Bone And Sickle

Hear how notions of Purgatory influenced medieval ghost stories, the tradition of All Souls’ Day, and a Neapolitan “cult of skulls.” We set the scene with a clip from “The Lyke Wake Dirge,” a 14th–century British song sung or chanted as a sort of charm over the body of the deceased in the night before … Read More Read More The post #33 Ghosts from Purgatory appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This episode explores the connection between vampires and disease, beginning in 19th-century New England with a strange graveyard ritual involving the exhumation of the bodies of Mercy Brown and family members in 1892. The gruesomely ritualistic destruction of Mercy’s body parts was spurred by a belief that those who succumbed to tuberculosis might live on … Read More Read More The post #32 Vampires, Shroud-Eaters, and the White Plague appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This episode explores the Russian witch, the Baba Yaga, tales in which she appears, possible origins, and regional variations on the character. We begin by retelling one of the skazi (folk tales) in which she’s particularly well-definined, “Vasilisa the Beautiful,” a version recorded in the mid-1800s by the folklorist Alexander Afanasyev, Russia’s answer to the … Read More Read More The post #31 Baba Yaga appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

The werewolf (Fr: loup-garou) epidemic of 16th-century France forms the core of our show, but we also include some medieval French werewolf tales as well as the legend of a figure connected to both werewolves and Bluebeard. In our last episode on Bluebeard, I promised to recount a legend that may have inspired Charles Perrault’s … Read More Read More The post #30 Loup-Garou, Werewolves in France appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Bluebeard and his bloody chamber full of murderous secrets is widely known as one of Charles Perrault’s fairy tales, but it’s part of a larger family of folk tales and ballads we examine in this episode. Our show begins with a brief summary of this tale in which a young woman is courted by the … Read More Read More The post #29 The Bloody Chamber appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This time we look at the myths of British giants Gog and Magog, and a belief in biblical giants seemingly confirmed by giant bones dug from the earth. We begin with a 1953 newsreel welcoming reconstructed figures of Gog and Magog back to the London Guildhall after the Nazi bombing of the city destroyed the … Read More Read More The post #28 Gog, Magog, and the Bones of Giants appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Our episode continues from our last with more terrors of the night, the incubi, sucubi, and the most notorious succubus, Lilith — and the breeding of demons We begin with a quick nod to the shoddy treatment the topic of the incubus has received in films, as represented by the 1981 misfire, Incubus.  From there, … Read More Read More The post #27 Lilith and the Breeding of Demons appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This episode examines the terrors that come by night, not-so-soothing lullabies, prayers and charms against the nightmare. We open with the grim Icelandic lulluby “Móðir mín í kví kví,” which tells the story of a newborn’s ghost haunting the mother who abandoned it. Another lovely, yet menacing Icelandic lullaby follows. “Bíum, bíum, Bambaló” alludes to … Read More Read More The post #26 Lullabies and Nightmares appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

For Mother’s Day this year we examine murderous mothers and maternal instincts gone very, very wrong in folklore, legends, and ballads. We begin with a look at the Latin American legend of La Llorona (“the weeping woman”). We begin with a snippet of the trailer from the recently released film The Curse of La Llorona … Read More Read More The post #25 Death by Mother appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This episode finds the Devil where you’d least expect him: stories of possessed nuns and demonic attacks on the rigorously devout.. It’s a bit of a follow-up to our last episode on Ghastly Saint Stories. We open with a clip from the 1999 film Stigmata, in which we hear it asserted that those marked by … Read More Read More The post #24 Possessed Nuns and Holy Demoniacs appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Our collection of ghastly stories of saints highlights notions of extreme self-mortification as a spiritual practice along with a preoccupation with the saintly body  after death. While these aspects of Catholicism are anathema to secular outsiders and jarring to many contemporary adherents, they’ve been embraced by the Gothic.  We begin with an illustrative clip from John … Read More Read More The post #23 Ghastly Saint Stories appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

In this episode we look at legends of musicians and marksmen said to have made Faustian deals with the Devil. We begin with The Phantom of the Opera, a story which does not exactly share our theme, but was set against the backdrop of a staging of the opera Faust by Charles Gounod.  The story, written … Read More Read More The post #22 The Devil’s Due: Musicians and Marksmen appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

The legend of Faust is the archetypal deal with the Devil. This episode looks at the figure as represented in folklore, local legends, plays, puppet shows, literature, films, and opera. A precedent for the tale seems to be the story of St. Theophilus, a cleric in 6th-century Adana (in modern Turkey) who, as legends have it, … Read More Read More The post #21 A Deal with the Devil appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Vampire mythology first appears in the West in works as early Romantic authors meld themes from folk ballads of resurrected lovers with Balkan folklore of the undead. Valentine’s Day seemed a fitting occasion for this show’s look at the vampire’s tragically romantic tendency to prey upon those they love. We begin with  a (very seasonal) snippet … Read More Read More The post #20 The Undead Come Courting appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This episode examines the Lambton Worm, a dragon legend that inspired works by Bram Stoker and Ken Russel as well as well as the curious role of milk plays that story and in superstitions surrounding witchcraft. The show begins with Wilkinson and Ridenour reviewing a phone message from Blake Smith of the Monster Talk podcast, … Read More Read More The post #19 Worm Songs and Beastly Sucklers appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This time round we look at the medieval myth of the Wild Man, its connection to seasonal folk traditions, peculiar influence on Church teachings, and a macabre historical incident featuring dancers costumed as Wild Men. We begin with a bit of Edgar Allen Poe filtered through Roger Corman, namely a clip from the director’s 1964 … Read More Read More The post #18 Wild Men, Furry Saints, and Burning Dancers appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Traditionally Christmas was a time for ghost stories, and tonight we’re doing our part to bring back the custom.  A bit of history on supernatural stories of the season and then something a bit different for the holiday — a bit of storytelling for your fireside enjoyment — a ghost story from the Victorian master … Read More Read More The post #17 Christmas Ghosts appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

Historically, Christmastime in Central Europe was a season haunted by otherworldly spirits, werewolves, ghostly huntsmen, and wandering hordes of lost souls.  This is particularly the case in the Krampus’ homeland of German-speaking Central Europe. We open with a survey of the various frightful spirits said to be afoot this time of year.  Bavaria, particularly the … Read More Read More The post #16 The Haunted Season appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

The Krampus and St. Nicholas represent a folkloric duality embodying a mode of childrearing the Germans call “sugar-bread and whip” — in English, “carrot and stick.”  In this episode, the first of three exploring the darker folklore of the season, we look at the Krampus’ origins in the old custom of Krampus and Nicholas house-visits … Read More Read More The post #15 Saint, Devil, Sugar-Bread, & Whip: KRAMPUS AND NICHOLAS appeared first on Bone and Sickle.

This episode looks at some particularly gruesome fairy tales and folk ballads telling of murderers convicted of their crime through magical intervention of the bones or blood of their victims. We begin with a look at the story of Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street as it shares a common theme of accidental … Read More Read More The post #14 Singing Bones & Scrumptious Children appeared first on Bone and Sickle.