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 […]
Folklore
How do we understand the reputation of the Amityville Horror House?
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 […]
Just How Bad were the Prisons of the Doge’s Palace?
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 […]
Newgate Prison: Novels, Escapees, and Dreadful Conditions
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 […]
How did popular culture add to Bedlam’s fearsome reputation?
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. Its infamous […]
Foxes in Folk Tales: From Aesop to Reynard
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 […]
