Reading through the latest Folklore Thursday contributions I'm once again filled with a strange sense of loss b/c we have to interpret some practices as warding off 'evil spirits' and it's a shame we can't get more particular than that. I wish I could know the *specifics* of it
-
Show this thread
-
by which I mean: people don't take protective action against generic 'evil spirits', they take action against 'Gaspith the eye-swallower who dwelleth in the attic space and all of his nine-legged kin' or similar
1 reply 5 retweets 13 likesShow this thread -
We do not & cannot have a window into all the personal, particular night-clambering terrors that people felt compelled to ward their homes against. We don't know their names, their attributes or their habits. But I so wish we did.
1 reply 4 retweets 11 likesShow this thread -
I think what I'm rather clumsily trying to say is that if you're going to do something as decisive & labour-intensive as nailing a boot inside your chimney, for example, then you're doing it out of a fear of something SPECIFIC happening to you.
2 replies 3 retweets 22 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @Cavalorn
I recall reading a book that said the amount of lore and magic and charms that have been lost are a monumental amount...for instance she mentioned we know little of what medieval sailors would have used but that they probably did have them, and I think about that a lot.
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @AdmiralHip @Cavalorn
Yeah I'd love to know the actual Origins of the ones sailors still use. Eg every US navy ship still has a coin put under its mast when it's built. SUPPOSEDLY it goes back to ancient Greece, and the coin pays the fare across the Styx for sailors killed if the ship sinks.
2 replies 1 retweet 3 likes -
Also to so much as mention a pig on a ship is bad luck. Why? Fucked if I know, but I refused to say "pig" onboard my ships just the same.
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
Yeah I’ve heard this too. I believe someone tried to explain how that was the case possibly but I can’t recall where I read it or what the explanation was.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.