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vyvilha · 7 months

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thinking about a ukrainian wedding folk song where a girl is upset that her mother can't visit her wedding and sends a nightingale with an invitation, and the mother responds with: "I would love to go / To my child, to my child / To give her a gift / But the soft weed had wrapped around my legs / So that I can't walk / The raw earth had layed upon my chest / So that I can't talk / The pine boards had trapped my feet / So that I can't get up"

#ukrainian folklore #folk songs #folklore studies #she #<- this is my tag for death-related things

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tiger-manya · 1 year

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People cry about discarding russian books destroying Ukrainian science, while the opposite is actually true: overreliance on russian and soviet sources is what holding Ukrainian education back, especially when it comes to universities.

For example, I relied heavily on Vladimir Propp when I was writing my bachelor's thesis on Oedipus. Once I found one of his articles in an American anthology, and I was shocked to discover the editor described the text I so heavily relied on as "historically important for the field, but obviously outdated." And the anthology itself was from the 90's, so this wasn't a new development in any way!

Never, not even once during my university course on folklore studies did we ever mentioned why Propp might be considered outdated. So many russian and soviet thinkers have been left in our curriculums unchallenged, because the professors (even those familiar with postcolonial theory) got used to them and never bothered to teach about the alternatives.

#ukrainian #ukraine #studying #folklore studies #russian imperialism

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catsconflictscopicsandchamomile · 1 year

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Finally finished a WIP for once! The next one will be shorter, yule-themed, and an utter shitpost.

@randomideafairy

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rapha-reads · 8 months

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Unrelated things I manage to evoke in my thesis on Beauty and the Beast, modern fairy tales and self-love (titled From Folktales to Fantasy: Beauty and the Beast, Contemporary Rewritings and Self-Love), a list (caution, long post ahead):

Hayao Miyazaki's environmental tales.

In contemporary rewritings of folktales and fairy tales, these revised critical versions often follow the major issues of the time: the feminist tales of Angela Carter or Margaret Atwood of the 20th century are amongst the prime examples, but one may just as well cite Hayao Miyazaki's contemporary environmentalist and anti-war stories.

Arthurian Legends:

Nonetheless, ages change, people’s priorities change, ways of life change, and with these evolutions, heroes and stories mutate too. They evolve, but they’re never forgotten. King Arthur and Merlin are still household names, even after a millennia and a half of legends; their stories followed the times and took on new shapes to keep on meaning something to their audience.

Le Roman de Renart and "Le hérisson, le chacal et le lion" (the hedgehog, the jackal and the lion, a traditional animal tale in North Africa, Tamazight in origin):

Animal Tales are the first chapter of the ATU Index, going from ATU 1 to 299, in which the characters are talking animals usually interacting between themselves (think Roman de Renart or the tales of the hedgehog, jackal and lion in North Africa).

*On the subject of the hedgehog, the jackal and the lion, I really recommend looking up their stories. If you like cartoonish stories of the clever fox and the stupid wolf, Tom and Jerry style, you will like them.

Narnia (actually referenced a few times, the thesis does talk about Fantasy, but CS Lewis is quoted only the once):

In the dedication of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis wrote “some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again”. As the reader ages and grows up, the taste for stories also evolves.

Neil Gaiman (completely out of the blue, I just wanted to quote him at least once):

the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast with all its space left to creation easily lends itself to the new scene. “Fairy tales”, Neil Gaiman writes in the introduction to Fragile Things, “are transmissible. You can catch them, or be infected by them.” They are, in their most basic form, in the bare bones of their structures, the “currency we share with those who walked the world before ever we were here.”

Doctor Who (I will find a why to quote DW in any circumstances, just watch me):

“The Universe generally fails to be a fairy tale. And that’s where we [the helpers and the leaders, heroes, doctors, teachers] come in.” That’s where writers and storytellers come in. Crafting stories is recreating a kinder, more merciful and fair world, where good wins, evil is defeated, love is everything, good deeds are rewarded and bad actions punished, justice is served and honour is upheld.

