The days are just packed! So forgive me if I offer a little repeat: my first two posts for Witches & Pagans as ‘History Witch’ dealt with Anglo-Saxon traditions of magic and healing. Just the thing for the #FolkloreThursday madness. Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Magic, Part 1 Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Magic, Part 2 Check out all…
Tag: history
Review: Radio Girls
RADIO GIRLS Sarah-Jane Stratford The Great War is over, and change is in the air, in this novel that brings to life the exciting days of early British radio …and one woman who finds her voice while working alongside the brilliant women and men of the BBC London, 1926. ‘If we have the sense to…
The Howff in Bloom
One of my favourite places in the city: history, folklore, memory and beauty. A late night battle by Hecate Sidlaw, an oasis in the city. The Howff is a gem. It’s #FolkloreThursday — what stories do you know about cemeteries? Hear it now, too! Howff Field Recording
#WhanThatAprille16: Riddle 20
Jumping into spring: it’s the time when folk long to go on pilgrimages and in addition to seeking the blissful holy martyr, medievalists like to share their love of language with the world. Thanks to Chaucer Doth Tweet, the event this year is called #WhanThatAprille16 so check out the hashtag for more audio delights. Here’s…
Journey Planet 24: Tyrant Muse
Out now, Journey Planet 24: In Memory of Richard III. Yes, the car park monarch rides again in the pages of JP. James and Christopher have lured a bunch of folks together to muse on the king more legend than fact, forever (mis)shaped by the Bard’s juicy account. And you can read it all for…
Finns in Edinburgh: Canongate Kirk
Of course I was mostly interested in the cemetery — me and the magpies! The poet Robert Fergusson is buried there. While Laura and Risto looked around the church, I wandered among the gravestones. Lots of history here.
Disreputable Magic
My thoughts have turned perhaps inexorably to the intersection of crime and magic in the Middle Ages, as my interests seem to intensify where they overlap. Or it just amuses me as I turn my mind to other topics to exercise different muscles in my head (so to speak). Missing Strange & Norrell (the series;…
Why Women Witches?
Over at my History Witch column, I explain something that I’ve come to call ‘The Great Conflation’ or what Michael D. Bailey theorised about how a Dominican theologian might have inadvertently changed history, leading to the specific gendered nature of the witch hunts of the Early Modern era and the so-called Age of Enlightenment. Of…
The Drums of Fury Road
The late Layne Redmond, musician and scholar, put together the study When the Drummers were Women to explore the ancient connection with the instrument often seen as the embodiment of masculinity. In the clay and carvings, friezes and frescoes she discovered an ancient bond mostly overlooked or mislabeled by male curators (women with cake?!). In…
Daniella Dooling at Esther Massry Gallery
DANIELLA DOOLING BLOODY DICK ROAD IN THE BIG HOLE VALLEY: FILES FROM THE GIRL IN ROOM 10 Esther Massry Gallery – October 10 – December 7 Daniella Dooling’s mixed media installation is a transgression of borders: sculpture/archive/ adolescence/adulthood/sobriety/hallucinogenic drugs/gender/sexuality. Societal inscriptions of normalcy are reconstructed and reclaimed through a process of sifting through memorabilia, family…