Erik
@kirebooks.bsky.social
Flotsam and Jetsam. Folklore, customs and odd guilds, gangs and groups.
Add this to your cosy Christmas listening- an interesting chat about the paper on irish neolithic kinship that came out in the spring. Go via their website and get links to this paper and others including 'pigs and the solstice'.
New episode of Amplify Archaeology Podcast!
In this episode I chatted with Dr Jessica Smith, Dr Neil Carlin, and @suegreaney.bsky.social about the important recent paper that discusses Neolithic society, kinship, death, ancient DNA, and how we understand and interpret the story of the past.
In this episode I chatted with Dr Jessica Smith, Dr Neil Carlin, and @suegreaney.bsky.social about the important recent paper that discusses Neolithic society, kinship, death, ancient DNA, and how we understand and interpret the story of the past.
December 9, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Add this to your cosy Christmas listening- an interesting chat about the paper on irish neolithic kinship that came out in the spring. Go via their website and get links to this paper and others including 'pigs and the solstice'.
7 is my current disheartening Google experience. I have research from T'internet that I now can't find via Google, even thro 'old Google' & inside quote marks. Even when still accessible direct. Google is no longer the book index at the back, it's the 3 page list of superlative quotes at the front.
"To receive results as ten-second videos that present a sponsored product as the only possible answer to your question."
Revised Definitions of the Verb “To Google”
1. To look something up quickly and then spend twenty minutes fact-checking the AI summary, only to find out that it was absolutely wrong. 2. To se...
buff.ly
December 9, 2025 at 4:52 PM
7 is my current disheartening Google experience. I have research from T'internet that I now can't find via Google, even thro 'old Google' & inside quote marks. Even when still accessible direct. Google is no longer the book index at the back, it's the 3 page list of superlative quotes at the front.
Watching BBCs Buried Treasure archaeology series from the 50s. Some of the interpretations might be outdated but it's a cool watch with some great bits of footage.
Wish they would put up the Avebury one though. @bbc www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
Wish they would put up the Avebury one though. @bbc www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
BBC - Buried Treasure - Episode guide
All episodes of Buried Treasure
www.bbc.co.uk
December 6, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Watching BBCs Buried Treasure archaeology series from the 50s. Some of the interpretations might be outdated but it's a cool watch with some great bits of footage.
Wish they would put up the Avebury one though. @bbc www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
Wish they would put up the Avebury one though. @bbc www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p...
Reposted by Erik
ONLINE WEREWOLVES!
The next online presentation for @folklorelibrary.bsky.social is tomorrow night at 8pm GMT
Rich Blackett will discuss folklore and myth connected with the werewolf.
Online via Zoom. Tickets just £5 including video replay from bit.ly/flaevents
Come and join us
The next online presentation for @folklorelibrary.bsky.social is tomorrow night at 8pm GMT
Rich Blackett will discuss folklore and myth connected with the werewolf.
Online via Zoom. Tickets just £5 including video replay from bit.ly/flaevents
Come and join us
November 28, 2025 at 1:29 PM
ONLINE WEREWOLVES!
The next online presentation for @folklorelibrary.bsky.social is tomorrow night at 8pm GMT
Rich Blackett will discuss folklore and myth connected with the werewolf.
Online via Zoom. Tickets just £5 including video replay from bit.ly/flaevents
Come and join us
The next online presentation for @folklorelibrary.bsky.social is tomorrow night at 8pm GMT
Rich Blackett will discuss folklore and myth connected with the werewolf.
Online via Zoom. Tickets just £5 including video replay from bit.ly/flaevents
Come and join us
Great set of folklore/hauntology speakers at this years #TheHauntedLandscape run by @forteanlondon.bsky.social I now have a lovely list of rabbit holes to go down. Next year's in my calendar already.
November 22, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Great set of folklore/hauntology speakers at this years #TheHauntedLandscape run by @forteanlondon.bsky.social I now have a lovely list of rabbit holes to go down. Next year's in my calendar already.
Bungay proving its weird credentials by featuring a 2nd time at #TheHauntedLandscape conference. First with Harte's noting of its church-ravishing devil dog. Now with @magicnotwitches.bsky.social telling of its alchemist Friar Bungay visiting cunning folk.
November 22, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Bungay proving its weird credentials by featuring a 2nd time at #TheHauntedLandscape conference. First with Harte's noting of its church-ravishing devil dog. Now with @magicnotwitches.bsky.social telling of its alchemist Friar Bungay visiting cunning folk.
