Category: folklore

Tom Tit Tot

Post author By PLH
Post date June 13, 2019
2 Comments on Tom Tit Tot

Tom Tit Tot, Illustration by David Hunt

For #FolkloreThursday although this doesn’t fit in with this week’s watery theme. Maybe it does a little, though. As spinners know, flax has to be wet to be spun effectively… Archaeologists often recognise a characteristic groove in the teeth of flax spinners’ skulls. Here’s a small extract from my forthcoming book, ‘Their Darkest Materials’. The […]

Tags flax spinning, folklore, folktale, grimm, rumpelstiltskin, tom tit tot

folklore

Gabble-Retchets and Tatter-Foals of Old Yorkshire

Post author By PLH
Post date October 15, 2015
6 Comments on Gabble-Retchets and Tatter-Foals of Old Yorkshire

Recently, someone who will remain nameless told me an interesting account of a huge black dog, seen at dusk in the churchyard at Riccall, near York. I wondered if it’s the most recent sighting of a barghest – or someone’s Irish wolfhound got loose? Interestingly, when I Googled ‘black shuck’ – because I know a […]

Tags barghest, guytrash, gytrash, langar-hedes, tatter-foals