Bevan Thomas

"That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang. In me thou see'st the twilight of such day As after sunset fadeth in the west, Which by and by black night doth take away, Death's second self, that seals up all in rest."

• William Shakespeare, "Sonnet 73" 🎨 Raymond McCormack

#ShakespeareSunday #Literature #Poetry #Renaissance #Elizabethan #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare

"Travellers, now, within that valley,
Through the red-litten windows see
Vast forms, that move fantastically
To a discordant melody,
While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door
A hideous throng rush out forever
And laugh — but smile no more."
- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Haunted Palace"

#BookWormSat #Literature #Poetry #Horror #Gothic #EdgarAllanPoe #Poe

In the Book of Genesis, the Stone of Jacob was a stone being used as a pillow by the Jewish patriarch Jacob when he had a vision of angels using a stairway to travel to Heaven. When he awoke, Jacob consecrated the stone to God. According to Scottish folklore, this stone became the Stone of Scone, which was used in the coronation of Scottish monarchs (and later English monarchs).

#MythologyMonday #Mythology #Folklore #Bible #Genesis #Britain #England #Scotland #StoneOfScone

Dagon was the father of the gods in ancient Syria, as well as a god of fertility, prosperity, and kingship. Because his name sounds similar to the Hebrew word for "fish," Dagon is mistakenly called a sea god in medieval texts, and gets reinvented as a fish-like demon.

#WyrdWednesday #Mythology #Folklore #Syria #MiddleEast #Demonology #Demon #Dagon

Seven-league boots are a common magical object in European folklore; they allow the wearer to travel seven leagues with each step. A league is roughly three miles, the distance the average man can walk in an hour. Thus, seven leagues would be a good day's walk. Such boots are often given to a hero to fulfill some great task.

#FairyTaleTuesday #Mythology #Folklore #FairyTale #Europe #Magic #Footwear #Boots

While the Greek gods eat ambrosia and drink nectar, the Norse gods prefer a heartier meal. Every night the giant boar Sæhrímnir is slaughtered for food, and every morning he is reborn. Also, mead instead of milk pours from the udders of the great goat Heiðrún.

#FolkloreSunday #Folklore #Mythology #Norse #Vikings #Scandinavia #Greece #Boar #Goat

In Britain, there have been numerous alleged sightings of pumas and other big cats, even though such creatures are not supposed to exist there. These cats have been dubbed "phantom pumas," as when the authorities investigate, they can find no evidence of the creatures' existence.

#FolkloreSunday #Mythology #Folklore #Monster #Cryptid #Cryptozoology #Cat #Cougar #Puma #Phantom

"The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to Heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name."
- William Shakespeare, "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
🎨 August Malmström

#BookWormSat #Fiction #Literature #Poetry #Theatre #Theater #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #MidsummerNightsDream

"This is the lesson: great cities are like any other living things, being born and maturing and wearying and dying in their turn."

"Only the bodegas stand open, sentinels of the City That Never Sleeps and Occasionally Needs Milk at Two A. M."

• N. K. Jemisin, "The City We Became" 🎨 Marcel Germain

#BookWormSat #Fiction #Literature #Fantasy #UrbanFantasy #Jemisin #NKJemisin #CityWeBecame

"By day the bat is cousin to the mouse. He likes the attic of an aging house. His fingers make a hat about his head. His pulse beat is so slow we think him dead. He loops in crazy figures half the night Among the trees that face the corner light. But when he brushes up against a screen, We are afraid of what our eyes have seen: For something is amiss or out of place When mice with wings can wear a human face."

• Theodore Roethke, "The Bat"

#BookWormSat #Literature #Poem #Poetry #Horror #TheodoreRoethke #Animal #Bat

In 1546, a sea creature resembling a Christian monk was allegedly caught off the coast of Zealand Island. It was presented to the King of Poland. The creature could not speak but used hand gestures to beg for freedom. When the king agreed, the sea monk made the sign of the cross before leaving.