Interested in the Black Shuck festival? The next one is July 31st- Aug 2nd 2026. Mentioned by Jeremy Harte at @forteanlondon.bsky.social's #TheHauntedLandscape blackshuckfestival.com
Black Shuck Festival
blackshuckfestival.com
November 22, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Interested in the Black Shuck festival? The next one is July 31st- Aug 2nd 2026. Mentioned by Jeremy Harte at @forteanlondon.bsky.social's #TheHauntedLandscape blackshuckfestival.com
Earliest chew-bacca story/lyric reference?
Now this is how to start a history book. A Wiltshire story teller 1890s.
"There were a time, 'tweren't in my time, neither in your time, nit (nor yet) in anybody else's time; 'twere when magpies builded in old men's beards and turkey-cocks chewed bacca”.
"There were a time, 'tweren't in my time, neither in your time, nit (nor yet) in anybody else's time; 'twere when magpies builded in old men's beards and turkey-cocks chewed bacca”.
November 21, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Earliest chew-bacca story/lyric reference?
Context, context. Seeing this photo of 3 dog skeletons in a vague circle, my mind immediately went 'what iron age ritual is this'. But in context: "tentatively" C16 culled hounds. (Dersingham walled garden excavation, Joshua White in Medieval Settlement Research Journal 2025)
November 21, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Context, context. Seeing this photo of 3 dog skeletons in a vague circle, my mind immediately went 'what iron age ritual is this'. But in context: "tentatively" C16 culled hounds. (Dersingham walled garden excavation, Joshua White in Medieval Settlement Research Journal 2025)
Reposted by Erik
Saturday: 22 November 2025 @conwayhall.bsky.social and online.
Legend trip through the Haunted Landscape at the London Fortean Society’s Day of expert talks on British ghost, magic, and folklore.
Speakers and timings follow 1/10
forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
Legend trip through the Haunted Landscape at the London Fortean Society’s Day of expert talks on British ghost, magic, and folklore.
Speakers and timings follow 1/10
forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
November 17, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Saturday: 22 November 2025 @conwayhall.bsky.social and online.
Legend trip through the Haunted Landscape at the London Fortean Society’s Day of expert talks on British ghost, magic, and folklore.
Speakers and timings follow 1/10
forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
Legend trip through the Haunted Landscape at the London Fortean Society’s Day of expert talks on British ghost, magic, and folklore.
Speakers and timings follow 1/10
forteanlondon.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
Cathedrals built on lakes, logs and prayers...
i fully agree with this theory and in my actual field, british architectural history, The Problem is that Salisbury Cathedral is built on top of a lake and no i am not exaggerating
between this and the FSO Safer (another ship at serious risk of exploding) I’m convinced every field has its “yeah, this is the problem that keeps me up at night” and I’m on a quest to learn about all of them
November 12, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Cathedrals built on lakes, logs and prayers...
'For bright Phoebe is a-rolling to the West', part of a harvest rhyme, in LR Haggard's Norfolk poacher book 'I Walked by Night', sparked memories of my dad saying when he started working in Norfolk that the 'old boys' called the sun Phoebe.
November 3, 2025 at 5:13 PM
'For bright Phoebe is a-rolling to the West', part of a harvest rhyme, in LR Haggard's Norfolk poacher book 'I Walked by Night', sparked memories of my dad saying when he started working in Norfolk that the 'old boys' called the sun Phoebe.
Magic amongst Norfolk ruins. Pierced hearts, wax dolls and soot circles. From 1964 new up on BBC archive youtu.be/QWTw3xoGhg4?...
1964: A Curious Case of Black Magic in Norfolk | Tonight | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
youtu.be
November 2, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Magic amongst Norfolk ruins. Pierced hearts, wax dolls and soot circles. From 1964 new up on BBC archive youtu.be/QWTw3xoGhg4?...
Reposted by Erik
Paterson's Roads (1771–1829), perhaps the closest thing the 19th century ever got to Sat Nav, a book to guide the journeyer along the major roads of England and Wales: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/paterson-s-roads-1826-edition
October 24, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Paterson's Roads (1771–1829), perhaps the closest thing the 19th century ever got to Sat Nav, a book to guide the journeyer along the major roads of England and Wales: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/paterson-s-roads-1826-edition
Reposted by Erik
BBC Archive just uploaded The Lonely Shore (1962), a surreal 15-minute short that takes the form of a scientific report from an abandoned and desolate future Britain. Written by Jacquetta Hawkes, an actual archaeologist, and directed by Ken Russell, an actual madman.
1962: An Expedition to Post-Apocalyptic Britain | Monitor: The Lonely Shore | BBC Archive
YouTube video by BBC Archive
www.youtube.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:49 AM
BBC Archive just uploaded The Lonely Shore (1962), a surreal 15-minute short that takes the form of a scientific report from an abandoned and desolate future Britain. Written by Jacquetta Hawkes, an actual archaeologist, and directed by Ken Russell, an actual madman.