Edith Nesbit's The Story of the Amulet + more Narnia, because I will also find a way to talk about the Pevensies:

Harper spends six weeks with Rhen and Grey, and when she comes back to DC, six weeks have also passed. This is different from most Fantasy novels which actions happens in both Primary and Secondary Worlds; from Edith Nesbith’s The Story of the Amulet (1906) to Lewis’ Narnia, the passage of time in the Secondary World never matches the passage of time in the Primary World—the Pevensies spent close to two decades being kings and queens of Narnia, and yet at their return in England, not a single second had gone by, and they were back to being children again, a fact that I have always found cruel; they were adults, competent and regal, soldiers, scholars and diplomats, and then they were back to being children, powerless and ordinary.

Yet another Narnia quote - in my defence, I use Tolkien's On Fairy Stories as one of my major reference, so I had to give some room to Lewis too - + me being very French:

C.S. Lewis does write that “adventures are never fun while you're having them” (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Narnia book 5), but après la pluie le beau temps—storms never last forever, and the adventure always ends. That is what Fantasy tells the reader: you will go through hard times, but there will always be joy to find after the sadness.

MeToo, Greta and Malala (I swear it makes sense):

Belle just wants to be left alone with her wood-carving tools. What introvert passionate about their hobby doesn’t understand that? Lucie wants revenge on the man who hurt her; that is the whole point of the MeToo movement. Nyx wants to save her people and is ready to sacrifice herself for the cause; real life heroines fighting for their ideals are the idols of today (Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai…). Harper represents the everyday life of millions of poor, disabled people, not only in the USA, but across the world. Beast wants to be loved; don’t we all?

*I actually really love that one tiny paragraph.

The "we live in a society meme" (aka the beginning of the descent into madness of the writer):

In meme terms: “we live in a society”. And that society can be crushing, draining, destroying. How then does one uphold one’s sense of self and worth when everything conspires to ruin and empty one’s heart and mind? Even though the meme is originally absurd, it quickly became a satire of the world in which we live now, where there is no place nor time to slow down, to just breathe, to take care of others, to take care of one’s self, because there is always a bill to pay, a meeting to run to, a deadline looming close, a train to catch.

Queerness (by the way if you guys know any queer retellings of B&tB please send them my way):

Depending on one’s level of ease and comfort, the co-existing inside the community requires more or less efforts and concessions to one’s authentic identity and tastes. Consider, for example, the way homosexuality and any form of queerness have been and are still viewed in many parts of the world throughout time: the main history of the queer community is to hide away an authentic, personal part of who they are in order to stay safe within a larger community that discriminate against expressions of queerness.

The "mortifying ordeal of being known" meme (sos, the writer has lost the plot):

By agreeing to play the game and follow the rules, no matter how adverse to one’s authentic nature, we tacitly agree to be seen. There is another meme, that first appeared in an essay for The New York Times in 2013: “the mortifying ordeal of being known”. The full quote goes like this: “If we want the rewards of being loved we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.” In essence, trying to hide and conceal one’s authentic self is to deprive yourself from being truly known and loved for who you are; it is to take the risk of being only superficially known and loved for who you pretend to be, the role you play, the mask you wear.

The "I can fix him" meme (what the heck is the writer talking about):

Here is a third meme, much more recent, born on Twitter in 2019: “I can fix him. I can make him better.” While the urge to help your neighbour is perfectly honourable, it can sometimes take on a sort of narcissistic veneer: it becomes no longer about the person you want to help, but about the power you can exercise over that person by turning them into the exact image of them you have, no matter if this image coincide with their authentic self or not.

Shakespeare (hell yeah, finally! Okay, it's not R&J, but still; who am I if I am not rambling about Willy):

The self is not a stable entity. It evolves, adapts to its circumstances, to the situation at the hand. “All the world's a stage and all the men and women are merely players” (As You Like It, 2. 7. 139), Shakespeare was already writing at the end of the 16th century. The deal has not changed. Everyone keeps playing a part that they believe is what society demands of them.

And finally... Kintsugi. Just for fun:

The Japanese art of kintsugi consists of repairing broken pottery with gold, letting the breaks and the defects visible, thus making them part of the history of the piece. Being broken therefore is not a sign of weakness; it becomes another sort of beauty, a sign of strength. The Beast’s curse breaks him down to his base nature, but ending the curse does not mean that the breaks disappear.

