Author of MG/YA fiction & game stuff. Rants about folklore. Opinions my own. He/him. Lead Writer for @PlayWarframe (you shiny things)
Mar 29 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
There is no evidence for any pagan springtime celebration having used rabbits and eggs in a symbolic manner.
Whenever anyone refers to this, they are actually referencing the 19th century habit of *imagining* a pagan precedent for a known secular or Christian tradition.
See, for example, Holtzmann in 1874: 'The Easter Hare is unintelligible to me, but probably the hare was the sacred animal of Ostara.'
'Probably.'
Mar 18, 2023 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Yearly reminder that while the idea of a goddess called Ostara has been around since at least 1797 and was later independently postulated by Grimm, the pagan festival called Ostara that falls precisely on the Spring Equinox was invented by Aidan Kelly in the early 1970s.
The Anglo-Saxon festival of Eostur that gave its name to Easter was *not* associated with the Spring Equinox, and is far more likely to have been marked by a full moon, meaning the date would shift rather than being fixed.
Mar 17, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Once again, if you believe that St Patrick must have driven out 'the pagans' because 'Ireland never had snakes!' then you are missing something very basic
We only discovered that Ireland had never had snakes VERY RECENTLY.
Back in Patrick's time they didn't have access to 20th Century studies of the fossil record to tell them it has ALWAYS been like this.
They only knew there were no snakes in Ireland in their time. So they explained that with a saintly myth.
May 1, 2022 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
oh hey, happy Bealtaine to those who celebrate
As usual, 99% of what we think we know about this is wrong, but who cares
The historical record is not a measure of canonicity, and there is a certain joy in remembering things that never were
See the all-important story of Queen Ynci of Lancre
Mar 27, 2022 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
people stop assuming pagans were obsessed with 'fertility' challenge
things pagans depended upon that had nothing to do with 'fertility':
- successful hunting
- successful fishing
- crops not blighted
- prosperous trade
- successful raids
- living to old age
- recovering from illness
- house not falling down
- food stores not being eaten by rats
Mar 21, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
"A dreadful hybrid has of late years appeared in the Berlin Easter markets and shops - a monster defiant of all known classification laws, subversive of the Darwinian theory, and infinitely perplexing to the student of animated nature. This is an astounding combination...
... of the two leading Easter symbols, a nondescript creature, half hare, half egg, which plunges the spectator into dire doubt, never to be resolved by any trustworthy authority...
Mar 20, 2022 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
In Britain and Ireland, Celtic Pagans who converted to Christianity celebrated the festival known as 'Pascha', which is why it's called Cáisc in Irish, Pasg in Welsh, Pace in Scots and Pask in Cornish
All well and good until the Anglo-Saxons buggered it all up
These comparatively late arrivals to Christianity would also have been told to celebrate Pascha, but as fate would have it, they already had a word for that time
Dec 20, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
The vast majority of customs with alleged 'pagan origins' have simply been *theorized* to have pagan origins at some point in the past; there are comparatively few instances where you can point to a definite, documented precedent.
But the interesting phenomenon is that the speculative theories of former centuries have become the widely circulated factoids of the Internet era. This process is known as the Chortlemuffin Effect.
May 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
This literally happened to Henry III of England in 1255
Towards the end of the stay we all trooped off to walk up some crag or other. I very unwisely wore jeans (never a good idea if rain & cold are in the offing) and a flimsy mac thing that had all the weather resistance of a crisp packet
Apr 3, 2021 • 14 tweets • 3 min read
'So hang on - if European Pagans didn't actually celebrate the Spring Equinox, then why do we think they did?'
Ultimately because of Edward Williams, aka Iolo Morganwg, who invented the idea that the Druids had festivals on the Solstices and Equinoxes and passed it off as fact
Iolo's fabrication was based on the belief, current in his time, that the Druids had built Stonehenge; its alignment with the midsummer sunrise was therefore taken to mean that the Solstices and Equinoxes must have been sacred to the Druids
Apr 2, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
'Fertility' is absolutely the wrong word for what so many of our pagan forebears were concerned with and trying to bring about. If you go hunting and bring down a big fat buck, thus bringing in bountiful food supplies, that's not 'fertility'.
Similarly, if you have many *healthy* kids, a hearty spouse, a stoutly built home, good clothes to wear, a prospering herd and a store of personal wealth, that's not just 'fertility' either. The idea is much more one of 'prosperity' or 'increase'.
Mar 31, 2021 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I know I'm getting old but it still boggles my mind that people think there really was a festival on the Spring Equinox called 'Ostara'.
Aidan Kelley inaugurated that in 1974, within living memory!
Here he is, in his own words, telling you about how and why he did it. He misquotes Bede slightly - Bede doesn't talk about the Equinox when he mentions Eosturmonath - but it's still pretty clear and unequivocal.
Periodic reminder that 'the game is afoot' does not mean 'the game has begun'. It means 'the prey animal is running'. Game is used here in the sense of gamekeeper, game pie, game bird.
The full Shakespeare quote, which Holmes only uses the last bit of, refers to coursing with greyhounds. So the 'game' was probably a hare.
Sep 24, 2020 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Legends persist of British magicians and witches using spells to prevent invasion by sea. Dr John Dee was credited (erroneously, after his time) with raising the storm that scattered the Spanish Armada. #FolkloreThursday
Gardner claimed that witches 'raised the great cone of power' to prevent Hitler crossing the sea and landing on British shores, 'just as their great-grandfathers had done to Boney and their remoter forefathers had done to the Spanish Armada'. #FolkloreThursday
Sep 14, 2020 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
Regarding the whole 'veil grows thin at Samhain' line and its historical basis (or lack of same), just noticed something striking about the síd, the 'fairy mounds' which modern tradition treats as doorways to the Otherworld
The original Irish sources treat the síd far more as fortified strongholds than as gateways to a parallel dimension - yes, they were open at Samhain, but in the sense that a castle is open, not in the sense that a gateway between worlds is open
Jun 28, 2018 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It's not every day that 'Neolithic' trends on Twitter! This looks amazing bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
Hey guys we've unearthed an ancient ritual site that nobody knew about this is very wholesome and good and nothing untoward will come of it
Mar 27, 2018 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
Here's a big thread on Easter not being a hijacked Pagan festival. Feel free to ask for sources in the event that I forget to cite them.
Let's start with the basics. How do we know Easter was not a hijacked pagan festival?
Paradoxically, we can do this by trying to prove that it *was.*
Oct 30, 2017 • 24 tweets • 3 min read
I did some research into 'the veil between the worlds' a while back. Not a single example of a pre-Victorian use.
The concept of 'thin places' (where the 'veil between worlds' is thin) was even worse - deemed 'ancient Celtic', actually invented in 1938.