Reading of the penance demanded for a medieval love spell where a woman gives 'bread made on her buttocks" & I have some questions. Did she have help, good reach, or is she sitting on the bread, individual buttock twerking/kneading? (In Cunning Folk by @magicnotwitches.bsky.social )
October 15, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Reading of the penance demanded for a medieval love spell where a woman gives 'bread made on her buttocks" & I have some questions. Did she have help, good reach, or is she sitting on the bread, individual buttock twerking/kneading? (In Cunning Folk by @magicnotwitches.bsky.social )
Listening to @folklorepod.bsky.social on the White Witch of Exeter and the use of 'overlook' for bewitched/evil eye. So is this why @stephenking.bsky.social's Shining hotel is called The Overlook?
October 14, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Listening to @folklorepod.bsky.social on the White Witch of Exeter and the use of 'overlook' for bewitched/evil eye. So is this why @stephenking.bsky.social's Shining hotel is called The Overlook?
Reposted by Erik
Our next online talk
FAIRIES, WITCH BOTTLES AND AZAZEL: British Grimoires and their Significance to the Study of Folklore
Saturday 18 October, 7:30pm
£5 plus booking fee
bit.ly/flaevents
All profits support our charity.
Ticket includes talk, Q&A and recording of the event
FAIRIES, WITCH BOTTLES AND AZAZEL: British Grimoires and their Significance to the Study of Folklore
Saturday 18 October, 7:30pm
£5 plus booking fee
bit.ly/flaevents
All profits support our charity.
Ticket includes talk, Q&A and recording of the event
October 2, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Our next online talk
FAIRIES, WITCH BOTTLES AND AZAZEL: British Grimoires and their Significance to the Study of Folklore
Saturday 18 October, 7:30pm
£5 plus booking fee
bit.ly/flaevents
All profits support our charity.
Ticket includes talk, Q&A and recording of the event
FAIRIES, WITCH BOTTLES AND AZAZEL: British Grimoires and their Significance to the Study of Folklore
Saturday 18 October, 7:30pm
£5 plus booking fee
bit.ly/flaevents
All profits support our charity.
Ticket includes talk, Q&A and recording of the event
An Ent!
Late afternoon stroll along Derwent Water. Found a hollow tree striking a disco pose. Or waving for help. The water was barely ankle-deep, so it's probably fine...
September 16, 2025 at 6:36 PM
An Ent!
Reposted by Erik
Some 16th-century ballads to pen?
Manipulus Vocabulorum is a rhyming dictionary from 1570, thought to be the first ever: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/manipulus-vocabulorum-a-rhyming-dictionary-from-the-16th-century
Manipulus Vocabulorum is a rhyming dictionary from 1570, thought to be the first ever: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/manipulus-vocabulorum-a-rhyming-dictionary-from-the-16th-century
September 9, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Some 16th-century ballads to pen?
Manipulus Vocabulorum is a rhyming dictionary from 1570, thought to be the first ever: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/manipulus-vocabulorum-a-rhyming-dictionary-from-the-16th-century
Manipulus Vocabulorum is a rhyming dictionary from 1570, thought to be the first ever: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/manipulus-vocabulorum-a-rhyming-dictionary-from-the-16th-century
Only just realised: Transylvania means 'beyond the woods'. It's like having had a blind spot and suddenly noticing the rabbit after decades of only seeing a duck.
September 8, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Only just realised: Transylvania means 'beyond the woods'. It's like having had a blind spot and suddenly noticing the rabbit after decades of only seeing a duck.
"Oh Lamentable Death..." A lament found under the whitewash of Acle church seemingly from the C14 Black Death
September 6, 2025 at 11:19 AM
"Oh Lamentable Death..." A lament found under the whitewash of Acle church seemingly from the C14 Black Death
Avebury cove, one of the stones has a small circular impression in the centre of a larger circular shape. A natural cup and ring mark? (I've been here so many times & had never even noticed this before - Avebury keeps on giving.) #standingstonesunday
August 31, 2025 at 10:09 AM
Avebury cove, one of the stones has a small circular impression in the centre of a larger circular shape. A natural cup and ring mark? (I've been here so many times & had never even noticed this before - Avebury keeps on giving.) #standingstonesunday
Always look under your chair before sitting. #misericord
August 30, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Always look under your chair before sitting. #misericord
Summer haunting: Ice cream van chimes echoing through suburban streets, powered by the strong wishes of children. No ice cream van, just the chimes.
August 20, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Summer haunting: Ice cream van chimes echoing through suburban streets, powered by the strong wishes of children. No ice cream van, just the chimes.