#thesis writing #master's thesis #contemporary culture #cultural studies #folklore studies #literature #beauty and the beast #fairy tales #rapha talks #rapha writes #one last part + the conclusion and i am DONE i can do it #i have run out of steam i have no inspiration left but only one day to finish this is the eleventh hour #tag yourself which unrelated insane reference are you #i'm the shakespeare quote

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avernine · 2 months

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TL;DR - anyone here like research essays? On Specific Fuckin Shit?

Okay so I was, earlier, putting my foot down and looking into the nitty gritty of how to format artwork (specifically in my case, traditional pieces) for print - which I have been putting off for years, and which is increasingly pertinent since as it stands it looks like drawing commissions and me do NOT get along well.

Aaaand then the wee devil on my shoulder told me that hey, hey, wouldn't it be more fun and gratifying for one of my specific old faves, to redraw it instead???

So basically now I'm fighting for my life in the historical clothing rabbit hole.

AND now wondering whether anyone would be interested hearing like, mini-essays slash rambling drabbles about what I turn up? God fucking knows that the content mill doesn't wait for man nor bird, and frankly I have my best ideas from when I see something and run around mental looking for More Info.

This would either be in like, common or garden tumblr post text format. Orrrrr... well we do love a good video essay, and apparently I have a "nice" "voice".

(Today, for example, we have - haunted locations in Scotland, ghosts of Edinburgh and Stirling castles, Lady Janet Douglas of Glamis (pronounced Glams because anglicizing Celtic languages works so so well all of the time), and courtly and medieval dress of Scotland)

#artblr #historical clothing #research essays #scottish history #fashion history #dress history #folklore #scottish folklore #british folklore #(hiding this tag from my mum)#(she's oan that SCOTTISH NOT BRITISH wagon)#(which to be fair so am I but we must commit to the bit)#ghost lore #folklore studies #amateur folklorist #man alive how to tag this for visibility #video essay

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akaessi · 11 months

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Since you have an education with Scandinavian folklore, I'd be curious to hear if you have any book reccomendations on Scandinavian Folklore? It's a topic I adore but I find that sources are a bit of a struggle to dig up.

I can read English, Norwegian, Danish (and tentatively with a lot of struggling and swearing) Swedish, so don't worry too much about the dreaded language barrier too much. :>

Hello hello! Thanks for asking! Pardon the late response as well, I wanted to compile a decent list as best as possible! Apologies in advance that I couldn't find easy links for most of them.

Introductory Books:

Vaesen (2013, originally in Swedish) by Johan Egerkrams (I have an English translation by Susan Beard). A beautifully drawn catalog of common Scandinavian folklore creatures. The downside of this book is the lack of direct source quotations and/or super in-depth folkloric analysis. Still a lovely easy read to familiarize yourself with some creatures!

Scandinavian Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography (1988, English) by John Lindow. Simple guide to Scandinavian mythological terms. If I'm remembering correctly, it focuses more on Norse mythological creatures (such as gods and giants) but also features explainers for folk belief figures.

Scandinavia Folk Belief and Legend (1988, English) by Reimund Kvideland and Henning K Sehmsdorf. A very detailed (and chunky!) book that focuses on folkloric beliefs and "old wives' tales" within Scandinavia. It has a lot of citations and references to folklore catalogs, which can then be used for further reading! Also, nicely organized to focus on generalized motifs.

Grimm's Fairy Tales (original German Title: Kinder- und Hausmärchen) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm (1812, German but with widely available translations.) While not exactly specifically Scandinavian Folklore, the Grimm brothers and their folklore collections did great work within the field of Germanic folkloric studies and comparative religious/folklore studies. (And if you're a linguist too, we love love love Jacob Grimm) Anyways, there are a million versions of these tales, some very watered down but if you're looking for a chance to read them here's a link (in English and German). The site is a bit clunky and doesn't have ALL the tales. But a good portion of them are available to read. It's good to familiarize yourself with these in general because of the motif commonalities in folklore studies.

