Off Brittany lies the drowned city of Ys, said to have vanished when its sea gates opened. Some legends say Dahut became a mermaid or sea spirit. Others claim Ys still waits below, and when Paris sinks, Ys will rise again. #WyrdWednesday

H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu sleeps beneath the Pacific in sunken R'lyeh, waiting for the stars to align. The true horror isn't that something ancient lives below us. It's that humanity is irrelevant to it. Some things in the deep barely notice us. #WyrdWednesday

In folklore, the worst sound from beneath the water may be bells. Drowned churches appear repeatedly in European legends, their bells supposedly ringing beneath lakes, bays, and flooded valleys on particular nights. Nobody explains who is still pulling the ropes. #WyrdWednesday

In Greek mythology, Scylla waits beside a narrow strait, snatching sailors from passing ships. Odysseus sails past knowing some of his men will die. Sometimes mythology offers no clever escape. Sometimes the monster simply gets fed. #WyrdWednesday

The Aspidochelone of medieval bestiaries was an enormous sea creature mistaken for an island. Sailors supposedly landed upon its back, lit fires, and settled down to cook. Feeling the heat, the creature plunged beneath the water, taking everyone with it. #WyrdWednesday

Sailors told of enormous sea serpents rising beside their ships. Giant oarfish may explain some sightings, but meeting a silver, serpentine fish more than 20 feet long probably wouldn't make the experience feel any less weird. #WyrdWednesday Art: Rackham

An oddity around the deep sea is that whale falls create entire ecosystems around death. When a whale carcass reaches the ocean floor, organisms can feed upon it for decades. Far below sunlight, one enormous dead body becomes an island of life. Nature occasionally out-goths folklore. #WyrdWednesday

There's a category of maritime folklore in which the drowned simply come home. Lost sailors knock at family doors, dead fishermen walk toward shore, or wet footprints appear before news of a shipwreck arrives. The sea may take people, but folklore never guarantees it will keep them. #WyrdWednesday

In many traditions, hair clippings were never casually discarded. Because hair remained connected to the person, it could be used in sympathetic magic. Burning, burying, or carefully disposing of it kept this very personal magical ingredient out of the wrong hands. #FairyTaleTuesday

The fairy tale Donkeyskin features a princess who escapes disguised beneath an animal hide, concealing magnificent gowns of the sky, moon, and sun. Clothing becomes both camouflage and identity, helping her disappear from one life before reclaiming another. #FairyTaleTuesday

The Seven-League Boots are among fairy tales' greatest magical footwear. Each stride covers seven leagues. In Charles Perrault's Hop-o'-My-Thumb, a tiny hero proves that enormously powerful boots are even better when you're clever enough to steal them from an ogre. #FairyTaleTuesday

Hair combs are surprisingly dangerous objects in folklore. Enchanted combs appear in stories as magical tools, treasured possessions, and occasionally traps. In Snow White, the disguised queen uses a poisoned comb against the princess before resorting to the much more famous apple. #FairyTaleTuesday

A swan maiden's feathered garment works much like the selkie's skin. A man discovers supernatural women bathing, steals one maiden's feather cloak, and prevents her from flying home. They may marry and have children, but when she eventually finds the hidden garment, she leaves. #FairyTaleTuesday

In the Grimm tale The Red Shoes, footwear becomes horrifying. A girl becomes obsessed with beautiful red shoes and is cursed to dance without stopping. The story grows darker from there, turning something fashionable into an instrument of punishment that refuses to come off. #FairyTaleTuesday

In the Grimm tale The Red Shoes, footwear becomes horrifying. A girl becomes obsessed with beautiful red shoes and is cursed to dance without stopping. The story grows darker from there, turning something fashionable into an instrument of punishment that refuses to come off. #FairyTaleTuesday

Hair is rarely just hair in fairy tales. It can hold strength, memory, identity, magic, or even a person's life force. Cut it, steal it, comb it with the wrong comb, or hand a lock to the wrong stranger and you may discover exactly why folklore treats hair with such caution. #FairyTaleTuesday

The phrase "sleeping like a king" meant something very different historically. Elaborately decorated beds piled with bolsters and cushions were signs of wealth and status. A magnificent pillow could announce prosperity almost as effectively as jewelry, clothing, or a banquet table. #MythologyMonday

Feather pillows carried their own superstitions. Certain feathers were considered lucky while others were avoided, and folk beliefs sometimes claimed that particular feathers could prevent a dying person from finding peace. #MythologyMonday

In fairy tales, falling asleep is almost never a neutral activity. Sleepers awaken decades later, discover their surroundings transformed, or wander into enchanted dreams. If folklore teaches us anything, it is to be extremely suspicious of unusually comfortable beds. #MythologyMonday

The Roman god Somnus personified sleep, while his son Morpheus became famous for shaping dreams and appearing within them in human form. The pillow therefore sits at the entrance to an invisible realm where identity, time, and reality can change without warning. #MythologyMonday

In Greek mythology, Hypnos lived in a shadowy cave untouched by sunlight. Near his dwelling grew poppies and other sleep-inducing plants, while dreams moved through the darkness. Even gods could succumb to his influence. Sleep, mythology reminds us, is its own kind of power. #MythologyMonday

There's an old tradition of putting certain herbs beneath a pillow to influence dreams. Lavender might encourage peaceful sleep, while mugwort became associated with vivid dreaming. For generations, the space beneath your head was essentially a tiny apothecary for the unconscious. #MythologyMonday

The Japanese makura-gaeshi, or "pillow turner," is a yōkai associated with rooms where people sleep. It is blamed for moving pillows during the night, although darker versions describe sleepers awakening to discover that far more than their pillow has been mysteriously rearranged. #MythologyMonday

Pillows have always been more than somewhere to rest your head. Across mythology and folklore, they become places where dreams arrive, spirits whisper, prophecies unfold, and sleepers become unusually vulnerable to whatever wanders after dark. #MythologyMonday

The love story of Orpheus and Eurydice is an eclipse of the heart in its cruelest form. Orpheus journeys into the Underworld and nearly brings Eurydice back to life, only to lose her when he turns to look at her too soon. For one brief moment, love almost defeats death. Almost. #WyrdWednesday

There's something unsettling about the old belief that an eclipse means something is eating the sky. Dragons, serpents, and other supernatural creatures have all been blamed. Apparently humanity's first explanation for celestial darkness was often "something enormous is hungry." #WyrdWednesday

Not every eclipse happens in the sky. Folklore and literature are filled with eclipses of the heart, moments when grief, betrayal, or impossible love temporarily darkens everything that once seemed certain. Like their celestial counterparts, darkness often passes. #WyrdWednesday Art: Jeff Stanford

In Norse mythology, eclipses become a cosmic hunt. The wolves Sköll and Hati pursue the Sun and Moon across the heavens, and an eclipse was imagined as one of the beasts finally catching its prey. At Ragnarök, the chase ends for good when the celestial lights are swallowed. #WyrdWednesday

One of the strangest recurring ideas in mythology is the city beneath the mountain. Kings, fairy courts, and entire armies are said to sleep inside hills and mountains across Europe, waiting for a particular bell or prophecy to awaken them. The landscape becomes a locked door. #MythologyMonday

Lyonesse is the legendary drowned land said to have once stretched between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Arthurian tradition sometimes makes it the homeland of Tristan. Stories claim that it disappeared beneath the sea in a flood, with only a single survivor. #MythologyMonday