Episodes
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The Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas has been celebrated by Bone and Sickle since 2018. This year is no exception as we share two stories in this episode, one comic, and one frightening. We begin with the Introduction to the 1891 anthology, Told After Supper, by the British writer, Jerome K. Jerome, …
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The post A Christmas Ghost Story VII appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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A short extra episode on Befana, the gift-bringing Italian witch associated with Twelfth Night, the end of the Christmas season. Included in the show is material from the book, “The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas,” traditional music of the season, audio from actual celebrations, and a few pop songs associated with la Befana.
The post La Befana, the Witch of Twelfth Night appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Episodes manquant?
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A figure of mythic proportions during his lifetime, Vlad the Impaler’s notoriety receded over the centuries only to be resurrected in the 1970s, when a pair of Boston University scholars went public with theories connecting him to Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. We begin with snippet of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the …
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The devilish reputation Ouija boards enjoy in horror films is a relatively new phenomenon. In the Victorian era, they were regarded by “psychical researchers” as something to be embraced in a spirit of calm scientific inquiry, while Spiritualists saw in them a means of reaching out to those who’d passed into the “Summerland,” an anodyne …
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The post Devil Boards appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Apparently, I clipped off the beginning of the show during the initial upload. It’s been fixed, so this would only effect those downloading yesterday, but for those who missed it, here it is..
The post Missing Intro for Episode 133 appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Ouija boards, or more generally, “spirit boards” have antecedents going back to the very first days of the Spiritualist movement. We begin our show with a seasonally spooky visit to the cottage of the Fox sisters in Hydesville, New York, where the ghost of a murdered pedlar supposedly began communicating with the family through a …
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The post Spirit Boards appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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A special short announcement regarding the October 20 deadline for Trick-or-Treat-by-Mail for listeners joining our Patreon. Find out how you can receive a hand-packed candy bag from the home of Bone and Sickle Podcast. Each bag this year contains a special MYSTERY ITEM from Egypt! Visit: https://www.patreon.com/boneandsickle
The post Announcement Trick-or-Treat By Mail appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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We’re getting into the spirit of the season with a classic tale of witchcraft set in 17th-century Salem Village, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown.” Written in 1835 for New England Magazine, it later appeared in the 1846 collection, Mosses from an Old Manse, which also includes the excellent supernatural story, “Rappaccini’s Daughter.” Hawthorne …
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The post “Young Goodman Brown” appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Agartha, Shambhala, and Hyperborea are all names for a a mythic spiritually and scientifically advanced kingdom, always in some hidden location, sometimes within the earth, a legend which became an obsession of early Soviet spies, a mad soldier of fortune, and a mystical Russian artist during the 1920s. We begin with a clip from the …
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The post Subterranean Sages and Russian Mystics appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Borrowed from fairy lore, the notion of a hollow earth peopled by superior beings became a theme of literary fantasies as early as the 17th century and went on to influence fringe theories of the earth’s structure into the 19th century. We begin with a snippet of the medieval Norwegian ballad “Liti Kjersti,” telling the fairy …
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The post Inside the Hollow Earth appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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While the dummies may be inherently creepy, they were not the source of ventriloquism’s dark reputation in earlier times. This originates with the understanding that the voice heard, when no mouth seems to speak, belongs to a demon. We begin with a bit of audio mixing bits from various frightful ventriloquist films, including Devil Doll …
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The post The Dark Art of Ventriloquism appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Our understanding of hypnotism, once known as “mesmerism,” has radically evolved over the centuries. This episode looks at where it all began, examining the fascinating (and rather weird) story of the 18th-century German doctor, Franz Anton Mesmer, after whom “mesmerism” is named. We begin, with a look at the mesmerist’s sinister reputation in the 19th century, …
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The post The Mesmerist appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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Banshees are spirits of Irish folklore, who warn of impending deaths. Originally considered fairies, their Irish name, bean sídhe, means “woman of the mounds,” those mounds (sídhe) being the ancient burial mounds believed in Ireland to be the home of fairies. The banshee’s wailing, which betokens imminent death of a blood relative, is probably based upon the wailing of …
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The post Banshees (Rebroadcast) appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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The story of Snow White, as told by the Brothers Grimm, is only one of many narratives involving girls who have fallen into a deathlike state and are displayed in a glass coffins. In this episode, we examine the sordid details of the Grimm’s original 1812 version of the tale and compare it with analogous …
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The post Glass-Coffin Girls appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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A few listeners commented that Mrs. Karswell’s dialogue was muffled at points in “Sorcery Schools of Spain.” That episode is now updated with a corrected version. Thanks for letting us know.
The post Audio Fix on Episode 125 appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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For centuries, Spain was said to be the home of secret, underground sorcery schools, Toledo being the first city with this reputation and later Salamanca. The notoriety of the latter was more enduring, and when the legend passed to Spanish colonies of the New World, the word, “Salamanca” was embraced as a generic term for …
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Tonight we bring you our sixth annual Christmas ghost story, a tradition particularly beloved in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. First published in 1908, and set in the days before Christmas, the tale is by British writer Algernon Blackwood (from whom we earlier heard “Ancient Lights“) and whom many listeners will know through his other works, particularly, …
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The post A Christmas Ghost Story VI appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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The Christmas season is rich in superstitions. The whole period from the beginning of Advent, through the day itself, and especially throughout the twelve days (and nights!) between Christmas and January 6 or Epiphany are, in a sense haunted, a time when spirits are afoot and behavior is hemmed in by restrictions upon normal activities. Recently …
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The post Christmas Superstitions appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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The Monster of Glamis was a Victorian legend involving a Scottish castle, a secret chamber, and a monstrous aristocrat hidden from the world–a perfect story for Bone and Sickle’s return to its old format, a 45-minute deep-dive into the castle’s lore, including its association with Macbeth, a legend of a cursed Earl’s card game with …
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Tonight we recreate for you elements of an old-fashioned Halloween party as experienced in the 1920s or ’30s. Foods, games, spooky stories and poems in an extra-long Halloween episode. For more retro delights of the era, listen to Episode 35 “Vintage Halloween.”
The post An Old-Fashioned Halloween Party appeared first on Bone and Sickle.
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