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  • The Modern Western Ghost and Its Zombie Origins November 1, 2023

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    The Modern Western Ghost and Its Zombie Origins

    This month’s Boggart and Banshee podcast is on ghosts and shrouds (Shrouded in Mystery: The Origins of the Iconic Sheeted Ghost). As often with Chris’s choices I didn’t at first get the point: I can only get so excited about textiles… But my attention picked up as I realised (ever the slow learner) that the […]

    Zombies and Shapechangers in Medieval Yorkshire April 1, 2023

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Zombies and Shapechangers in Medieval Yorkshire

    There are twelve medieval supernatural tales in Byland collection, which I’ve just published in a booklet for Pwca press (UK, US)* and which Chris and I discuss on this month’s podcast. And there are four important questions to ask about their author and how they came to be written: the ‘Where’, ‘Who’, ‘When’, and ‘Why’ […]

    Fairy Fashions: The Three Rules September 1, 2022

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Medieval, Modern
    Fairy Fashions: The Three Rules

    Supernatural fashions come and go. One generation ghosts are hopping around in shrouds, then they are carrying their heads under their arms, next we have clanking chains… Fairy fashions, though, as I argue on the latest episode of Boggart and Banshee, are surprisingly constant. I offer here my three fairy fashion rules. Rule 1: ‘Uniform […]

    Monsters with Eyes Like Saucers April 22, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Medieval, Modern
    Monsters with Eyes Like Saucers

       Introduction: Eyes like Saucers Eyes like saucers comes up again and again in accounts of the supernatural: ghosts sometimes have them, ditto demons and ‘black dogs’ almost always have them. But why? What do these descriptions mean? Where do they come from? Monsters Let’s start with some typical creepy saucer descriptions. A bogey at […]

    Iron Key to a Lost World April 7, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Medieval
    Iron Key to a Lost World

      Leaving Spain In 1492 Spain’s Jews were given an awful choice. They were, by royal fiat, to convert to Christianity or they would be kicked out of the country. The majority half-halfheartedly took on the new religion. However, a minority of as many as 100,000, loyal to the God of their fathers, took, instead, […]

    Spell: Grow a Little Man! March 18, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    Spell: Grow a Little Man!

    Location Germany, mid Europe? Aim to create a small living man Ingredients horse manure, semen, a gourd, some human blood. Method (i) Hollow out the centre of the gourd and place ripe horse manure with the semen inside it. (ii) Seal the gourd up. (iii) After forty days, or after the semen begins to move […]

    The Origins of Forehead Cross Tattoos? March 8, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    The Origins of Forehead Cross Tattoos?

    The Forehead Cross The forehead cross has become a relatively common modern tattoo, both in the industrialized west and among some developing countries. However, those who wear it will probably not know that the first record of this design dates back to the sixth century AD. Let us travel through time and space to the […]

    Gerbert and a Tenth-Century Robot? February 27, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Gerbert and a Tenth-Century Robot?

    Did you hear the one about the tenth-century robot created by a pope no less? Several books and authors credit the invention of a talking, walking machine by Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II, obit 1003) and the source is interesting. But, of course, there are no microchips, no nuts and bolts and, in fact, […]

    Were There Really Arrow Storms? February 10, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Medieval
    Were There Really Arrow Storms?

    There are a number of antique and medieval references to massive numbers of arrows creating arrow storms in battles. Some readers will remember, for example the arrows blotting out the sun at Thermopylae: ‘Good, we shall fight in the shade etc’. But did these arrow storms really take place? Just how many arrows could an […]

    The Wild Hunt of 1127 January 28, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    The Wild Hunt of 1127

    In spring 1127, in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire strange things happened. At night locals heard repeated horn blasts and some, who were foolish enough to be out in the dark, saw ghastly sights: men appeared on black horses and on black goats riding through the woods following black hounds. It goes without saying that this was not […]

    Chinese Artillery Outside Baghdad January 20, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Chinese Artillery Outside Baghdad

    The Mongol armies of the thirteenth century were among the most multi-ethnic in history. Koreans, Africans, Europeans and Persians fought together under the ‘prince of heaven’: a thuggish horse thief from the Steppes. Beach was recently particularly struck by one example of this that could stand for many less dramatic instances. When in 1258 Hulegu […]

    What are Fairy Trees? January 16, 2018

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    What are Fairy Trees?

    Nothing about fairies is easy but Beach is getting more and more confused about one aspect of fairy life and that is their trees. In the Gaelic-speaking world (or what was the Gaelic-speaking world, RIP) thorns were commonly associated with fairies. These are the trees that workers are sometimes terrified about cutting down. In Wales […]

    Swiss Girl vs German Army December 30, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval
    Swiss Girl vs German Army

    In 1499 the Swiss fought their last great war in the north. Their battle-hardened democratic armies proved superior to the pitiful Habsburg forces and by Autumn, the end of the campaigning season, the Germans were begging for peace. Here is a lovely episode from the middle of the war that gives some sense of the […]

    The Rise of the Vegan Fairies December 5, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Medieval, Modern
    The Rise of the Vegan Fairies

    On this site we have frequently examined how fairies have changed through the generations. For example, the way that fairy wings have gone from being a minority convention in art to being practically de rigueur for the fay; or the way that the size of fairies has changed. However, these are superficial baubles in the […]

    New Book: Magical Folk December 2, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Contemporary, Medieval, Modern
    New Book: Magical Folk

    Beach is happy to announce that just two days ago Gibson Square released Magical Folk: British and Irish Fairies (a topic close to the heart of many readers of this blog). The book is choc full of fairy experts and includes three chapters on European emigrant fairies in the New World. The authors are: Magical […]