Olivia
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oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Olivia
@oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
330 followers 210 following 290 posts
Professional Storyteller. Folklore Lover. Believer in magic.
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oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Naughty children on the Isle of Islay were threatened with a visit from Crom Dubh na Nollaig (Crooked Dark One of Christmas). His arrival was heralded by screaming sounds coming from the chimney... #LegendaryWednesday
🎨Atkinson Grimshaw
Misty moody grey night with a pale full moon shining high amid the grey clouds. The streets are slick with rain and the trees are bare. A lone figure walks along the cobbled road. There is a large house with lit windows in the distance.
December 10, 2025 at 3:09 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Zeus hurled mushroom seeds to earth during thunderstorms so to the ancient Greeks, fungi were the "sons of the gods"... #WyrdWednesday
Three mushrooms. The largest is red capped and bulbous rooted, the smallest is white and quite thin and the medium one is brown with little nubbley bits on the top.
December 10, 2025 at 2:58 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Belsnickel combined kindness with cruelty at Christmas. Torn and tattered, furred and masked with a lolling tongue, he travelled alone. Cakes & sweets for the good, and a thwack of his hazel switch to punish the naughty... #FolkyFriday
Creepy looking large male figure dressed all in furs with a fur mask covering his face carrying a large carpet bag over his shoulder.
December 5, 2025 at 3:22 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Demonic Lilith was said to be the first wife of Adam. She refused to lie beneath him, cursed him and fled to couple with demons and give birth to 100 daughters - lilim -a day. Later misogynistic myths told of Lilith possessing women by entering them through mirrors... #MythologyMonday
🎨Rosetti
Pre-Raphaelite painting showing a red haired Lilith brushing her hair and gazing into a mirror, in a room filled with roses.
December 1, 2025 at 5:47 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Banshees used the waxwing as a torch to guide them through the dark Irish nights...
🎨Mounir Khalfouf #LegendaryWednesday
A grey waxwing bird with a red crest of feathers and blue tail feathers is nibbling at some berries, as it perches on a branch.
November 26, 2025 at 4:23 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
There is much Irish folklore of how robin got their redbreast. One scrap of lore says it was when robin flew into hell bringing water to the lost souls... 🎨Anster-Fitzgerald
#WyrdWednesday #LegendaryWednesday
A large robin defends its clutch of eggs by flying above its nest towards a yellow winged fairy that is threatening it with a thorn held like a sword.
November 26, 2025 at 3:47 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Irish folklore the cry of the owl heralded death and general ill fortune. To counter this, folk threw hot peppers or vinegar into the fire. They believed this would result in the owl getting a sore tongue and hence not be able to hoot and bring death... #LegendaryWednesday
🎨Doug Larue
Brown owl with large yellow eyes, perching on a branch appearing very soft and cute.
November 26, 2025 at 1:07 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In the wild Russian winter of 1835, ballerina Marie Taglioni's carriage was stopped by a highwayman. She was ordered to dance on the snow in the moonlight. After that, she kept artificial ice in a box to remember that starry night, which in turn inspired artist Joseph Cornell... #WyrdWednesday
A wooden treasure box opened to reveal a necklace dangling from the lid and twelve squares of shiny artificial ice.
November 19, 2025 at 11:27 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
European crows were said to go down to Hell once a year to present the devil with a tribute of feathers... 🎨Herzlmeier
#WyrdWednesday
A crow wears its black feathers like a cloak and black boots on its feet, it stalks across a stubbly field. It has a straw in its beak. The day is cloudy and still.
November 19, 2025 at 11:20 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Irish wake games were intended to remind the deceased they were a treasured part of society, to send them away happy, and hopefully prevent them from returning... #FolkloreThursday

🎨Nathanial Grogan
A large gathering in a timbered barn depicting an Irish Wake from a couple of centuries ago. In one corner is a storyteller holding forth to their audience. In another a group of young girls are sitting close to the large open fire. In the foreground youths are playing a game.
November 13, 2025 at 7:21 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Take a pack of cards, cut them, choose a card - make your wish. Now shuffle the cards into three piles. If your card is in the first pile, the wish will come true. If in the second, the wish will take time. In the third? It will not come true at all... #FolkloreThursday
A young woman is resting her head on playing cards spread out across the table. Her eyes are closed. A lit lamp glows.
November 13, 2025 at 6:32 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Polynesian tradition, kites originated in the spirit world, a way of connecting heaven with earth and sending messages to the gods... #FolkloreThursday
A group of people have gathered by the hillside. they are flying kites, one is shaped like a huge owl and the other like a dragon, smaller ones are flying in the skies too.
November 13, 2025 at 1:23 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
My wee brother is no good.
Chop him up for firewood.
When he's dead,
Cut off his head,
Make it into gingerbread.

