, and after developing a passion for storytelling and stage performance as a child, become involved in amateur dramatics and completed her BA in English Literature and earned her MA in Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama. She also founded the theatre company Rust & Stardust, which tours original work and education projects rooted in English folklore. Martin was born in Somerset and grew up in the developing world, including in Uganda and Papua New Guinea. After leaving school, he completed his BA in English and won National Student Television Awards for comedy and directing. Having been a freelance journalist, radio presenter, and English teacher, he also won the BBC Moo! New Writers Prize in 2009. He gave up teaching after the pandemic to undertake his MA in Romantic and Victorian Literature and Culture at Goldsmiths, and to launch Three Ravens. Buy their book, The Three Ravens Folk Tales: New tellings of half-forgotten stories from England's 39 Historic Counties: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/12992/9781803999685 Visit the Three Ravens Podcast website: https://www.threeravenspodcast.com/ Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Poltergeist marked Hollywood's big-budget engagement with the ghost film in 1982. Produced by Stephen Spielberg and directed by Tobe Hooper, it took the haunted house film and mashed it together with the family adventure film. Throw in some special effects courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic, and you end up with the film that relocated haunted houses to the suburbs. The film obliquely references the settlement of land in California and a failure to acknowledge earlier inhabitants of that land. It also explicitly engages with the growing consumer boom of the 1980s, using technology - here in the form of the TV set - as a means to communicate with the other side. It's a film worthy of study for various reasons. But one of the talking heads in the special feature on the 25th anniversary edition of the film exclaims that everything in the film 'really happened'. Does the depicted activity bear any relation to historically recorded cases of poltergeist activity? Where does the film draw on this record? What are these earlier cases? Let's find out! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/poltergeist-1982-film/ Tell me your supernatural stories: https://forms.gle/WzXyGZLoe8iLZh656 Order Ghostlore: https://geni.us/ghostlore Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

S.A. Lawless is an herbalist, gardener, forager, mycophile, outdoor educator, and published author and illustrator, with a long-held fascination with folklore and witchcraft, currently living in rural Ontario, Canada. She has been studying and practicing herbalism for 20 years and has worked as a professional nature field guide for 15 years. As a herbalist her focus is on low dose botanicals specialising in researching, growing, processing, working with and writing about poisonous plants with a special interest in medicinal nightshades.  In this chat, we talk about poisonous plants, including how to grow them, why poisonous plants are actually important to ecosystems, the "natural = safe" false assumption, and which plants you might be surprised to learn are poisonous! Visit The Poison Garden website: https://thepoisongarden.com/ Find The Poison Garden on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.poisongarden/ Find S.A.'s class on Low Dose Botanicals here: https://rowanandsage.com/upcoming-events/sarahannelawless Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

Last week, we looked at some poltergeist definitions and whether such definitions are even helpful. Can something as truly bizarre as a 'knocking spirit' be boiled down to a series of checkboxes on a form? Yet they're also not the invention of the 20th century. Nor are they the preserve of ghost hunters or psychics. Poltergeist accounts stretch back through the centuries, even if the spirit responsible isn't always labelled as a poltergeist. Just look at the Tedworth Drummer from the 1660s and the haunting at Willington Mill in the 1840s. That's just as far as England goes - these accounts appear all over the world. So as we're interested in folklore here, let's unpick two vastly different cases, from 1716 and 1840, to see how they appear in written records that try to avoid using the P-word. Do the accounts even describe poltergeists? Let's explore them in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/pre-20th-century-poltergeist/ Tell me your supernatural stories: https://forms.gle/WzXyGZLoe8iLZh656 Ghostwatch talk: https://ko-fi.com/s/c81b496605 Order Ghostlore: https://geni.us/ghostlore Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

This episode of Fabulous Folklore begins with a reading of the Poltergeist entry from my new book, Ghostlore, before we explore the problem with poltergeists - how do you define one?! From deciding what phenomena to include to picking a name, the poltergeist proves to be a flexible yet elusive figure in historical accounts. Is that spontaneous fire a religious portent, or a poltergeist? And did a household spirit turn the kitchen upside down...or was it a poltergeist? You get the idea. Let's look at the poltergeist in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/poltergeists-definitions/ Pre-order Ghostlore: https://geni.us/ghostlore Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/

People have lived in the Madrid area since prehistoric times. Occupied by Romans, Moors, and then the Spanish, it has quite the history. Over 6.8 million people live in Madrid. That's less than Paris and London but more than Berlin. Of course, a capital city will boast a few ghost stories. The ghosts of those executed for heresy and witchcraft in the Plaza Mayor are said to still haunt the square. A fire tore through the square in 1631, devastating the buildings and leaving people dead, and some wondered if the square had attracted some kind of evil energy. So which other ghosts lurk in this beautiful city? Let's explore three of the most famous legends - and their variations in this week's episode of Fabulous Folklore! Find the images and references on the blog post: https://www.icysedgwick.com/haunted-madrid/ Pre-order Ghostlore: https://geni.us/ghostlore Star Lore and Legends: Myths of the Constellations talk: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/star-lore-and-legends-myths-of-the-constellations-tickets-1389351410469?aff=oddtdtcreator Get your free guide to home protection the folklore way here: https://www.icysedgwick.com/fab-folklore/ Become a member of the Fabulous Folklore Family for bonus episodes and articles at https://patreon.com/bePatron?u=2380595 Buy Icy a coffee or sign up for bonus episodes at: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick Fabulous Folklore Bookshop: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/fabulous_folklore Pre-recorded illustrated talks: https://ko-fi.com/icysedgwick/shop Request an episode: https://forms.gle/gqG7xQNLfbMg1mDv7 Get extra snippets of folklore on Instagram at https://instagram.com/icysedgwick Find Icy on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/icysedgwick.bsky.social 'Like' Fabulous Folklore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fabulousfolklore/