More In-Depth Books:

Old Norse Mythology-Comparative Perspectives (2017, English) with Pernille Hermann, Stephen A. Mitchell, and Jens Peter Schjødt, eds., with Amber J. Rose. 2017. An anthology of scholarly articles focusing on discourse within the field of Scandinavian (Norse) religion and folklore studies. Lots of different authors and scholars, some with incredibly specific article focuses but others with more broad analysis and literature reviews. If you need a link, Harvard University seems to have one and it should work if I link it here.

The Norns in Old Norse Mythology (2013, English) by Karen Bek Pedersen. This book hyper-focuses on the Norns within the larger context of Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. I highly recommend this book for people who are confused by the various female supernatural figures and their various names and titles. Though it has a specific focus, it is still helpful for overall studies on dísir, nornir, vættir, etc.

Folklore in Old Norse: Old Norse in Folklore (2013, English) edited by Karen Bek Pedersen and Daniel Sävborg. A relatively short book that focuses on literary and medieval textual criticisms about current scholarly trends within the field. Very helpful for understanding scholarly trends as well as bodies of thought in the field of Scandinavian studies--which is always useful for students and newbie researchers!

Witchcraft and Magic in the Nordic Middle Ages (2011, English) by Stephen Mitchell. This book can be helpful in its discussion about the ambiguities between folklore, religion, magic, and witchcraft within the Scandinavian context. It references a lot of primary sources as well as historical sources commenting on said primary sources. It focuses mainly on the transition between Norse paganism to Christianity in Scandinavia but still, I think this book serves as a helpful introduction to understanding how folkloric practices change throughout time for various reasons.

Additional Miscellany Sources:

Motif-Index of Folk-Literature....(6 vols. revised and expanded from 1952-1958, English) by Stith Thompson. This is the compendium for folklore studies and is one of many folklore motif catalogs. Very helpful for understanding folklore in a broader comparative context. Unfortunately, it's very hard to find copies of the volumes, at least for me, but there is a digital link here.

Old Norse Folklore: Traditional, Innovation, and Performance in Medieval Scandinavia (English, 2023 pending release) (edited?) by Stephen Mitchell. This book isn't out yet so I can't comment too much on its content! But in the field, we are waiting to read it! According to the synopsis, it is an anthological book that will feature essays (mainly theoretical) that focus on the transition of mythological and folkloric material in the medium of orality. Hopefully, this book will serve as a good guide to understanding how to connect orality theory (in broader Scandinavian lit. studies) to folkloric motif studies (in Scandinavian folklore studies).

Some Scholars I Recommend:

Pernille Hermann, PhD. Focuses a lot on memory studies and literacy in Medieval Scandinavia. Writes in English and Danish.

Karen Bek Pedersen, PhD. Focuses on in-depth discussions of fate motifs in Norse sagas and mythological texts. Also frequently focuses on female folkloric figures in Scandinavian religion. I believe she writes English and Danish.

Daniel Sävborg, PhD. Focuses on comparative literature studies and somewhat psychological looks into Norse literature and motifs. Writes in English and in Swedish.

Stephen Mitchell, PhD. Focuses on various genres of Norse/Nordic literature with interests in magic, mythology, and legends. Writes in English, I don't know if any other languages.

Thanks for the ask! Hopefully this is helpful! 🖤

Most of the books are in English, since these are the texts my classes focused on specifically and my program is taught in English. It might take me a bit longer to find (throughout my laptop files) the non-English ones we read! As always, research carefully! There are a lot of people with no academic background writing in this subject and getting popularized. And there is also a danger of people using this subject to promote false and dangerous ideologies. (ahem Nordal).

#folklorist #norse studies #norse folklore #scandinavian mythology #scandinavian folklore #folklore studies #comparative folklore #mythology #dark academia #academia #book list

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yebreed · 10 months

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Interacting With Souls and Ghosts in Shamanism: Shaman as Psychopomp

The duties of a shaman involve existence in the borderline states. They also imply crossing the boundaries of the worlds and interacting with the inhabitants of various layers of the universe: shaman both welcomes a new soul that has come into the human world, and accompanies the deceased to the Kingdom of the Dead.