Belfast Skipping Rhyme.
📷Shirley Baker &📷Getty Images & 📷 Harry Benson
#FolkloreThursday
Two young girls standing in the road hold a skipping rope, a third girl jumps over the rope, her ponytail flying up. a tiny child walks away down the street towards the guns of two British soldiers sticking downwards out of the doorways in the street. A young girl is carrying a tin, a loaf of bread, all held tightly to her chest walking down the road seemingly oblivious to the British solider crouched down with his gun pointing downwards looking away from her.
November 13, 2025 at 10:55 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
The origins of the roulette wheel and the concept of Lady Luck can be traced back to the goddess Fortuna, randomly turning her Wheel of Fortune and changing the fates of those upon it... #FolkloreThursday
The "Queen of Fortune" with red hair and a golden crown identified by the words The Queen of Fortune, helped by four other personifications, turns her wheel. As she does so, people next to her are tuning upside down too.
November 13, 2025 at 8:43 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Asmodeus took to his toy enthusiastically. In another week he permitted me to stroke him, producing a raucous purr, but, in order to save his face, pretending to be asleep.
― Geoffrey Household, Rogue Male
#BookWormSat
a black cat with vampire fangs wearing a vampire cape.
October 4, 2025 at 2:55 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Beware! Even if a vampire has been felled by a silver bullet, if it is left in the moonlight, it could still rejuvenate, especially if it is the light of a full moon... #FolkloreThursday
🎨Edward Gorey
A family of vampires, mainly with skull faces and huge bat wings, flock together.
September 4, 2025 at 6:28 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
The Yuracaré people interpreted the Moon's spots as a four-eyed jaguar that escaped to the skies... #FolkloreThursday
🎨Janelle Penner
A jaguar looks back over its shoulder. It sits beneath a fruit tree facing the big red sun. The painting is joyful and playful.
September 4, 2025 at 5:51 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Paraguayan lore the Moon's spots are actually his intestines, disembowelled, when ducks that he was trying to catch, tore him to pieces... #FolkloreThursday
🎨Olav Stromme
A large four winged creature is in flight. Behind it a gold moon and on the immediate top left a tiny gold moon. The rest of the painting is all in shades of earthy brown.
September 4, 2025 at 5:31 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
Across Europe, folk once said sleeping in the moonlight resulted in insanity, lunacy, literally one would become moon-mad... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Gerard Dillon
A large harvest moon with a human face watches over a harvest scene - against a hay stack two lovers nestle, a ladder leans against another stack. The land is peaceful in the blue starry night.
September 4, 2025 at 3:16 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
I stood on the library steps holding my books and looking for a minute at the soft hinted green in the branches against the sky and wishing, as I always did that I could walk home across the sky instead of through the village

Shirley Jackson - We have always lived in the Castle
#BookologyThursday
A red haired woman in white smiles mysteriously. she stands amid the trees, the green of the grass, blue sky surrounding her.
September 4, 2025 at 12:54 PM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
The Milky Way has long been associated with the idea of a road. The Welsh knew it as Hynt St Ialm (St James's Way) & Heol y gwynt, the way of the wind. To Italians it was 'the holy street to Loretto' & to Anglo-Saxons the stars were "Watling Street" as in the earthly road... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Doig
The dark sky is full of stars and a long grey cloud shimmers. The sky and stars and dark green cactus and fern like plants are all reflected in a dark river.
September 4, 2025 at 11:18 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Lithuanian and Latvian folk tales, the Pleiades are often depicted as a sieve which gets stolen by the devil from the thunder god... #FolkloreThursday

📷Haocheng Li and Runwei Xu
Constellation of stars in the blue night sky.
September 4, 2025 at 9:42 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Hungarian legend, the Milky Way is called Hadak Útja - The Road of the Warriors. The stars are sparks from the horseshoes of the horses of heavenly Prince Csaba & his warriors... #FolkloreThursday
A white horse emerges from swirling clouds, starlight illuminates its flowing mane. Set against a deep indigo sky filled with glowing galaxies and purple nebulas. decorative borders frame this magical scene.
September 4, 2025 at 9:15 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Finnish mythology, migrating birds travelled along the Milky Way to the edges of the Earth and "Lintukoto" where they lived during winter. They were guided by the goddess Lindu, queen of the birds and daughter of the sky... #FolkloreThursday 🎨Jan Brueghel the Elder
Against a blue sky small birds of all colours fly. Green birds, small blue and yellow parrots and a little black and white bird perch amongst other birds on a small bare branch below.
September 4, 2025 at 8:26 AM
oliviaarmstrong.bsky.social
In Northern England the dogs of the Wild Hunt are known as the Gabriel Hounds. They make an eerie whistling or crying in the night sky. It may be the angel Gabriel hunting souls and the noise the lash of his whip as he urges them on... #MythologyMonday 🎨Malmström
The god Odin, long beard flying in the cold wind is on horseback, galloping through the sky. In front of the horse two fierce snarling dogs leap. A woodcutter muffled against the snow in a long, warm coat turns aside.
August 25, 2025 at 6:42 AM