Signe Maene
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signemaene.com
Signe Maene
@signemaene.com
3.9K followers 1K following 2.4K posts
Belgian writer of stories inspired by Flemish folklore. Loves spooky woods, fairies, selkies, poetry and pretty shoes :-) BookWormSat with Rachel Deering.🖤 OUT NOW: Flemish Folktales Retold. signemaene.com/links/
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Signe Maene @signemaene.com · Oct 15
The witches of Flanders are everywhere. Their tales may be forgotten, their voices unheard, but they are anything but quiet.

Step into the darkness and help us give a voice to Flanders' witches! 🌙 kck.st/492NqKt 🌙 #WyrdWednesday
Image with the title of the book: The Witch's Child and other Dark Tales from Old Flanders. Also the text: Back us on Kickstarter. Image shows the bookcover in both Ebook and paperback form. Book cover is a dark black and white cover with a witch staring at a field. There is a dog, crow, frog, butterfly and other animals around her. Moon and trees.
signemaene.com
Departing for the Promenade (Will you go out with me, Fido?) by Alfred Stevens (1823–1906).
Painting of a woman opening the door and looking behind her at a small white dog. Green sofa and portrait of another woman in the background.
January 29, 2026 at 9:42 AM
signemaene.com
'You have witchcraft in your lips.'
-Shakespeare

🎨Henrietta Rae (detail)
Painting title: Ophelia. Painting of Ophelia distributing flowers to the court. White dress. Reddish background.
January 29, 2026 at 9:38 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
"Ah! ah! wherefore didst thou not look at me, Jokanaan? If thou hadst looked at me thou hadst loved me. Well I know that thou wouldst have loved me, and the mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death. Love only should one consider"

(Oscar Wilde)

🎨Aubrey Beardsley

#WyrdWednesday #booksky
Black-and-white Beardsley illustration: Salomé, in a long flowing gown with a dark, curved collar and horn-like adornments in her hair, leans forward to gaze intimately at the severed head of John the Baptist she holds between her hands at face level. Behind them, a dense pattern of stylised peacock-like circles fills the left side, while the right side is a stark black void. Below, a flat pool of inky blackness holds pale reflections, a slender lily-like flower, and curling decorative lines, making the scene feel both exquisitely elegant and quietly monstrous.
January 28, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by Signe Maene
ghirlandia.bsky.social
She had no knowledge when the day was done,
And the new morn she saw not: but in peace
Hung over her sweet Basil evermore,
And moisten’d it with tears unto the core.

Isabella or The Pot of Basil 🌿
John Keats

J W Waterhouse #WyrdWednesday
January 28, 2026 at 5:58 PM
signemaene.com
'Oh, what a flight that was through the air; the wind caught her cloak, which spread out on every side like the sail of a ship, and the moon shone through it.'
-The Travelling Companions, Andersen.

🎨Dugald Stewart Walker
Black/white illustration of a woman floating through the air.
January 29, 2026 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
“the whitened noble neck (Oh grief!) to the cutting sword,
the heroine calmly extending it to the death blow.”

(Thomas Chaloner “Elegy on the Death of Lady Jane Grey”, 1579)

🎨 Paul Delaroche “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey”, 1833

#wyrdwednesday
In a dim stone chamber, Lady Jane Grey—young, pale, and dressed in a luminous white satin gown—kneels blindfolded, her hands searching uncertainly as she is gently guided towards the execution block. A man in dark clothing with a fur-trimmed cloak supports her at the elbow, leaning close as if giving final directions. Straw is scattered across the floor; the wooden block sits centre foreground. To the left, a woman in rich red-brown garments has collapsed in grief, while another figure turns away with hands raised. On the right, the executioner waits in red hose and a dark tunic, holding an axe, his posture tense in the heavy silence before the blow.
January 28, 2026 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Signe Maene
racheldeering.bsky.social
Goodnight.
🖼️ Owl on a Bare Tree, Caspar David Friedrich, 1834.
The Owl ~ Edward Thomas
‘All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry
Shaken out long and clear upon the hill,
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
But one telling me plain what I escaped…’ 🦉
Painting as described, against moonlight cloudy night sky.
January 28, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Signe Maene
folkhorrorrevival.bsky.social
#WyrdWednesday In 1584, in Somerset, Margaret Cooper was possessed by the Devil and took to her bed. One night after weeks of torment a phantom headless bear materialised in her room, grabbed her, shoved her head between her legs and rolled her round like a hoop for 15 minutes.
Woodcut from a 1614 pamphlet called A Miracle of Miracles published by John Trundle. It shows a room with a window and a large bed in the middle with a lady (Margaret Cooper) lying in it. Five other people surround the bed reacting in terror at a large black bear with no head and clawed paws menacing them. On the left is a winged angel holding a cross.
January 28, 2026 at 12:47 PM
signemaene.com
'She seized the head by its hair
And washed it clean in a well.'

Heer Halewijn is a murderer who finally gets what he deserves when he wants to murder a princess. He takes his overdress off so that his clothes won't be stained with her blood. She quickly beheads him.

#WyrdWednesday
Art by Henricus Jansen, depicting the princess beheading Heer Halewijn.
January 28, 2026 at 2:18 PM
signemaene.com
1/2 In a Dutch folktale, a man meets a woman in a bloody dress. She carries her head in her arms. She had been cruelly beheaded by the people of Echt. She went after the descendants of those who had murdered her and showed the man heads of people who had vanished without a trace.