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lorenatural · 10 months

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...hey yall. finally just made a blog for it lmao. all infodumps/aus/general weirdness will be posted here from now on.

@very-offkey-kazoo

@hollywoodforevercemeterygirl

@wrenchenthusiast

#spn #supernatural #media analysis #media critique #folklore studies #mythology #linguistics #supernatural au #supernatural fanfic #au fic #crackfic #crossover fic #crossover #the boys #gotham knights #spnwin

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blackcrowing · 1 year

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"For many Pagans, creativity is central to both spiritual development and the ability to contribute to society. Because creativity and artistry involve evocation and transformation, these acts become equivalent to magic." - Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America by Sabina Magliocco

#paganism #pagan #creativity #magic #magical thinking #folklore #anthropology #folklore studies #Sabina Magliocco #watching culture #neopaganism #neopagans #neopagan

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fivefingrr-discount · 1 year

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More blinkies I made for my page on blinkie cafe. Feel free to use!

#in use #neocities #my assets #angelology #demonology #archaeology #queer history #folklore studies

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spacecat-studio · 3 months

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So I’m going to make an Effort to read some of my folklore library, and we’re starting with #66 (because it happened to be on top of the pile of books sitting next to me on my couch) The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard.

I found the 1967 copy at my local Half Price Books an…indeterminate number of years ago. I read a bit of it back then, but was discouraged by the Greek and Latin sprinkled liberally throughout. This was before the days of smartphones with translation apps, so I will be availing myself of The Internets to make my current attempt.

I’m still in the introduction but I totally forgot that this book opens up with the author describing what he calls a real unicorn horn?

I imagine it’s actually like, a narwhal horn or something similar. The dangers of studying too much folklore and not enough science I guess XD

#folklore studies #fairytales and folklore #unicorn myth and history #The Lore of the Unicorn by Odell Shepard #I can’t tell if he actually believes this or not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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local-boob · 7 months

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caption: "Prussian gods Peckols, Perkūnas and Potrimpo" photo credit: Simon Grunau via Wikipedia (Prussian mythology // Prussian pantheon)

#prussia #prussian gods #folklore #folklore studies #mythology #gods #peckols #perkunas #potrimpo #red #yellow #green #wreath #crown

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catsconflictscopicsandchamomile · 5 months

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#supernatural #sam winchester #dean winchester #sam & dean winchester #meta #lorebuilding #spn fic #spn #spn meta #grendel #cain #folklore studies #old english #Grendel's mother

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rapha-reads · 7 months

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So I'm reading Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer, and I absolutely adore how it's a mix of all these tales I spent five months studying for my thesis. It's the entire ATU 425 tale type category at once*. A bit of Beauty and the Beast, a bit of Cupid and Psyche, a bit of East of the Sun and West of the Moon... When you know what you're looking at, it's so interesting to analyse it all.

*ATU= Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, a classification of as many of the folktales and fairytales indexed around the world and the centuries, catalogued after their structures (their type). ATU 425: "The Search for the Lost Husband". ATU 425A: "Animal as Bridegroom" -> East of the Sun and West of the Moon (and The Serpent Prince, the Pig King...). ATU 425B: "Son of the Witch" -> Cupid and Psyche (also The Son of the Ogress, Tale of Baba Yaga...). ATU 425C: "Beauty and the Beast". There are a few more types (it goes to 425E), but these three are the main ones.

#echo north #joanna ruth meyer #books #fairy tales rewritten #fairytales rewritings #folklore #folklore studies #fairy tales #tale types #atu index #alright professional deformation i guess but this is just fascinating and i want to keep working on contemporary rewritings of fairy tales #rapha talks #rapha reads

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k-star-holic · 10 months

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The world has fallen into the genre of ⁇ Kim Eun-hee. ⁇ a demon ⁇

Source: k-star-holic.blogspot.com

#Folklore studies #Remady

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medstudiees · 1 month

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our professor said that hepatitis B is probably the most complicated human infection and I have to admit he was right 😮‍💨

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