"And the reaper stooped and stooped again, and with every sheaf he gathered together one of us fell stricken and rolled in his agony... despair seized upon all of us, and we made no doubt that we were to be wiped from the earth for our sins." - Bernard Capes, The Black Reaper #WyrdWednesday #horror

#WyrdWednesday "A pile of cornstalks, but with hideous face" stalks a young man with a "thunderous tramp" on a Georgia road in 1889. An excerpt from The Ghost Wore Black: Ghastly Tales from the Past.

One of the more inhumane incidents in Norse mythology (which is saying something) is when Odin manipulates a bunch of slaves into killing each other with their scythes while out harvesting the hay for their master (an evil giant, as if there were any doubts about that). #wyrdwednesday 1/2

#WyrdWednesday Personification of John Barleycorn from the exhibition John Barleycorn Must Die held at the New Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester, June to Aug 2019. Created by the artist Matt Rowe with the aide of Carol Partridge, a member of the Guild of Straw Craftsmen.

The only crop circle I ever saw: in 1994 in #Berkshire, where my friend then lived. It's not a very good one. But turning the corner of a lane and seeing it suddenly and unexpectedly in front of me was something of a thrill. It may have been near the magical Wittenham Clumps. #WyrdWednesday #Fortean

A Bilwis (or Bilwiss) is a malicious corn spirit, demon, or elf-like bogeyman in German, Bavarian, and Austrian folklore known for mowing down grain fields, tangling hair, and causing sudden illnesses. Often described as an emaciated, ghostly figure or whirlwind #WyrdWednesday 🧵

"The Windcats run in the corn, the weathercats are in there" was a Northern German saying when strong winds shook the fields - and the cats were said to take children who came picking cornflowers. 🎨 Maggie Vandewalle #WyrdWednesday

A 'tattie-bogle' is traditionally a figure dressed in old clothes, used to discourage birds, mostly crows, from damaging ripening crops, a scarecrow. In folklore, it's a type of goblin, menacing any human entering such fields #wyrdwednesday #Scotland

'The Mowing-Devil', printed in 1678. It recounts, as fact, an alleged incident in #Hertfordshire. A farmer saw a fiery light over his oat field one night, and then found it had been mysteriously mowed. The illustration encouraged some to believe it depicts the first Crop Circle. #WyrdWednesday

Cornhenge is a public art installation in Dublin, Ohio honoring Sam Frantz, the inventor of several hybrid corn species. #WyrdWednesday

The most haunted house is still less creepy than the least haunted cornfield - Jarod K Anderson #WyrdWednesday 📸 by me

A beastie I snapped lurking in the undergrowth. (A mottled grasshopper, I think). Not exactly Attenborough, but still. #photography #naturephotography #insect #UKwildlife

Dinas Bran, one of the #folklore hot-spots of #Wales. Here Bran the Blessed ruled; Payn Peverel slew the giant Goemagog; Tudur ap Einion was forced to dance with Y Tylwyth Teg; and here lies buried treasure, perhaps the Holy Grail, that will only be found by a boy with a white dog with silver eyes.

'The Old Chestnut Tree, Little Wymondley Park, Hertfordshire' by Thomas Hearne, late 18th Century. I wonder whether any of this wonderful tree's descendants can be seen around the village? #ThickTrunkTuesday #tree #chestnut #landscape #art

You know what, I think I'll post another one. This is one of William Hodges' 18th Century depictions of Tahiti, painted while he was official artist on one of Captain Cook's expeditions. #landscape #art #Tahiti #18thCentury

William Hodges, 'Storm On The Ganges', 1780s. Hodges accompanied early British explorations across the globe, including Cook's voyages to the South Sea Islands, revealing wonderful places and cultures previously unseen by Europeans. Sadly, of course, they soon ruined them. #art #landscape #India

Hans Schmidt: 'Great Horned Owl and Barn Owl', 1890. #OwlishMonday #owl #art

Well, like Houdini's widow, I think it is time for me to say good night. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to #SpookySunday. I was afraid mucking PhantomsFriday about would have caused too much confusion but it's been great - and with a few new contributors, to boot.

Olivia@oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social · 3d ago

Houdini said if it is real after all, I'll come back to you. And so Bess kept a candle burning by his picture. Each Halloween she took that candle to a seance, for 10 years. But nothing. And so finally up on a Hollywood roof, she blew out the candle "This is the end, Harry, goodnight.” #SpookySunday

I'm very impressed at just how much Welsh literature was mined for #BookWormSat yesterday. I wish now I'd made more contributions of my own. But I just couldn't find the time on Saturday (mainly because I was drinking a lot of cider, an excuse which would only have been tolerated by Dylan Thomas).

JD is on the case 🕵‍♀️@flackjd.bsky.social · 5d ago

"The illusions of the child only differed from those of the man in that they were more picturesque; belief in fairies and belief in the Stock Exchange as bestowers of happiness were equally vain, but the latter form of faith was ugly as well as inept." -The Hill of Dreams Arthur Machen #BookwormSat

'My aunt lives just outside the small (and entirely frightful) town of Llwll. That is exactly the trouble. Both ways. How can any reasonably minded person live in a place whose name no Christian person can pronounce?' The Murder of My Aunt Richard Hull (1934) #BookWormSat #illustration #coverart

Perhaps it would be best if you Created something very new A dirty novel done in Erse Or written backwards in Welsh verse 🖋 A Letter To My Aunt Discussing The Correct Approach To Modern Poetry by #DylanThomas #BookWormSat 🎨 Roger Hane (after de Chirico) #BookChatWeekly

"On Cader Peak, there was a school for witches where the doctor's daughter, teaching the unholy cradle and the devil's pin, had seven country girls. On Cader Peak, with the cellar echoing and a cross reversed above the entrance to the inner rooms." - Dylan Thomas, "School for Witches" #BookWormSat

"So my Sweetheart smiled upon the best-looking and most kindly of portly Welsh policemen. It occurred to us that on the hill above Llanrwst, this particular representative of the law would have a bad chance in pursuit of an evildoer." "Sweetheart Travellers" by S. R. Crockett #BookwormSat

‘She herself is a haunted house. She does not possess herself; her ancestors sometimes come and peer out of the windows of her eyes and that is very frightening.’ ~ Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories #SpookySunday 🖼️ Elizabeth Shippen Green Elliott, 1902.

Georgiana Houghton was an artist and medium who believed spirits guided the creation of her art. #SpookySunday 📷 Frederick A. Hudson 🎨Georgiana Houghton

In St Mary the Virgin's Church, Woodford, Northamptonshire a preserved human heart was discovered in a pillar during restoration work. Some suspect it belonged to a monk, whose ghost has been sighted in the church and, apparently, photographed by holidaymakers in the 1960s. #spookysunday #folklore

The Gnoll Stone (Cefn Hirfynydd) is part of a Celtic wheel cross. The figure is a #Celtic priest with his hands raised in prayer, he wears a short pleated kilt. Above the priest is the bottom section of the wheel cross. and is now lost. (See Alt.) #StandingStoneSunday

Orwell stones at Milnathort #StandingStoneSunday

Duddo Stone Circle in Northumberland. The circle is incomplete with a sixth stone now missing on the circle’s western side. Excavations in 2008 suggest a construction date during the early Bronze Age. 📸 My own. #StandingStoneSunday #Prehistory #Archaeology #Northumberland

The Serpent Stone (aka Aberlemno 1) is a large upright slab found in Angus, Scotland. It shows evidence of use from the Neolithic into the early 7thC AD. It is carved with several cup-and-ring marks, overlaid with later intricate Pictish symbols. #StandingStoneSunday