Open Graves & Minds
@OGOMProject
Open Graves, Open Minds Research Project, University of Hertfordshire. Also tweeting as @DrSamGeorge1 @BillBloodyHughe
📢CFP Sea changes: The fairytale Gothic of mermaids, selkies, and enchanted hybrids of ocean and river 5-6 Sept 2025 Beyond excited to announce our next conference!! opengravesopenminds.com/cfp-conference… Pls RT
A DRACULA FOR EVERY ERA - 2 of the best covers #Dracula, Penguin, 1979, showing the undead count escaping his coffin #Dracula, Modern Library edition, 1932, showing the count as a member of high society
RARE FIRST EDITION OF POLIDORI'S THE VAMPYRE 1819 A 200-year-old #vampire has been found in a University of Queensland library! The title is stamped in gilt on the spine. The book was bound together with other early 19th century works, & the significance and rarity of it had been…
THE ROOM IN THE TOWER 1912 #vampire story by E. F. Benson; a man is trapped in the same nightmare for 15 years after being given the room in the tower which contains the portrait of Julia Stone, a suicide and fledgling vampire.
🧵VINTAGE GOTHIC BOOKS WITH BEAUTIFUL #BAT COVERS H. Garland, The Tyranny of the Dark, 1905; M.R. James, More Ghost Stories, 1920 #Baturday
KING O' THE CATS. Fairy tale as weird as Poe. 'Old Tom' becomes Tom Tildrum, the cat king, swelling & shrieking in a human voice. His image is of a CATSITH, or fairy cat, marked by a white spot. 'More English Fairy Tales', Joseph Jacobs, ills J. A. Batten, 1922. #Caturday
#GOTHIC BUTTERFLIES For those who have ever wondered how #butterflies got their name it was once believed that #witches took the form of butterflies and stole milk and butter! ('The Butterfly: Flights of Enchantment' by Nigel Andrew) 🎨Black Witch Moth; Rackham
I missed #InternationalFairyDay yesterday, so here's my belated contribution 🧚♂️🧚♀️ The 17th century Church burial records of Lamplugh reveal four people were frighted to death by fairies; one was led into a pond by Will o' Wisp; another died in a dual using frying pan and…
M.R. James conference now booking...
We have keynotes from Dr Darryl Jones and Dr Zoë Lehmann Imfeld We have an author roundtable including Nghi Vo, Suzan Palumbo and Silvia Moreno-Garcia! And we have a live performance of an M R James story from Robert Lloyd Parry Any of them are worth the ticket price alone!
Not long to go for @OGOMProject Sea Changes mermaid conference @britishlibrary Knowledge Centre!
On a summer's evening, the merfolk would bask on the rocks that stretch out to the sea, beyond Turnberry Lighthouse. Their mesmerizing singing captured the heart of many an Ayrshire lad and lassie. #folklore #Turnberry #Ayrshire art: Arthur Rackham
From the book :'In happy far away land' illustrated by Ruth Kimball Gardiner, 1902. #illustration #bookillustration #1900s #butterfly #fairytale
Fascinating lines from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1797-98) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge on the anniversary of his death. The ‘death-fires’ are often interpreted as St Elmo’s fire, an atmospheric electricity on a ship’s mast or rigging believed to portend disaster.
The death-fires danced at night; The water, like a witch’s oils, Burnt green, and blue and white. —Samuel Taylor Coleridge Coleridge died #OTD in 1834. Gustave Doré illustrates the “death-fires”, possibly St. Elmo’s Fire (witch’s fire) or the phosphorescence of organic decay.
Merlin, driven mad with grief when his men were slaughtered in battle, finds refuge in the Caledonian Forest. His loneliness interrupted by visits from forest creatures and nature spirits, and he thereafter gains the gift of prophecy. #merlin #alanlee #druidry art: Alan Lee
This is interesting as it was once believed that witches took the form of butterflies and stole milk and butter. I have read that butterflies got their names from this!
Welsh folklore tells us how to spot a witch: “She that makes butter on a Monday or Saturday is a witch for sure and certain.” 🧈 🧹 #wales #folklore
7 Folkloric Novels About Humans Merging with Nature In these stories, humans embrace the wild and become something more #Folklore electricliterature.com/7-folkloric-no…
Friends and Fellow mortals! ☠️ We are back. Our 2025 Program is now live - Link in comments OVER 65 deadly events to inform, provoke + entertain on the subject of mortality and the city.
The Arrival of the Fairies. #illustration detail by Errol Le Cain for Thorn Rose.
SPRING-HEELED JACK A Penny Dreadful folk demon from the 19thC. Delighted to spot this 1890 edition of his story in the @britishlibrary Treasures.
HISTOIRE DES VAMPIRES Illustrated French treatise on #vampires and evil spectres from 1820
THE VICTORIAN PARANORMAL - Thread🧵 Dante Gabriel Rossetti buried his poems with the corpse of his tragic wife & muse, Lizzie Siddal, following her laudanum-induced death in 1862 #vampire #Preraphaelites #Polidori #séances #Rossetti #LizzieSiddal