August Jendor, 'A Witch', 1890. #witch #witchcraft #legend #folklore #art

I finally finished my folklore diorama on eastern Bavarian versions of memorial boards. A catholic tradition where boards used as biers were turned into memorials for the deceased they once carried. When biers went out of use memorial boards were still put up until the tradition disappeared post-WWII, only to be revived as a somewhat sterile show tradition around 1980.

1. Roadside crucifix with the corpus painted on sheet metal (Blechschnittchristus, lit. "tin cut Christ") - 1st half of the 20th century
2. rack with memorial boards in a fence-like row
3. rack with horizontal boards
4. horizontal board laid out on the ground
5. penitence cross with carving of a ploughshare, late medieval or early modern - they sometimes seem to have functioned as a nucleus for a board place
6. undecorated board used as a footbridge - the user was supposed to thank the deceased for their help crossing a creek or wet ground with a prayer
7. decaying boards - they were usually not removed, sometimes the decay was seen as an indicator for the time the deceased had to spend in purgatory, making people choose wet areas for board places
8. free-standing board
9. boards nailed to trees (or barns) - note the vaguely human shape, a common feature among all kinds of decorated boards
10. group of small memorial plaques nailed to a special "trees of the dead" - usually not made from biers
11. double board as a memorial for two people - usually not made from biers
12. metal rack with modern boards as a „show tradition“ (around 1980)
13. wandering board - purgatory was seen as place between this world and the beyond: As prayers could easily reach souls suffering there, they could also sometimes reach out, or be called out! Boards dancing through the night or turning into living wooden effigies of their owner (called Horr, Hörr or Hörg) are common subjects of folklore stories. They are almost always evil and violent.


#folklore #catholic #death #miniature #diorama #crafts

Lake District Ghosts & Beasties

The restless spirit of a monk still haunts the legends of Windermere. Ghosts, folklore and Halloween tales linger in the Lake District, and my novel The Mereland Chronicles: The Crier explores the haunting origins behind the Claife Crier.

https://pjscribbans.co.uk/2025/10/01/monsters-and-medieval-england-a-look-at-lake-district-beasties/