#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `Both flexible and strong is the wood of the blackthorn, and its bark is of surpassing hardness, made even harder by daubing it with butter and putting it in a cubby hole up a chimney or into a compost heap for a few years, as was the way.`
Source: https://blackthornandstone.com/2020/08/06/blackthorn-dark-mother-of-the-woods-crone-of-the-triple-goddess-witch-wood/#more-1141

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `No person of Ireland no matter how uneducated or unlettered would take so much as a thorn from their branches besides the old May Day and the old November day. They used them to make the fearsome Irish shillelaghs, rare walking and fighting sticks!
Source: https://blackthornandstone.com/2020/08/06/blackthorn-dark-mother-of-the-woods-crone-of-the-triple-goddess-witch-wood/#more-1141

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `In County Sligo lived a tailor by the name of Patrick Waters, who said well and wisely enough that the branches of the blackthorn should never be cut except on the old May Day and the old November day, that is the 11th of each month.`
Source: https://blackthornandstone.com/2020/08/06/blackthorn-dark-mother-of-the-woods-crone-of-the-triple-goddess-witch-wood/#more-1141

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `Beware should you push too far into the twisting hollows of the blackthorn thicket, for you might not emerge in the same place, or even the same world, as you left behind!`
Source: https://blackthornandstone.com/2020/08/06/blackthorn-dark-mother-of-the-woods-crone-of-the-triple-goddess-witch-wood/#more-1141

#FolkloreThursday #Celtic: `The sinister crone of the woods, the wishing thorn, there are as many tales told of the blackthorn trees of Ireland as there are spiky thorns on its branches.`
Source: https://blackthornandstone.com/2020/08/06/blackthorn-dark-mother-of-the-woods-crone-of-the-triple-goddess-witch-wood/#more-1141

The legend of the Holbeach Gamesters - a tale of gambling with the Devil himself! #FolkloreThursday #ghosts #folklore https://open.substack.com/pub/jimmoon/p/the-tale-of-the-holbeach-gamesters?r=jmt3a&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#FolkloreThursday: `Outside Leicester rise the Dane Hills, named after the ancestral goddess #Danu and said to be haunted by the fearsome blue-faced Black Annis (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TIgqRD3wIB4), a degraded goddess figure who may derive from Danu. #Spring ritual hare-hunting is known in the area.`
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`

#FolkloreThursday: `In some areas, the annual conveyance of the goddess #Berecynthia through the greening spring survived Christianisation, for we have early medieval records of the goddess riding her cart through the fields to protect the crops.`
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`

#FolkloreThursday: `The blackthorn blooms each spring near the #Beltane festival; beside its sweet white flowers are sharp, pin-like thorns that can easily puncture flesh. The thorns limit the usefulness of this tree, except as a cattle hedge, but its magical use is significant, for the tree protected humans against the fairy people. It was hedged about with precautions to keep it from losing that power; it was especially important not to cut the trees on May 11 or November 11, for the trees would take vengeance against the woodsman.`
Source: P. Monaghan `Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore`

#Celtic #FolkloreThursday: “The stormy days of late #spring, when winter seems to have suddenly come back to life, were until recently called the Borrowed (or Borrowing) Days or the Skinning Days in the west of #Ireland. Legend had it that the Glas Ghaibhleann, the cow of abundance—also called the Old Brindled Cow or the Gray Cow—defied winter by claiming it could not kill her, but winter stole several days from spring and skinned the cow in retaliation.”
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