One widespread fairy belief warns against eating food in the Otherworld. Accepting fairy hospitality could bind a mortal to the supernatural realm or make returning home impossible. It's one of folklore's strangest recurring warnings: sometimes the feast is the trap. #MythologyMonday

The fairy ring was believed in parts of European folklore to mark a place where fairies danced. Entering one could bring enchantment, illness or a terrifying distortion of time. The mushrooms are real; the supernatural dance is folklore. Both make the circle intriguing. #MythologyMonday

The Irish leprechaun wasn't originally a cheerful mascot with a rainbow. Older folklore depicts a solitary fairy shoemaker, often dressed in red or green, who guards hidden wealth and tricks anyone attempting to capture him. Catching one was easier than keeping one. #MythologyMonday

The Irish Tuatha Dé Danann were a supernatural people who battled the Fomorians and ruled Ireland in medieval myth. Later traditions associated them with the sídhe, the fairy mounds. The Fair Folk weren't always tiny. Some were once the gods and heroes of Ireland. #MythologyMonday

In Irish folklore, the Aos Sí are supernatural beings associated with ancient mounds and the Otherworld. People sometimes called them the Good People or Fair Folk rather than speaking of them disrespectfully. When your neighbors might curse your cattle, politeness matters. #MythologyMonday

Rhode Island's Mercy Brown died of tuberculosis in 1892. When her body was exhumed, relatives interpreted its preservation as evidence she was harming her sick brother. Her heart and liver were burned, and the ashes were reportedly used in a remedy for him. #WyrdWednesday

The modern movie zombie owes an enormous debt to George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead from 1968. Curiously, the film itself generally calls its creatures "ghouls," not zombies. Audiences supplied the name that would redefine the monster. #WyrdWednesday Art: George Pfau

In New England's 18th- and 19th-century vampire panics, families sometimes exhumed relatives after tuberculosis struck a household. A corpse showing unexpectedly little decomposition might be blamed for draining life from surviving family members. #WyrdWednesday

Connecticut's mysterious "JB-55" burial contained a man whose bones had apparently been rearranged after death, possibly as an anti-vampire measure. Researchers later used DNA and genealogy to identify him as likely John Barber, a 19th-century farmer. #WyrdWednesday

On the Greek island of Mykonos, botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort witnessed a vampire panic in 1701 involving a dead man blamed for nighttime disturbances. Villagers eventually burned the corpse. An Enlightenment-era scientist accidentally walked into a vampire story. #WyrdWednesday

The Serbian vampire Petar Blagojević became the subject of an official 1725 report after villagers claimed he returned from death and attacked them. When his body was exhumed, observers interpreted its condition as proof of vampirism and burned it. #WyrdWednesday

In Eyrbyggja saga, Thorolf Twist-Foot becomes dangerous after death. His corpse reportedly grows so heavy it can barely be moved, then later leaves its grave and terrorizes the countryside. Eventually his body is dug up and burned. Some neighbors require extreme measures. #WyrdWednesday

The medieval English chronicler William of Newburgh recorded several 12th-century stories of corpses leaving their graves to terrorize communities. He even remarked that such cases were so numerous it would be difficult to record them all. Medieval England had a revenant problem. #WyrdWednesday

The familiar skull and crossbones on early American gravestones wasn't necessarily meant to frighten anyone. Puritan-era "death's head" carvings bluntly reminded viewers that death comes for everyone. Later, winged cherubs gradually replaced some of those grinning skulls. #FairyTaleTuesday

A broken column on a gravestone traditionally symbolized a life cut short. An inverted torch could represent death while its still-burning flame suggested life continuing beyond it. Victorian cemeteries weren't simply burial grounds. They were libraries written in stone. #FairyTaleTuesday

The yew tree has been planted in British churchyards for centuries. Its extraordinary longevity, evergreen foliage, and ability to regenerate helped make it a powerful symbol of death and immortality. Some churchyard yews are older than the churches beside them. #FairyTaleTuesday Art: Michael Kelly

A widespread cemetery superstition says you should hold your breath while passing a graveyard. Explanations vary: to keep from breathing in a spirit, to prevent the dead from entering you, or simply to avoid attracting their attention. Difficult advice beside a very large cemetery. #FairyTaleTuesday

Old European folklore sometimes warned that pointing at a grave was disrespectful or unlucky. In later versions, the offending finger might supposedly rot unless bitten or treated in some ritual way. Graveyard etiquette could become extremely specific. #FairyTaleTuesday Image: Tiny Pine Art

The first person buried in a churchyard was sometimes believed to become its supernatural guardian, responsible for watching over everyone buried afterward. Some folklore substituted an animal burial so an unfortunate human soul wouldn't get stuck with the job. #FairyTaleTuesday Art: Ocean's Bridge

An old graveyard superstition warned against stepping directly over a grave. Depending on the tradition, doing so might disturb the dead, bring bad luck, or invite the spirit to follow you. Apparently even after death, personal space remained important. #FairyTaleTuesday

In British folklore, the Church Grim was a supernatural guardian of the churchyard, often appearing as a large black dog. Some tales claimed an animal was buried beneath a new church so its spirit would remain behind to protect the sacred ground. #FairyTaleTuesday

The ghost in Shakespeare's Macbeth is visible only to Macbeth. Murdered Banquo silently takes Macbeth's place at the banquet table, sending the king into a public panic while his guests see an empty chair. Sometimes the dead don't need to say anything. #MythologyMonday

The ghost of Darius rises from his tomb in Aeschylus's Persians, first performed in 472 BCE. Summoned by the Persian elders and Queen Atossa, the dead king explains the catastrophe facing his people. One of Western drama's earliest surviving ghosts arrives with political analysis. #MythologyMonday

Ancient Egyptians believed a person consisted of several spiritual elements, including the ka and ba. The ba could travel between the worlds of living and dead and was often depicted as a human-headed bird. The Egyptian soul was never just one simple ghost. #MythologyMonday

The Irish fetch is a supernatural double of a living person. Seeing someone's fetch could be interpreted as an omen of that person's approaching death. Imagine meeting a friend on the road, only to discover later that they were somewhere else entirely. #MythologyMonday

In Eyrbyggja saga, the dead become such a nuisance at Fróðá that they reportedly appear night after night, crowding around the household fire. Eventually they are dealt with through a combination of legal proceedings and religious rites. Even ghosts got evicted properly. #MythologyMonday

During the Roman festival of Lemuria, the householder reportedly walked barefoot at midnight, tossed black beans over his shoulder and repeatedly declared that he was redeeming himself and his family. The ghosts were expected to collect the beans and leave. #MythologyMonday

The ghost of Patroclus appears to Achilles in the Iliad, begging for burial because he cannot yet cross into the realm of the dead. Achilles reaches out to embrace him, but the spirit vanishes "like smoke." Even heroes cannot hold onto their dead. #MythologyMonday

In Greek mythology, the dead drank from the river Lethe to forget their earthly lives. But Orphic burial tablets sometimes instructed initiates to avoid Lethe and seek the waters of Mnemosyne, Memory, instead. Even in death, forgetting wasn't always the goal. #MythologyMonday

The modern image of Mokele-mbembe as a long-necked dinosaur owes a great deal to Western cryptozoology. Local traditions are more complicated than the familiar "living brontosaurus" image suggests. Sometimes the monster changes shape when outsiders start telling the story. #WyrdWednesday