Posts Tagged: folklore

  • Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781, oil on canvas from the Detroit Institute of Arts.

    Nightmare’s lost creature

    There is a whole menagerie of semi-human creatures from folklore that live only in our imagination, in children’s stories and, at their worst, in our nightmares. It is from one particular group of these creatures, that we now call incubi (singular incubus), that truly gave us nightmares. In medieval times incubus was used to denote […]

  • Wassailing's most common meaning is door-to-door Christmas carol singing - a common practice in England.

    Wassailing—be healthy at Christmas

    Behind the modern rituals of Christmas lurk old traditions tied to our magical, pagan past. Words provide a link to that magic. We have looked at Yule, a word that predates most native languages of Europe. Wassailing is our Christmas word. Wassail arrived in English from the Old Norse salutation ves heill meaning “be healthy” from […]