Bone And Sickle

Marvel and cringe at this collection of curious cases presented from a favorite Victorian volume. Tonight’s episode includes a bit of proto-Forteana, namely the anomolies left in the wake of a particular lightning strike that fell on a small town in Hertfordshire in 1777. We also have  brief look at the wicked deeds of those popes … Read More Read More The post A House Struck by Lightning and Other Curiosities appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Scenes of fiery Viking funerals have been woven into any number of literary and cinematic tales, but sources on the topic are limited.  In this episode, we hear from what’s probably the definitive source, a firsthand account written in the 10th-century by an Arab traveler and diplomat, Ahmad ibn Fadlan, who was visiting what would … Read More Read More The post A Viking Funeral appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Why not enjoy a reading of Algernon Blackwood’s “Ancient Lights” before wandering off into those summery woods — a classic work of Weird Fiction read and dramatized with sound and music from your imaginary friends at Bone and Sickle. The post “Ancient Lights” by Algernon Blackwood appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

The folklore of Russian vampires describes a creature slightly different than what we’re accustomed.  In tonight’s show we share a number of traditional tales from the 1873 volume Russian Folk-Tales by W. R. S. Ralston, a leading light of the Imperial Geographical Society of Russia and author of The Songs of the Russian People. The post Russian Vampire Tales appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Explore some curious British Customs with us, including those of Midsummer, swan-upping, egg-hopping, St. Bartholomew’s knives, and the violent tradition of St. Michaelmas “ganging.” Our source for this episode is the 1911 volume by T. F. Thistelton Dyer, British Popular Customs Present and Past. Illustrating the Social and Domestic Manners of the People. Arranged according to the Calendar … Read More Read More The post Swan-Upping and Other Curious British Customs appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

A malignant vapor, weird plagues and punishments, a Polish dwarf, and a perilous journey into the lightless depths of a pyramid — all included in this pleasantly macabre collection of short tales from a favorite Victorian compendium of curiosities: The Terrific Register, or, Record of Crimes, Judgments, Providences, and Calamities (London, 1825) The post Malignant Vapor appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Tales of animal ghosts are usually relegated to the periphery of ghost story collections, but in this episode, we showcase this class of apparition. Our stories were collected in a volume from 1915 called Human Animals by Frank Hamel.  It covers werewolves, animal transformations through witchcraft, possession by totemic animal spirits, and the phantom animals that … Read More Read More The post Animal Ghosts appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Fairy tales featuring cats are generally pleasant. After our last show about malformed births, we thought, Andrew Lang’s story, “The Colony of Cats” might be a pleasant tonic, albeit one with a bizarre punishment sequence included. Published in 1909 in Lang’s Crimson Fairy Book, this story (read by Mrs. Karswell) seems to be a version of … Read More Read More The post The Colony of Cats appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

For centuries, strange births, often sounding like mythological monsters, were regarded as portents of ill omen. We hear a number of these fantastical accounts, including a description of the birth of the”Monster of Ravenna” believed to foreshadow not only the defeat of Louis XII’s forces during the 1512 Battle of Ravenna but also taken later as … Read More Read More The post Strange Births and Monsters appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

A self-crucifixion that occurred in 1806 on the island of San Servolo in the Venetian lagoon is the topic of our story this time around.  The perpetrator and object of this crucifixion was Mattio Lovat, anglicized in our text as “Matthew Lovat.”  The selected narrative comes from an 1826 collection edited by Henry Wilson called Wonderful … Read More Read More The post The Man Who Crucified himself appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

An Irish ghost story seems a good way to add a bit of Halloween spice to your St. Patrick’s Day. Our selection, which will be read by Mrs. Karswell, comes from the 1825 publication Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.  It’s the first of three volumes of stories told by the Irish antiquarian … Read More Read More The post An Irish Ghost Story appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Epitaphs can sum up the life of the individual buried beneath or can comment on the human condition generally. From the melancholy to the absurd to the catastrophically caustic, we survey in this episode a spectrum of final thoughts and grim punchlines culled from a favorite 19th-century volume.   The post Epitaphs appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

A potpourri of peculiar tales culled from a favorite 19th-century volume. This episode features some outstanding  British eccentrics, an extraordinary case of delusional morbidity, lethal religious fanaticism, graveyard shenanigans, and more. Plus, more black-humored poetry from Harry Graham in “Karswell’s Corner” The post A Remarkable Circumstance appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Enjoy with us a collection of short curious tales culled from a favorite Victorian volume —  the Stone Eater of London, a mariner’s report of fire from the sky, the rise and fall of a French giant, 18th century blasphemies involving a donkey, and more.  Plus, more sardonic verse from Harry Graham in “Karswell’s Corner” The post The Stone Eater and other Curious Cases appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

The fire that destroyed P.T. Barnum’s American Museum on July 13, 1865 was a luxuriantly surreal and tragic event, one described beautifully in a contemporary New York Times piece, which we share in this episode verbatim. Doomed whales in enormous tanks, fleeing snakes, sideshow celebrities, and melting wax mannequins are all part of this fantastic … Read More Read More The post P.T. Barnum’s Magnificent Museum Fire appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

The Christmas Eve ghost story is a fine old tradition associated with Victorian and Edwardian England, one now making a comeback on both sides of the Atlantic. Since 2018, Bone and Sickle has enthusiastically embraced the custom. Our offering for 2022, is “Smee” written by A.M. Burrage in 1931 and read for us by Mrs. … Read More Read More The post A Christmas Ghost Story appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

From St. Nicholas Day through Christmas, the Devil figured prominently in medieval plays, embodying a subversive seasonal element also celebrated in the Feast of Fools. We enter the topic of medieval Christmas plays sideways through German composer Carl Orff’s 1935 composition “O Fortuna,” a piece much beloved in Hollywood soundtracks.  The lyric Orff set to … Read More Read More The post Christmas Devils and the Feast of Fools appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This short off-format episode is intended as a sort of fireside reading to be enjoyed by our overfull American listeners as they struggle to digest their Thanksgiving dinners.  It’s from the late 1st-century novel, Satyricon by Petronius and describes what is quite likely Western literature’s most decadent description of a feast. The post An After-Dinner Reading: Decadent Dining in the Satyricon appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Our survey of villainous Victorian women examines six individuals associated with some of the most ghastly crimes of the era, many directed against children (and for this reason possibly a bit of a rough listen for some.) Five of these criminals inspired murder ballads, or more specifically “execution ballads,”  single-sheet broadsheets sold at the time of … Read More Read More The post Villainous Victorian Women appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

During the Satanic Panic, the notion of Halloween as a Satanic High Holy Day came to prominence, but the elements necessary to this mythology were set in place much earlier. This episode focuses particularly on the early years of Wicca, some missteps in disassociating  the movement from Satanism, and early evangelical personalities spinning “ex-Satanist” yarns … Read More Read More The post Who Put the Hell in Helloween? appeared first on Bone and Sickle.