#WyrdWednesday #Mythology #Folklore #Cryptozoology #Cryptid #Monster #SeaMonster

In Arthurian folklore, the sorceress Morgan the Fey sent a beautifully bejeweled cloak to her half-brother King Arthur, claiming that she wanted to reconcile with him. However, when King Arthur forced Morgan's messenger to put on the cloak, it burnt her to ashes.
🎨 Luis Ricardo Falero

#FairyTaleTuesday #Mythology #Folklore #Literature #KingArthur #Arthurian #Arthuriana #Occult #Sorcery

According to Jewish folklore, the inert body of the Golem of Prague was stored in the attic of Prague's Old New Synagogue. Some say it still lies hidden there. Supposedly, during World War II, a Nazi agent entered the attic to search for the Golem, and then mysteriously died.

#WyrdWednesday #GothicSpring #Mythology #Folklore #Judaism #Kabbalah #Prague #Monster #Golem

In Caribbean folklore, the loogaroo is a witch who gains magical powers by offering blood to the Devil every night. She can leave her own skin under a silk cotton tree (a "Devil tree") to become a floating ball of blue light (a "corpse candle") that hunts the night for blood to feed the Devil.

#FairyTaleTuesday #GothicSpring #Mythology #Folklore #Caribbean #Witch #Witchcraft #Monster #Vampire #Devil #Demon

In Finnish mythology, Päivätär is the goddess of the Sun, as well as life and light in general. It is said that she spins yarn out of the Sun's silver, and from it weaves silver clothes. Päivätär is also the mother of wasps, and people ask her to command her children not to sting.

#MythologyMonday #Mythology #Folklore #Finland #Insect #Wasp #Sun

"[I have] called forth the mutinous winds,
And 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt."
- William Shakespeare, "The Tempest" (Act 5, Scene 1)

#ShakespeareSunday #Literature #Poetry #Theatre #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #TheTempest

Grimalkin (or "greymalkin") is an archaic English term for a cat. Starting in the 16th century, the term usually refers to a witch's demon familiar disguised as a feline (such as in "Macbeth"). In Scottish folklore, a grimalkin is sometimes a fairy cat instead.
🎨 Louis Le Breton

#FolkloreSunday #Mythology #Folklore #Occult #Witchcraft #Monster #Demon #Demonology #Shakespeare #Macbeth

"A sad tale's best for winter: I have one
Of sprites and goblins."
- William Shakespeare, "A Winter's Tale" (Act 2, Scene 1)

#ShakespeareSunday #Literature #Poetry #Theatre #Theater #Shakespeare #WilliamShakespeare #Monster #Goblin

In Greek mythology, Hyperion was one of the original twelve Titans (the old gods), and the lord of light. His children were Helios (the Sun), Selene (the Moon), and Eos (the Dawn). It is unclear if the Olympians imprisoned Hyperion in Tartarus along with the other Titans or let him go free.

#MythologyMonday #Mythology #Folklore #Greece #Titan #Hyperion

"As a rule, you see, I'm not lugged into Family Rows. On the occasions when Aunt is calling Aunt like mastodons bellowing across primaeval swamps and Uncle James's letter about Cousin Mabel's peculiar behaviour is being shot round the family circle ('Please read this carefully and send it on Jane') the clan has a tendency to ignore me. It's one of the advantages I get from being a bachelor."

• P. G. Wodehouse, "The Inimitable Jeeves"

#BookWormSat #Literature #Fiction #Comedy #Satire #PGWodehouse #Wodehouse #Jeeves #JeevesAndWooster

"It was a snowflake; the most beautiful he had ever seen, for it was magnified into an exquisite and intricate pattern: a star glistening like crystal in the soft light. And then the most extraordinary thing happened. The star began to move.... It gradually assumed the shape of a tiny silver spider. Had the wind heard [Gwyn] after after? Was he a magician then?"

• Jenny Nimmo, "The Snow Spider"

#BookWormSat #Mythology #Folklore #Fiction #ChildrensFiction #FantasyFiction #Literature #ChildrensLiterature #FantasyLiterature #JennyNimmo

LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure....

MONEY, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when we part with it. An evidence of culture and a passport to polite society. Supportable property.

POLITENESS, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy.

• Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary"

#BookWormSat #BookChatWeekly #Literature #Comedy #Satire #Dictionary #DevilsDictionary #AmbroseBierce

"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you - digger, listener, runner.... Be full of tricks, and your people shall never be destroyed."

• Richard Adams, "Watership Down"

#BookWormSat #InternationalRabbitDay #Fiction #Literature #RichardAdams #WatershipDown #Animal #Rabbit