#WyrdWednesday
Art by - I think - Monika Mostowik, but I'm not certain. Would be very grateful if anyone knew. Artwork of a headless woman dressed in black with her head lying beside her on a table.
January 28, 2026 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
Build an automaton and bring her to life with ancient magic - what could possibly go wrong?

You guessed it, "human factor" - but is it the machine's fault?

Read our 21st #winterfolklore story of Marvellous Metharme, the Maschinenbauer and Doctor Ambrosisus Wanzenbock the Thaumaturge of Göttingen
January 28, 2026 at 6:10 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
racheldeering.bsky.social
🖼️ Fiona Watson
Painting, black birds foraging around a pool on snowy ground birch trees in background.
January 28, 2026 at 7:45 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
ruinsofdespair.bsky.social
'L'Apparition' by Gustave Moreau 1874–1876

King Herod's birthday party is beginning to look legendary as Salome dances before the severed head of John the Babtist.

#wyrdwednesday #art
A watercolor painting. Against the backdrop of a lavishly decorated palace Salome stands out in an array of bejeweled veils, her body facing the viewer, her left arm pointing up in the air to John the Baptist's hovering head, enclosed by a halo and dripping blood. At the back stands the executioner with his sword, at his feet the silver charger. We see also a lutanist, Herodias and Herod Antipas.
January 28, 2026 at 10:33 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
1661. In a sort of misguided Royalist poetic justice, the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw were exhumed on the anniversary of Charles I’s execution, hanged and decapitated afterwards.
 
Old Ironsides’ noggin, impaled on a stake, was placed above Westminster Hall until 1685.
 
#wyrdwednesday
January 28, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
theghostmonk.bsky.social
St Winefride had her head lopped off by a brutal prince annoyed she'd rejected his advances. Where the head fell, a spring of healing water emerged. Later the holy well at Holywell, Flintshire, was built round it. Winefride's uncle, St Beuno, kindly put her head back on again.
#WyrdWednesday #legend
Illustration by Gustave Dore of the head of a beautiful woman flying from her body. Her hands are held as if in prayer and glow emanates from her neck. A sword blade can be seen: the head has just been struck from her body.
January 28, 2026 at 2:02 PM
signemaene.com
'Then they came to another grove of trees, where all the leaves were of gold; and afterwards to a third, where the leaves were all glittering diamonds.'
-The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Brothers Grimm.

🎨Errol Le Cain
Illustration of the twelve princesses walking through the forest on the way to the underground palace where they dance.
January 27, 2026 at 10:05 AM
signemaene.com
A Dreamy Girl With A Picture Book On Her Lap, Constantin Meunier (1831-1905).
Painting of a girl sitting in a chair wearing a brown dress with a picture girl on her lap.
January 27, 2026 at 10:00 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
“But when the first light of morning comes, the troll-bird ruffles its feathers and lets its wild song echo across the lonely wilderness, full of strange and wondrous stories.
 
Then the wood grouse plays.”
 
🎨&✍🏻 Theodor Kittelsen
Grainy, monochrome woodland scene: a dark grouse silhouette perches on the drooping branch of a tall conifer, wings slightly raised as if just landed or about to lift off. The tree trunk cuts vertically through the image, its needles and branches hanging like ragged curtains. Beyond, a low horizon of distant forest fades into misty grey, giving the whole picture Kittelsen’s quiet Nordic eeriness—nature holding its breath.
January 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Signe Maene
racheldeering.bsky.social
From Bumper the White Rabbit, George Ethelbert Walsh, illustr. Edwin John Prittie, 1922.
‘LOOKING DOWN AT HIS ENEMY, HE SCOLDED HIM ROUNDLY’ Illustration of a squirrel in a tree looking at a fox sat on the grass with his tongue hanging out, trees, sky, clouds in distance.
January 27, 2026 at 7:07 AM
signemaene.com
Landscape, Clément De Porre (1874-1947).
Dark landscape painting. Black birds in the distance.
January 27, 2026 at 9:48 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
In old Wagria, ironically called Holstein Switzerland today because of the hills and woods, there is a huge lake. Plöner See. And in the Plöner See is a spot that does not freeze in Winter, they say... water folk used to live there once…

Read more in our 20th #winterfolklore tale ⬇️

🎨 Le Rolland
January 27, 2026 at 6:18 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
racheldeering.bsky.social
‘A wanton wenche vppon a colde daye
With Snowe balles prouoked me to playe:
But theis snowe balles soe hette my desyer
That I maye calle them balles of wylde fyer.’ ~ Of A Snow Balle, Nicolas Bacon.
🖼️ December, the Book of Hours of Adélaïde de Savoie (Musée Condé 78, fol. 12v), c. 1460-1465.
Illustration of woman in blue dress throwing snow balls at a man in beige shirt and red trousers and shoes.
January 27, 2026 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Signe Maene
wunderkammertales.bsky.social
“When it draws near to witching time of night.”

(Robert Blair)

🎨 Charles Livingston Bull

#owlishmonday
A large snowy owl glides across a washed-blue night sky, wings outstretched and head angled downward as if hunting. Far below, a dark, blocky city skyline fades into mist, with scattered points of light suggesting windows and streetlamps. The contrast between the silent, ghost-white bird and the smudged urban haze gives the scene a quiet, watchful mood—night made visible as a single hovering presence.
January 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM
signemaene.com
A lovely creauture in the Tiled Room, Couven Museum, Aachen.
Photograph of illustrated tiles. Seems to be a hybrid animal.
January 26, 2026 at 9:00 AM
signemaene.com
Cat in the Tiled Room, Couven Museum, Aachen.
Photograph of illustrated tiles depicting a cat.
January 26, 2026 at 8:56 AM