From snake-like creatures with claws to jealous virgin ghosts, female monsters have long been a part of women’s lore. Such figures were Intimately tied to childbirth, sexuality and child mortality.
Battle in the margins from the Gorleston Psalter (1310-1324).
British Library
It may have got off to a shaky start, but The Wicker Man is now one of British film’s best-loved horror stories, thanks to its deeply disturbing plot.
This is the famous – and fake – photograph of the Loch Ness monster, taken near Inverness, Scotland, on April 19, 1934. The photograph was later revealed to be a hoax.
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Like all members of the category of ‘fey’, or the beings of the preternatural world, including fairies, elves, and pixies, goblins are renowned for being tricksy. In other words, best avoided.
How did Halloween get associated with the spooky?
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Tok Thompson, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
A folklorist explains how Halloween continues an ancient Celtic tradition of the celebration of the dead.
The Essex Serpent follows Cora as her science comes in conflict with the religious and superstitious beliefs of the locals in the Essex village of Aldwinter.
Apple+
Everyone is going ‘goblin mode’, but does the trend unfairly malign goblins of folklore?
A Ukrainian soldier wanders down a railway past the bodies of dead Russian soldiers on the outskirts of Irpin, Ukraine, March 1, 2022.
Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The Russian army has fared poorly and the Ukrainian military has fared well, defying experts’ predictions about the war in Ukraine. Can children’s fairy tales help explain the difference?