Erik
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kirebooks.bsky.social
Erik
@kirebooks.bsky.social
Flotsam and Jetsam. Folklore, customs and odd guilds, gangs and groups.
Great set of folklore/hauntology speakers at this years #TheHauntedLandscape run by @forteanlondon.bsky.social I now have a lovely list of rabbit holes to go down. Next year's in my calendar already.
November 22, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Bungay proving its weird credentials by featuring a 2nd time at #TheHauntedLandscape conference. First with Harte's noting of its church-ravishing devil dog. Now with @magicnotwitches.bsky.social telling of its alchemist Friar Bungay visiting cunning folk.
November 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Interested in the Black Shuck festival? The next one is July 31st- Aug 2nd 2026. Mentioned by Jeremy Harte at @forteanlondon.bsky.social's #TheHauntedLandscape blackshuckfestival.com
Black Shuck Festival
blackshuckfestival.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Earliest chew-bacca story/lyric reference?
Now this is how to start a history book. A Wiltshire story teller 1890s.

"There were a time, 'tweren't in my time, neither in your time, nit (nor yet) in anybody else's time; 'twere when magpies builded in old men's beards and turkey-cocks chewed bacca”.
November 21, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Context, context. Seeing this photo of 3 dog skeletons in a vague circle, my mind immediately went 'what iron age ritual is this'. But in context: "tentatively" C16 culled hounds. (Dersingham walled garden excavation, Joshua White in Medieval Settlement Research Journal 2025)
November 21, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Reposted by Erik
Saturday: 22 November 2025 @conwayhall.bsky.social and online.

Legend trip through the Haunted Landscape at the London Fortean Society’s Day of expert talks on British ghost, magic, and folklore.

Speakers and timings follow 1/10

forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
November 17, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Cathedrals built on lakes, logs and prayers...
i fully agree with this theory and in my actual field, british architectural history, The Problem is that Salisbury Cathedral is built on top of a lake and no i am not exaggerating
between this and the FSO Safer (another ship at serious risk of exploding) I’m convinced every field has its “yeah, this is the problem that keeps me up at night” and I’m on a quest to learn about all of them
November 12, 2025 at 2:07 PM
'For bright Phoebe is a-rolling to the West', part of a harvest rhyme, in LR Haggard's Norfolk poacher book 'I Walked by Night', sparked memories of my dad saying when he started working in Norfolk that the 'old boys' called the sun Phoebe.
November 3, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Magic amongst Norfolk ruins. Pierced hearts, wax dolls and soot circles. From 1964 new up on BBC archive youtu.be/QWTw3xoGhg4?...
1964: A Curious Case of Black Magic in Norfolk | Tonight | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtu.be
November 2, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Reposted by Erik
Paterson's Roads (1771–1829), perhaps the closest thing the 19th century ever got to Sat Nav, a book to guide the journeyer along the major roads of England and Wales: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/paterson-s-roads-1826-edition
October 24, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Erik
BBC Archive just uploaded The Lonely Shore (1962), a surreal 15-minute short that takes the form of a scientific report from an abandoned and desolate future Britain. Written by Jacquetta Hawkes, an actual archaeologist, and directed by Ken Russell, an actual madman.
1962: An Expedition to Post-Apocalyptic Britain | Monitor: The Lonely Shore | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
www.youtube.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Reading of the penance demanded for a medieval love spell where a woman gives 'bread made on her buttocks" & I have some questions. Did she have help, good reach, or is she sitting on the bread, individual buttock twerking/kneading? (In Cunning Folk by @magicnotwitches.bsky.social )
October 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Listening to @folklorepod.bsky.social on the White Witch of Exeter and the use of 'overlook' for bewitched/evil eye. So is this why @stephenking.bsky.social's Shining hotel is called The Overlook?
October 14, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Reposted by Erik
Our next online talk

FAIRIES, WITCH BOTTLES AND AZAZEL: British Grimoires and their Significance to the Study of Folklore

Saturday 18 October, 7:30pm
£5 plus booking fee

bit.ly/flaevents

All profits support our charity.

Ticket includes talk, Q&A and recording of the event
October 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
An Ent!
Late afternoon stroll along Derwent Water. Found a hollow tree striking a disco pose. Or waving for help. The water was barely ankle-deep, so it's probably fine...
September 16, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Erik
Some 16th-century ballads to pen?

Manipulus Vocabulorum is a rhyming dictionary from 1570, thought to be the first ever: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/manipulus-vocabulorum-a-rhyming-dictionary-from-the-16th-century
September 9, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Only just realised: Transylvania means 'beyond the woods'. It's like having had a blind spot and suddenly noticing the rabbit after decades of only seeing a duck.
September 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
"Oh Lamentable Death..." A lament found under the whitewash of Acle church seemingly from the C14 Black Death
September 6, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Avebury cove, one of the stones has a small circular impression in the centre of a larger circular shape. A natural cup and ring mark? (I've been here so many times & had never even noticed this before - Avebury keeps on giving.) #standingstonesunday
August 31, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Always look under your chair before sitting. #misericord
August 30, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Summer haunting: Ice cream van chimes echoing through suburban streets, powered by the strong wishes of children. No ice cream van, just the chimes.
August 20, 2025 at 12:49 PM
A Haunted Landscape event coming up in November. Organised by @forteanlondon.bsky.social these always have a batch of excellent speakers who know their phantasmagorical onions. www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/eve...
The Haunted Landscape: Ghosts, Magic and Lore - Conway Hall
Whose claws are scratching at the church door? What’s that ghost tumbling over the moor? Who’s that figure cut into the earth? What can I do to lift this curse? Join us for a legendary trip through th...
www.conwayhall.org.uk
August 18, 2025 at 1:32 PM
M.R. James conference weekend coming up 23-34/8 with Romancing the Gothic. Looks like they r recording the lectures so if u sign up u can catch up later...www.tickettailor.com/events/romancingthegothic/1707567
August 15, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Old notes 3: C19 Diaries of Rev Egerton: complains his singers have "not one care for music itself, only praise and pudding."
August 11, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Avebury from inside the ditch. Usually the SW ditch and bank is roped off but had a lucky day when they were open. Totally different sense from inside the ditch looking up. #standingstonesunday
August 10, 2025 at 11:08 AM